Date: 2019-03-11
From: Trail Parking 

To: Appalacian Market 
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: broken clouds

First and foremost, Happy 14th birthday to our grandson Josh!  We love you and are so proud of you!! Right away I realized I should have worn my micro-spikes today. The sun came out nicely and it really warmed up to nearly 50 degrees, but it turns out that only makes the melting snow and ice worse when you¢re up high.  Baby Girl took the lead right out of the gate. Our first climb would be Bear Mountain at 1305ft. The trail in that area had been re-routed some and I followed her right around the base of that mountain instead of up and over. It was odd. There were old faded out blazes here and there. I said something isn¢t right here, but then we saw fresh blazes going up Bear Mountain.  So UP we went. Up up up the snow covered icy steps. Reaching the top I still felt off. One look at Guthook¢s and I¢m realizing we completely hiked up the backside of Bear Mountain and are now hiking southbound.  WHAT?!? In a million years that has probably happened only once...and it was to me!  We had gotten off to an early start this morning so Baby Girl and I caught a beautiful sunrise while up there. There¢s nothing like sharing a glorious sunrise with your granddaughter! I didn¢t even care that we had steps to retrace.(again) So we finally got back on track. Working our way down Bear Mountain proved itself to be a challenge. I was using the edges of the rock stairs to step down. They had a bit of snow melted off and I could find footing with the toe of my boot. That¢s when it happened. Black ice...down went McGinty. I landed on my left butt cheek, hard, clear to the bone. Pain radiated to my left hip, down my left leg, and clear to the knee. I just laid there on those rocks.  Once I got up, Baby Girl being only 12, had a little chuckle over my ¢butt¢ pain. That¢s when it happened to her. She went down on the rocks too. I don¢t think she¢ll laugh again.  We collected ourselves and continued our journey much more cautiously. We came upon a small waterfall. Baby Girl was in awe! I loved it! She¢s starting to hear the music. She enjoys the sounds of flowing water, and chirping birds! I¢m sooo HAPPY!  Once we made it all the way down, we found ourselves at Bear Mountain Inn. It was only 10:30 am but we were ready for lunch. It was nice inside. Everything inside and out was made of stone and wood. Baby Girl and I both had a Nathan¢s hotdog with chips and a pop. It hit the spot! Today¢s hike took us right through a zoo! On the way to the zoo we saw many fat squirrels, but one in particular caught our attention.  He was running around with food on a stick!  It looked like chicken on a stick!  We were still having a good laugh about that when we entered the zoo. This zoo helps injured animals. There was a 3 legged fox (trail named Hoppy), a one legged goose, a coyote with stitches, and several other animals. Not all were injured. There was a couple of bears, a bobcat, and lots of fishes, snakes and turtles. We really enjoyed ourselves there and left a little donation in s box at the exit. Immediately leaving the zoo we started walking on bridge across the Hudson River. It was a really big suspension bridge! The river was beautiful!  We crossed a road and eventually ducked back into the woods. This began our icy ascent up Anthony¢s Nose. The ice made it a real ¢booger¢ to climb! Haha! We had plenty of nose jokes!  From there it was just a few miles with little UPs and DOWN¢s.  Finally we reached our last big down and made our way to the Appalacian Market. Papa Big Swig was patiently waiting for us there.  Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018/2019)Where¢s your faith?