Date: 2004-07-14
From: Bear Mountain Inn

To: Graymoor Friary
Miles today: 7.2

I decided that instead of a zero day I would go the short 7 miles to the Graymoor Friary. They have been hosting thruhikers for over 30 years so it seemed a pity not to stay there.I went to the Inn's free continental breakfast at 7 and then to the post office to mail my gift. After that I was going to lay around all morning and not leave until checkout time. But the Weather Channel warned of an approaching line of thunderstorms bearing down on us, so I checked out at 930. I went down and ate a bit more breakfast waiting for the Zoo to open, then headed out.I had planned to resupply at nearby Fort Montgomery on my zero day. But I had a scant day's food so decided to skip it and wait until a store 30 miles up the trail at Hwy 52. Outside the Inn was a vending machine. I got the last two packs of poptarts in it and a couple other snacks to help stretch out my food supply.Then My Thruhike reached a new low! Low altitude, that is. After the Inn, the Trail goes right through a zoo and it is the lowest spot on the entire Appalachian Trail. There I saw my very first bears of the entire hike, lounging around in a pen. And near both the entrance and exit to the zoo were more ripe red raspberries. After the zoo and two small museums, I headed across the Bear Mountain Suspension Bridge.Besides being short, today's hike was easier than the last few days. There was one bad moment though. Starting the second big climb, the trail went up a four inch wide ledge like a ramp formed by a split layer of a 45 degree rock face. I had hardly started when my foot slipped. I waved my arms and poles wildly trying to avoid falling off and managed to throw myself against the face instead. I was panting from fear and from the jolt of adrenalin and I sat there until my heart slowed to normal. It would only have been a four-foot fall, like falling off a tall step-stool onto rocks, but the landing might have been pretty hard. Two hikers I've been with have bashed their faces into the rocks in the past week and the results are not pretty!At the driveway to the Friary I met another couple coming and four hikers leaving. The outgoing hikers said there was a big chocolate cake waiting for us at the pavilion near the baseball field where hikers stay. There it was, along with Palm Tree and Boonie, who had spent the night at a motel in Fort Montgomery.After some cake I tried the cold-water shower and rinsed out my sweaty t-shirt. Then I journaled and read until supper. Our host Brother Leo came by at 430 with his dog companion Buddy. He told us to come up for dinner a little after 5.Brother Leo met us at the main building, which surprised me by its size, five stories and quite long. He took us up to the dining hall, where one table had a sign "Hikers" and a place set for each of us. We had hearty warm roast beef sandwiches, which Leo said was the friary's usual weekday supper, with soup and potatoes. Over dinner Leo explained that the property had been started by the Episcapalians about 100 years ago and then became a Franciscan friary. The large building had been built as a college for educating friars. More recently when the order grew smaller it became an administrative center, and having over 250 beds it also began hosting retreats. They began feeding and sheltering hikers in 1972 when the Trail was rerouted past their hill and a thruhiker came asking to stay overnight.After dinner Brother Leo gave us a fascinating tour. The friary was a sprawling complex built over the course of a century in different styles. One wing had been started in the 1920s and was never finished, the funds for it being used instead to help those in need during the Depression. In the original main chapel was an ornate inlaid stone altar that had been in a church in Italy on the site St. Francis was said to have received the stigmata. That church had been torn down in 1927 to be rebuilt and the altar was sent to Graymoor Friary. In a garden in the back was a memorial to the rescue workers at the World Trade Center made from I-beams and rebar taken from the wreckage. At the top of the hill was an overlook from which one can see the Empire State Building on a clear day. But the first thunderstorm had come through just before 5 and it was too cloudy for us to see.All in all, it was a fascinating visit. Tour completed, Brother Leo bade us goodnight and we trooped through the gardens back to our picnic shelter to go to bed. The roof had no overhang so the upwind side of the floor was wet from rain blowing in, but there was plenty of dry space left in the center and downwind side to sleep on.