| August 10, 2005 |
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I finished up Black Mountain yesterday.
It was beautiful. Had some really good sights of the Hudson
River from the top of the mountain. I came in to Palisades
Parkway where Gene picked me up and I was going to come on to the
shelter, but it was getting dark and I wound up going to his house
which was very close by. I stayed there for the night and he
just dropped me off at 8:30am. I've got water and we'll be
going over Bear Mountain and I should be able to see the NY skyline.
Then I'm going into Graymore and spend the night at the pavilion. |
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I feel a lot better this morning.
Took the same medicine last night and got along OK with it, so I
took another round of it this morning. So far so good.
Hope this is going to be a sign of a good day. |
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I think the terrain will be pretty much
like yesterday. The ups and downs. Bear Mt. is probably
the highest I've go to go up. Also a lot of boulder coming up
out of the ground. |
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There is water in this little stream
that I'm about to cross which might be a good sign. Yesterday
I met 5 south bounders going to Springer Mt. and they were telling
me that once I got into Mass. and Conn. that I wouldn't have problem
with water. I'm getting tired of carrying a lot of extra water
on my back! A lot weight. |
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The sun is really pretty today, bright, it
looks like it's going to be a beautiful day. It's 5.7 miles
from here to Bear Mountain Inn. I can't take Simon through the
Zoo so I have to go around on 9W. Then eventually I'll get back on
the AT trail. Thank heaven there's a little bit of a shoulder
there where I can hike because these cars zoom through here. |
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Starting up the hill on switch backs, very
rocky in this area, but thank heavens it's not going straight up at
this point. I've been climbing quite a while, a real rocky
trail, the rocks are rounded which makes it easier hiking.
I headed towards a big pile of boulders. |
I just passed the entrance to the shelter.
Nice view from this area of the
surrounding mountains. I am on top of the mountain kind of
going around the side a little bit now. A lot laurel, a lot of
blue berries, real small scrubby trees as undergrowth. Many of
the Birch tree leaves have turned color and have fallen to the
ground and just smell like fall in the air as you go through those
areas. A good view of the Hudson River. A little on the
hazy side this morning, so I don't have the best view. I can
see the airport for West Point from the top of the mountain.
I was looking out at the view and knew there was a left
turn, but I walked by and was following the blue blaze and I thought
this doesn't quite look like right, so I came back up to where I saw
red and the yellow blazes. I thought I'd follow that blue
blaze a little more because it was white and blue blazes together
for a good way. Any way I didn't come across any white blazes. There was a couple of blazes that
looked white, but they were actually gray when I looked at them
again. I decided to turn around and come back up the hill to
the red and yellow blazes and sure enough I needed to go down over
the hill. I did start picking up white blazes then. |
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The old blazes haven't been done for a
while and they are far and few in between making it easy to lose the
trail for a while. Lost the trail again! The only thing
I can do is wonder around and pick up a marker somewhere. I
found it, it veered off to the right and you don't see the blazes on
the trees because there way off to the side of the trail that you're
coming in on and before you know it, you've bypasses them. I
need to shop and look around a little bit. |
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I hear either wolves or coyotes howling in
the distance.
Wow, I
can also here them! Kathy
Sounds like a wolf. I just met a local section hiker
who also heard the howling sound and he said it was a coyote in
heat. |
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If I don't keep moving today, and don't
lose myself to many times, I wont be able to keep my dinner date
with the Franciscans at Greymore. I think that you have to be
there by 4:30pm or something like that. |
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Coming into Seven Lakes Road.
at 11:35am. Every time you cross a tiny road you have a major
up, it never fails. This road is right along massive boulders.
I can't even see the top of them when I look up. It's very hot
out here now, coming of the road going up Bear Mountain with some
switch backs around the big boulders. Then I'll be climbing up
to what they call the Perkins Memorial Fire Tower. |
I'm now on top of the boulder at Perkins
Memorial Fire tower. Bear mountain I 1,305 feet.
The highest point of the trail in NY. I can't see NY city
today, it's to hazy. |
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Back into the woods again going down hill.
You can certainly tell that you are getting close to civilization,
I've been hearing drum music for about the past half hour. |
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I came off of Bear Mountain right into Bear
Mountain State Park near Harriman Lake. I'm hiking bike trails
now to 9W where I'll got across the Bear Mountain Bridge.
Stopped and had Pizza and ice cream at the little concession stand
on the way. Getting ready to go across Bear Mountain Bridge
over the Hudson River. The mountain right behind the bridge is
called Anthony's Nose. I'm not going to go up. |
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Back in the woods again after crossing the
bridge. The bridge was interesting to hike across, very high,
it would shake when the cars would go across. The view was
tremendous and I would have liked to take some pictures, but your
not supposed to take any pictures at all while crossing the bridge. |
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Going up through massive boulders.
Now I'm back into the laurels undergrowth. If the trail stays
like this I'll be able to put that 5 miles off pretty fast.
There's rocks in the trail, but its easy to hike over. There
spaces for your feet and some softer ground. It looks I'm
going toward some large boulders. I don't mind those very
much. |
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I wish you could see these blueberry bushes. How
much they need water. The leaves have dried up on them,
shriveled and just about dead looking. The oak trees don't
seem to affected by the blight as much in this area as they had over
on the Black Mountain. |
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I just went over South Mount Pass Rd. It
certainly took a long time to hike that mile from the Hudson River
Bridge to South Pass. It was a steep mile. Going up the
hill again on switch backs. By the way, the zoo Simon and I
had to hike around was the lowest point in the AT trail 124 feet. |
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On top of the ridge of South Mountain. It
looks like the rest, lost of rounded rocks sticking out of the
ground. Grasses, a pretty open area. I just went through
another boundary stone wall fence. |
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Just came across 403 and 9B headed north. There's
2 rock walls that are parallel to each other. What do you want
to be that there was either a old road that was down through there
of a RR track. Yes here it is, it's called Old Highland
Pike. |
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I'm at the Franciscan Way and St. Anthony Way following
the blue blazes the Ball field where I'll spend the night.
It's been a great hiking day. Fairly easy day with exception
of the steep ups. I missed the Franciscan meal. |
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Swing'n Jane and
Simon |
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