Date: 2013-07-26
From: Stealth camp below view

To: Stealth camp at Bear Mountain
Miles today: 17.4

bare with me. i'm trying to figure out a way to get all my journals updated using a notes app. i keep deleting them. please stand byI slept hard last night, even on the tilt. Woke up at 5:45 and went back to sleep. I woke up at the 6:15 and went back to sleep. And then I woke up at 7. Whoops! I got packed up and had breakfast. And then I'm headed down the "Agony Grid". I thought it was aptly named. There was no mention of it in the guidebook, but geez, what a way to start the day! It was steep and rocky and somewhat technical. I was glad I had fresh legs! At the bottom of it there were dozens of milk jug filled with fresh water. Yea trail magic! The trail passed over a busy highway, but I was in no mood to stop and wave at the traffic. There was a bugger of a climb up to get to the Lemon Squeezer. It was little more than a narrow split in the rocks, getting ever narrower as you reached the top. It reminded me of an industrial sized garbage compactor. The rocks were huge. The size of McMansions. The day in general made me feeling either really big or really small. There were HUGE rocks, HUGE trees and HUGE open forests. But at the same time there were tons of tiny frogs and tiny snakes that made me feel quite big. It was an Alice in Wonderland experience.I bypassed the hairy scramble after the lemon squeezer. I was way too short to put my pack on top of the rock and try to scramble up the undercut rock face, and I certainly didn't feel comfortable trying to crawl up with the pack on. SO went the "Easy Way" as the sign professed, but even the bypass was a scramble requiring all four limbs. It literally was the difference between climbing the undercut face of the boulder versus climbing up the side of it. "Easy way", yeah right. Assholes.I got into a zone, and I covered miles. I suddenly realized that I hadn't eaten anything or taken any breaks. I was so absorbed that I walked right up to a doe, I mean within six feet of her, before I saw her. And she was right out in the open eating blueberries. It startled me. I need to start paying closer attention.I thought of going down to Lake Tiorati for a swim, a shower and maybe an ice cream. But it looked like a steep .3 mile hike, I change my mind. Instead I stopped at a rock beside a slow moving creek. I had the saddest lunch I'd had yet. Tuna, cheese, chopped onions, cheeszits and Taco Bell sauce all mixed in the lid of my pot. It tasted blah, it looked gross, and it didn't inspire me in the least. I cried. I literally cried. I wondered if I could keep hiking. I heard some people approaching. It was four teenagers. They were nice enough, but they had zero idea where they were. They had hiked up from the lake. They asked if the trail circled back down to the lake. I told them as far as I knew the trail went to Maine. They decided that they should turn around and come back the way they came. I said I thought that was probably a good idea.I spent the rest of the afternoon in a funk of sorts. There wasn't much water. so I carried 5 liters. I drank it all and sweated it right back out. There were lots of pointless ups and downs to climb. I was mentally holding myself together as best as I could, amd I wasn't doing a very good job. I stopped at the blueberry bushes to pillage them. It was a highlight of the day to that point. And then I looked up I suddenly realized I was looking at the skyline of New York City. From where we were, New York City was only 34 miles away. It seemed incredible. It seemed impossible. The city looked so still peaceful and quiet. But I knew down on the streets it was anything but still, peaceful and quiet. I took a few pictures, but it hardly did it justice. In the photos the skyline looked so tiny, but from where I was standing it looked quite large and imposing.As if on cue the trail took me down to cross a busy four lane highway, the Palisades Parkway. I got a few toots as I crossed the road but they sounded more encouraging than angry.There was a hell of a rocky steep climb up the next hill up to West Mountain. I was glad to have the water because I'd sucked down and sweat it right back out. The trails went straight up the rocky hillside, nothing in the way of switchbacks. On the top of West Mountain, it zigged and zagged across the ridge to look out this way and that. A few of the trees had started to change color and shed their leaves. A forewarning that fall would soon be upon us. The yellow and brown leaves piled between the rocks on the trails, it was picturesque, but it made me feel nervous. I didn't want to twisted ankles. I could see the Perkins Memorial Tower across the way on Bear Mountain. That was my goal. It was getting late, but it seemed important to follow through with today's mileage goal. Fortunately, the downhill wasn't as hard as the uphill. As I crossed the a road, and on the otherside the trail took advantage of an old carriage road. It shot me right up the side of the mountain. I spooked up a turkey hen and her brood of young turkeys. They jogged nervously in front of me, darting in and out of the grass. There always seemed to be one that was left behind. Finally, they grew tired of running, and the whole flock took flight up into the branches of the trees. I wound my way up to the top of Bear Mountain, their were lots of deer and lots of people. I made a b-line for the vending machines. They sold water, gatorade , and Pringles. And they took credit cards. It felt like Christmas morning. I spent $13.50, and it was soooo worth it. I found a nice, hidden flat spot off of a blue blazed trail. I set up my tent and then took my food bag, stove and cook pot back up to the overlook. I wanted to watch the City put on her evening's finest. I sat down on the granite outcrop, the rocks were still warm from the day's sun. As twight-light set in, I suddenly realized how big the sky looked. It's not often that I spend the evening on top of the biggest hill around, with no trees to block out the sky and stars. There was a huge phoenix in the clouds that seem to be headed straight for the City. I wondered if anyone in the City thought they had a phoenix headed their way? I retreated back to my tent, and even after dark, I could hear car doors opening and shutting. It made me a little nervous. I'm not used to being so close to motorists.