Date: 2003-08-24
From: Fingerboard Shelter

To: Graymoor Friary
Miles today: 20.7

I slept with my earplugs in last night ¢ and very soundly, I might add. Consequently when I woke up it was after 7am and most everyone else was already stirring. Bushwhack and Bramble in fact had already left. I wasn¢t sure what to think of that, but decided, ¢That¢s cool, we don¢t have to stick together every minute.¢Still it put me in rush mode and I pulled out before Toby or Rodent. It was a pretty fast hike to the next shelter; Bushwhack had said last night he had more surprises and I kept half-expecting one to come out of the woods¢¦But none did. I caught Bushwhack and Bramble at the next shelter, breaking on a big rock. Rodent was there, too ¢ he¢d passed me a ways back.It was an incredibly beautiful morning. Just barely on the cool side, clear and sunshiny. I can¢t get over the terrain there around Fingerboard. The sun shining through the skinny trees at its morning angle is too beautiful.Toby came along soon and we all ate a snack or two, then started off together. Almost immediately I tripped and fell straight on my knee while chatting with Bramble ¢ my first bad fall. It hurt bad enough I jumped to conclusions and feared I wouldn¢t be hiking much today, but after sitting there for a few minutes I discovered I could go on. Nice bloody knee.Next up was Black Mountain, where we saw a copperhead sunning itself mid-Trail and the New York City skyline. Both were photo opps; the latter was barely visible. I doubt it will show up on my film. It¢s a little hazy on the horizon.Down Black Mountain and up another ¢ with aa treacherous highway crossing inbetween! Thankfully Palisades Interstate Parkway is divided by a grassy area or it would have been enarly impossible to cross watching for traffic from both directions. I felt like the little people running in the signs around the California-Mexico border near San Diego and Tiajuana that warn of immigrants crossing!At the top of the next mountain, which we pretty much stayed together while climbing, they pointed out Bear Mountain. Good grief ¢ what¢s with all these mountaint all of a sudden?! I¢m wearing out! It¢s fun to stay together, but I¢m decidedly the slowest of the group uphill. It¢s a little unnerving to have three people behind me, stopping to rest whenever I have to. Fun to have the conversation, though.Lots of dayhikers around. It¢s such a splendid day ¢ and a Sunday, at that. Guess that makes it easier for people to come out.Climbing up we smelled lots of sweet-fern, as Toby calls it. Someone else told us it was mayberry? Or maybe mulberry¢¦ Now I can¢t remember. Anyway it smells good when its fragrans catches on the breeze and wafts upward. Better than the hiker in front of you¢¦Speaking of which, on the way up Bear Mountain we stopped at a stream for water and Bushwhack says to Toby, ¢You stink.¢ Toby said itw as the first time someone had actually told him he stank. ¢This may be my proudest moment on the Trail!¢ he exclaimed.Part of the ¢Trail¢ up Bear Mountain ¢ and back down ¢ is on the road which city-folk drive up to enjoy the view from the top. At the top, after returning to the woods for a short stretch, we emerged from the trees to find ourselves amid a full parking lot and throngs of people. A girl asked Bushwhack, ¢How long is the trail?¢ ¢2000 miles,¢ he replied. ¢You¢re lying,¢ she responded. When he showed her his 2000-miler patch from his ¢01 thru-hike, she looked as if she didn¢t know whether to think we were crazy or what. With no response she sort of backed away and kept walking with her companion.Then came perhaps my best tourist-attraction-moment on the Trail so far. A woman stopped us with questions, accompanied by her husband and three small children, all dressed in distinctive Jewish clothing, appropriately Jewish-New Yorker accents thick in their voices.¢So you¢ve walked this Trail from Georgia?¢ she repeated incredulously in response to our answers. ¢How do you get from state to state? You drive, right?¢No, we assured her, we¢d walked the entire way. (I of course clarifying the 300 or so miles I¢d skipped¢¦)Her husband was shocked we didn¢t have cell phones. Equipped with a cell phone on one hip and pager on the other, he boasted, ¢I can be reached at any time anywhere!¢ I wanted to say to him, ¢I¢m sorry.¢Down the gravel-pit Trail on the other side of Bear and into the park around Bear Mountain Inn and the Trailside Museum and Zoo. Here, as Toby put it, was a nice slice of life. If you want to see America-the-Melting-Pot at its best, go to Bear Mountain on a Sunday afternoon. Nearly every ethnicity you could think of. Pretty cool to see ¢ a great place to people watch! Barbecue and other picnic smells hovered in the air; noise level high with children playing, people chattering, boomboxes playing and cars rushing by on the highway nearby.We stopped for sodas and ¢real¢ restroom ¢ which I wish I¢d skipped; how filthy! ¢ and then headed into the zoo, where in front of the bear cage (?) is the lowest point on the Trail. Unfortuantely it was after 4pm and the zoo was closed. We hadto go around. Bummer! The miles have come very slow today; just seems like we can¢t ever get anywhere. I guess all the climbing ¢ and all the breaks!At this point we crossed the Bear Mountain Bridge (another ¢fellowship with the wilderness¢ moment) and walked along NY 9D for a short distance. It was relatively flat along the highway so I took off ahead, knowing they¢d catch me as soon as the Trail headed back uphill. It was only about six more miles to the Friary when the Trail left the road and returned to the woods. A short climb or two and a few downs were interspersed with some long flat stretches of ridge-walking; I stayed quite a ways ahead on the flat stretches (and typically fell behind on the ups). I was exhausted by this time and just plain ready to be there.On a downhill Toby was beind me. Perhaps to make up for having been told he stank earlier today, he informed me that I smelled like an Italian sausage cart. Thanks Tobes. That¢s a new one. ¢Get your sausage,¢ he¢d call out in his best Boston accent. I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. Being tired makes me giddy!Finally, finally, as it was getting dusk, we came to the road and the turnoff to Graymoor. Bushwhack promised it was only a tenth or two farther. Unfortunately we were too late to make the dinner the friars share with hikers, but not too late to catch Rodent eating his. Bushwhack and Bramble braved the cold shower provided here while the other three of us ate. In the end I rinsed off, too, but it would have been smarter to do so when I¢d just finished hiking¢¦ The cold would have been a little easier to take then. As it was it wasn¢t too bad; I just bundled right up in my warmer camp clothes and hopped in my sleeping bag.There¢s a pavilion here in one corner of a large field. Off to the side is the shower in a wooden building with a gravel floor. Rodent and Bushwhack and Bramble pitched their tents in the grass near the pavilion; Toby stretched out on the floor inside, and I laid down on one of the many picnic tables outside. I love to sleep under the open sky and so rarely do!