Date: 2017-05-25
From: William Brien Shelter

To: Holiday Inn Express in Peekskill NY
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: moderate rain

The funny thing about hanging my pack up high in a tree was the sound of rain on my tent first thing in the morning. I lay there for a moment, thinking it would be great to just lay in the sack a bit longer. The rain was light and just starting and it was somewhere in the 5 a.m. range. But ooops. Wait. If I lay here while my pack is lingering out there like a bird in the tree then not only will my pack get soaked, but so will my tent. I can't pack anything in my pack because, well, it isn't in my tent it's in a tree. The wheels turn slowly in the morning, but in a matter of minutes I figured it out. With the rain pattering softly on my tent I headed out - first one up! - and collected the unmolested food bag and pack. I got things stowed in no time and then headed for the shelter to make some breakfast.  This morning MrsJoy and I played role reversal. She fired up her stove and made coffee while I ate a cold breakfast. Go figure.  But those chores were soon done and we headed up a short pointless climb to get underway for the day.The rain picked up in intensity until about mid morning when I was sure it had quit for the day.  But no.  It started up again and hard, soaking into my pant legs and arms, again overwhelming my raingear.  A few hard climbs with foggy rain-lashed views of cloud cover were my reward for clambering up and down.  Darn.  The wind was getting pretty cold and strong, adding to the general feel of being stuck in a cold car wash.  I was never brave enough to fish my phone from it's secure baggie to take any pictures, so my record of that hike will be held in my minds eye only.  But it was lessons learned from the previous rainy hike that really helped preserve this day as a safe memory.After hiking ahead of MrsJoy (speed helps with warmth) and crossing another busy road like a frightened squirrel, I found myself on a wood road rising gradually toward the top of Bear Mountain where there is a fire tower.  The rain and wind nearly obscured the faint blue blaze option a short ways uphill.  So.  either climb the slippery rock face that led sharply uphill to the left or stay straight ahead on the wood road to follow a blue blaze that seemed to fade away with distance.  I didn't want to make this decision alone since going straight uphill on the white blaze would be best if done with company, for safety's sake, and if I chose the blue blaze I wanted to let my partner know.  So I turned back and hiked to the gravel road that seemed a sensible place to wait for MrsJoy. And it was, for not more than 10 or 15 minutes later she appeared above me, navigating the downhill slippery trail with - of all people - Andante!  In the time it took for them to reach me I checked my Guthook, enlarging the screen shot so that I could see, very faintly, that the road with the faded blue blaze did indeed extend around the hill to rejoin the AT.  Miracle!  We wouldn't need to risk falling on the slippery rocks to get back to the trail.  We huddled for a minute, shivering in the cold, and set off to follow the blue blaze which did indeed take us safely to the 1,000 stone steps downward to the Bear Mountain Inn.  Andante showed real pluck by marching into the inn, leaving a strong drip trail behind him, and discovered that we could be served lunch there, despite our drowned rat appearance.  And so we did.  It was very expensive, but very good.  I had a burger and beer, as did MrsJoy.  Andante settled for a classier chicken dish which looked insufficient to me, based on my personal hunger level.  And he had no beer.  What a titan of restraint!  It turned out that this particular weekend was the graduation weekend for West Point, and if we hadn't made a reservation for a room the previous day as we sat on a rock on the trail, we would be hiking our well soaked bodies up the trail to sleep in the rain that night.  But we were either prudent or lucky or both and had a room in Peekskill at the Holiday Inn Express, to which we were taken by cab in short order.  We offered to share the room with Andante and he wisely accepted.  Ah!  Warm and dry!  Two lovely words made better by experience.  We washed, did laundry, dried out, and got a decent night's sleep.  Well, I had to move to the floor once again, as I became plagued by a terrific urge to engage in kickboxing or sprinting or such.  Sigh.  Concrete floor.  I prefer wood or pine needle.