Date: 2006-10-03
From: Near Shenandoah Tenting Area, NY

To: Fort Montgomery, NY
Miles today: 24.0

I slept well last night, but woke up feeling stiff. Maybe I layed in the same position too long.I didn't hear Yolanda moving around in her tent yet, so I was quiet because I wasn't ready to start walking yet.It was 6:20am when I woke up. I layed in bed stretching for a while, then ate the brownies that Mrs Moosie made me yesterday. :-))) I had those and 10 chocolate cover expresso beans for breakfast and drank some water.I heard Yolanda moving around while I was eating, so I started packing and was ready to walk at 7:20am.Yolanda had said good morning and left just ahead of me, but it wasn't long before I came up to her poles and pack sitting in the middle of the Trail. I waited until she came back out of the woods and we walked together.We finished climbing to the summit of Shenandoah Mountain. There has been a US flag painted on the rocks up there since 9-11. I remember that there had been lots of real small pieces of broken glass up there...it looks like that's all been cleaned up.I started walking down the mountain and scared up a large doe. I'm not sure why, but I just haven't seen much wildlife this year, so it's always a treat to see something.It wasn't long before we came to the overlook at Canopus Lake. I could see some nice color in some of the trees, but it's still a little ways off before peak color hits this area.We walked around the lake and crossed Rt 301, then had a nice, easy flat walk for about a mile.I was getting hungry early and was about out of water, so we decided to stop at Dennytown Rd and get water there and eat lunch. It was about 11am when we got there and we stayed for about 30 minutes.This is a really nice area of forest to walk through, but you are always aware that there are residences nearby. It isn't all that many miles from NY City.The area also has more rocks than I remember. That may be because my right heel has been hurting more again. I was having to walk slowly and I'm sure I had a little bit of a limp in my stride because later in the day I could feel a couple muscles I'm not used to using.We came up to Judith and Food Bag who were out for an overnight walk. I knew Judith. I asked her if she walked in Shenandoah in '02 and she said that she had.I remembered her from back then because she was walking with a group and I knew one of them.We kept talking and finally I told her if she ran into Russ again, tell him Stumpknocker said hello.She said; "You're Stumpknocker!!"She remembered me, but didn't recognize me because back then I had a long, bushy beard. :-)))We walked on and Yolanda asked where we were going to stop for the day. I told her that maybe we could stop at Graymore. She then told me about a steakhouse she has eaten at in Fort Montgomery, then said it didn't really matter to her where we stayed.She's getting to know me too well. She knew that by mentioning food, that we would end up there. :-)))I was walking so slow that I felt bad holding her back. When she said we should sit down and take a break. I told her to take a break as long as she wanted and I would keep walking. I knew she could catch up pretty easily when she started walking again.I passed by Graymore, then crossed the very busy Rt 403. I see they are finally rebuilding the old gas station that's been closed since the first time I walked through this area.I was nearing the top of South Mountain when Yolanda caught up to me about an hour after she sat down for her break.We continued walking through lots of rocks.We walked by the side trail to Hemlock Springs Campsite and kept climbing to Anthony's Nose before descending to Rt 9D. There was a short road walk to the Bear Mountain Bridge that crosses the Hudson River.We walked across the bridge, then walked about a mile into Fort Montgomery, got a room and went to the steakhouse.I had a nice 16 ounce ribeye steak with salad, succotash and baked potato.We walked back to the room and along the way, bought a Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream for desert.There were quite a few leaves falling today, but with my sore heel, I had to keep my eye on the trail more to make sure I didn't step wrong on any rocks, so I'm only up to 106 leaves. The one I caught today fell on my shirt and I grabbed it before it fell away. :-)))