Date: 2017-06-14
From: William Brien Memorial Shelter, NY

To: Stony Point Center, Stony Point, NY
Miles today: 10.4

6//14/17, Stony Point Center, Stony Point, NYMiles hiked: 1086.4 Miles to go: 1103.4Today's hike was much better than yesterday. A cold front moved through last night, dropping the temperatures. It was pretty muggy today; but, temperatures were only in the low 80s, making for much more comfortable hiking. We headed out around 7:00 AM. We only had ten miles to go to get to town. We were out of food, our clothes were so salt-encrusted from sweat that they stood up on their own, and we smelled bad. Really bad. So, we were in desperate need of a town day. The terrain was still very much up and down; however, the trail volunteers had done an excellent job of grading the trail and adding stone steps to the steep parts. So, we were able to move along at a pretty good clip. It wasn't long until we reached the four lane Palisades Parkway, where we got to play Frogger across the busy morning rush hour traffic. There was a visitor's center in the median a short distance from where we crossed. So, we took the opportunity to walk down and raid the vending machines, charge our phones, and use the flush toilets. A few more miles of hiking brought us to Bear Mountain, overlooking the Hudson River. At one point, we were actually able to see some of the New York City Skyline in the distance. This part of the trail is located in Harriman State Park and gets a lot of tourist use, so we saw a bunch of dayhikers. We descended off the ridge to the river, where the trail passed through the Trailside Zoo & Museum, featuring indigenous animals and a museum of the history of the area. The bear den was particularly disquieting. There were two bears in the pen, one of whom was lounging in a hammock. There were also about 50 vultures hanging out in the enclosure. Ironically enough, the bear enclosure is located at the lowest point on the entire trail, at 114 ft above sea level. I'm hoping these are either injured bears that cannot live on their own or just plain lazy bears who like lounging in hammocks all day. I consider the bears as kindred spirits and felt like they should be free to be out there trying to steal unwary hiker's food bags. In fact, we have been hearing about a particularly wily bear at Fingerboard Shelter (about 15 miles south of the zoo) who has been stealing hiker's bear bags out of the trees there. We ran into our thru hiker friend J who told us about the bear stealing two bags just last night. Unfortunately, these situations rarely end well for the bear. Once we reached the Bear Mountain Bridge, we called the Stony Point Center for a pickup since we had reservations for the night there. The Stony Point Center is a multi-denominational retreat center that takes in thru hikers for the night. It's a very nice place  with very friendly people. We got checked into our room, took showers, and got our laundry started. We then headed out to the store to resupply. The AWOL guide listed the grocery store as nearby. The lady who picked us up told us the store was located about a mile from the center. The hiker information packet they gave us at check-in listed the store as 1.5 miles from the center. It was closer to two miles away. Luckily, we got a ride to the store; but, we had to walk back. You know how much thru hikers hate to walk off-trail miles...Upon returning from the store, we went to check on our clothes and both managed to leave our room keys in the room. Behind a locked door. Bummer. Our room was located on the first floor in one of the dormitory buildings located away from the main administration building. Rather than walk all the way to the administrative building just to admit that we had managed to lock ourselves out of our room, we decided the better course of action was to break into our room through the open window. Of course, you can guess who got elected to climb in the window. Better yet, 1st Sgt managed to record the act for all posterity. Since he went to all that trouble, I felt it was only fair to share the picture. After successful completion of our caper, it was time for dinner in the center's cafeteria. It was all you can eat (AYCE) - favorite words of all thru hikers. We were joined at our table by another thru hiker named Pa John. I figure the three of us ate as much as the rest of the guests combined. We are now clean, laundered, fed, and rested. Tomorrow, we cross the Hudson River on the Bear Mountain Bridge and continue our way north. We should be in Connecticut ("Gateway to New England") by the end of the week. It is less than 800 miles to Katahdin. Although it's still soft, Katahdin's call continues to grow.