Date: 2004-07-08
From: Fingerboard Shelter

To: Fort Montgomery
Miles today: 14.2

July 8, 2004 ¢ Fingerboard Shelter to Fort Montgomery ¢ 14.2 miles        Very interesting day today. It was raining when I woke up so I didn¢t get the early start I¢d hoped for. By 7:30 the clouds were starting to break, so everything stayed dry except for my feet. They were soaked through after just a mile of walking through wet grass and brush. I¢m not sure my shoes will by dry by tomorrow. Anyway ¢¦. Finally saw NYC from the top of Black Mountain ¢ a bit hazy but recognizable. About 11 o¢clock, just a tenth of a mile after crossing the Palisades Parkway, I heard a weird noise just up the trail. I stopped and looked and saw the bushes wiggling. I clanged my hiking poles together and a bear popped its head up and looked at me and then ran off up the hill. It had been pulling apart a dead log, probably looking for bugs. It didn¢t go far and I was able to get a picture! When I first saw him I wasn¢t any more than 50 feet away! The next bit of excitement wasn¢t so exhilarating. The AT and the Ramapo- Dunderberg (D-R) trail had been together for the last 3 miles. It was blazed with white squares with red dots in the center. At Beechy Bottom Brook I had some trouble finding the next blaze, but the one just up the hill from the footbridge was visible. I followed the trail a bit and found some old blazes (where the tree has grown so much that the blaze is now stripes) and some that had been painted over, so I kept going. The red dot blazes were clear and it was a well-maintained trail. About 15 minutes later I wasn¢t seeing any traces of AT blazes. A look at my map showed that just before Beechy Bottom Brook the D-R trail and the AT diverged, but that within a half mile or so they hooked back up, so I kept following the red dots. 15 minutes later as I began to ascend the ridge I knew something was wrong. According to the map, the red dot trail didn¢t go up the ridge until after it joined the AT. At the top of the ridge the red dots were crossed by yellow squares and the initials SBR which matched another trail name on the map. Of course, there was no indication that D-R ever crossed SBR so I got our my compass and map, checked some contours and headed north following the yellow squares, hopefully toward the AT. A while later I hit a trail junction with blue squares. Now blue are generally used for side trails to shelters and water. And there was a shelter on my map 0.6 miles south of the AT. The yellow square trail looked like it crossed the shelter trail. I turned left and north up the blue trail and was shortly dumped back out on the AT at the shelter trail junction into the middle of a group of teenaged day hikers. I was 0.8 miles further along the AT from where I¢d lost it, but probably hiked about 2 miles around my elbow. I saw a few notes in the last couple trail registers about poor blazing. I should have paid more attention. I can only guess that there was a reroute through this area a few (many?) years back and I was following old blazes, or the blazes they tried to cover up weren¢t AT blazes but old blazes for the D-R trail. Who knows! I do know my map badly needs updating.After my adventure on West Mountain, the trail led to Bear Mountain and a few road walks. They were doing some road work and I waved at the truck driver. The tower at the top was closed so my views were limited. In Bear Mountain New York you hike partway around Hessian Lake, take a pedestrian tunnel under US9W and then hike right through the Trailside Museums and Wildlife Center! The trail goes right by the animal exhibits ¢ saw my second bear, coyotes, a river otter, red fox, fish, etc. I had a visitor take my picture in front of the display about the AT. When I exited the zoo I was at the west end of the Bear Mountain Bridge. I headed across and up Route 9 toward Fort Montgomery where I had a mail drop waiting. As soon as I stuck my thumb out for a ride, a pickup stopped. It was the truck driver I¢d waved at on the mountain! Joe gave me a ride to the post office and we had a short chat about the weather. It was very hot and humid today. Lots of folks said hi to me at the Post Office and several stopped to chat and ask about my hike. One lady asked if there was anything she could do to help, offering me a ride and a meal, a little respite. Martha is fairly new to Fort Montgomery, having moved out from the city. She drove me to the Bear Mountain Bridge Motel where I got a great little room and then we drove up to Highland Falls and had an early dinner. I had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, water and a root beer. Martha treated!!! We checked the library but it¢s closed on Thursday and she drove me back to the motel. It was a wonderful afternoon, and Doug the proprietor at the motel is going to give me ride back to the trail in the morning. Day 100 on the trail and less than 800 miles to go.