Date: 2003-08-15
From: Somewhere on Surebridge Mt.

To: Bear Mountain, N.Y.
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: clear sky

Last night was one of those dead quiet nights when the smallest sounds are magnified by the forest. Usually it was the sound of a falling acorn hitting the bed of dried leaves on the ground. There was a time when I thought that sound must be some large animal movong round outside. Now, the sound scarcely registers. To be honest, short of a tree falling on me, there isn't much going on outside my tent that interests me at all. I'm always too tired. And, anyway, the walls of my tent are impregnable!! It was a beautiful morning. I passed throught Fingerboard Shelter early on and detoured down to the recreation park at Lake Tiorati for fresh water. The shores round the lake were quite sandy (probably imported) and, although there were few people here yet, nose-grabbing smells were coming from a grill and refreshments areaclose to Tiorati Circle. My stomach said "Stay", but I needed to move. I still wasn't sure where I would spend the night, but I intended to put in a big day and it was warming up fast. I stopped for lunch at the Willian Brien Shelter, where there is a small spring-fed well. My planning books told me it was normally dry in summer, but thanks to all the rain it was well-filled with fine clear water. I was grateful because I've really been going through the water today once again.Shortly after 2.00pm, I was at the top of Black Mountain, my fourth biggish climb of the day, and here I got my first view of Pallisades Interstate Parkway cutting through the forest way below. A very busy highway.An hour later and I was down at the highway heading off trail to the Parkway's visitor centre. Something strange was afoot. The restrooms were closed, and I heard the centre's store attendant tell someone that they would close early. What was going on?"What's going on?" I asked her. "Why are you closing early?""To save power," she replied in a bored monotone."Why do you need to save power?" I asked."Because of the power blackout," she said, with a hint of impatience creeping into the monotone."What power blackout?" I persisted.At which point she looked at me more closely over the rim of her glasses and told me about the greatest power failure in American history. Yesterday. A blackout from Maine to Michigan. Even Canada. And I had missed it, blissfully unaware that 20-30 million North Americans (I don't really know how many) have been going through the most miserable time. And it seems they still are. The greatest inconvenience to me was that I had to buy two bottles of water from the soda machine instead of taking it free from the restroom. Annoying, but compared with, say, being stuck in an elevator for hours on the 80th floor, I can't really grumble.Next stop the payphone, first to talk to Verity. She is fine, but has no chance of rearranging her flights home until the present chaos is sorted out. Thank goodness she and 'Two Speeds' are able to stay with Karen until it is. I suggested that Karen's two boys come with me on a short one day hike over the weekend, and I think they are keen to do that. My last call was to the Bear Mt. Inn, right on the AT< to book a room for the night.The I was off to tackle the last and biggest two climbs of the day, West Mt. and Bear Mountain. A number of fine creeks crossed the Trail on both mountains and I happily filled the crown of my hat with cold water and gave myself a refreshing shower. The climbs were strenuous but not a problem, and the views from the top were tremendous. From the Perkins monument on Bear Mountain there were fine views of the Hudson River and, on the horizon, it was just possible to make out the Manhattan skyline through the haze about 35 miles away.Evening was approaching and, as the sun sank in the sky, my eyes were drawn for the first time to the silhouette of a young woman, sitting on a prominent rock, meditating, her long limbs spread effortlessly in a lotus position. She was a real Hispanic beauty, with waistlength hair, and her presence transformed this magnificent view of the Hudson into something quite elemental.I had to get going and, about an hour later, completed the descent to Bear Mt. Inn very tired and footsore. I have had dinner here tonight in the slightly dim light provided by the Inn's backup generator. I don't think I can walk tomorrow, but will hang around in the hope of doing a slackpack with Sean and Ryan on Sunday, and maybe even with Verity and 'Two Speeds'. I would love that.