Date: 2023-06-12
From: Island Pond Outlet

To: Near Trailside Zoo 1410.3
Miles today: 20.9

Hiking day 88, Elevation 129 feetAnother birthday today, Kerry¢s Dad, Jack would have been 97. I never remember people on the day they die, I prefer to celebrate their birthdays and their lives. Jack was like a second dad to me, as was Kerry¢s Mom, Pat, like a second mother. They were both so kind to me and that is the overwhelming memory I have of them both. We have a lot of June birthdays to celebrate and I¢m thinking of them too!We got going early and slowly at first, but picked up speed as the day wore on. Harriman State Park was beautiful. Much of the understory was grassland, lighting up the trees from below, giving us the feeling of walking through a garden. And then there were acres of Mountain Laurel in bloom. For the past month as we hiked North, we¢ve watched the Mountain Laurel go from bud to blossom to full bloom, and in the last few days the blooms have begun to ¢snow¢ on us as we walked.At Palisades Interstate Parkway there was a detour. We couldn¢t understand why they didn¢t want people crossing the road especially since it seemed less busy and safer than some of the other roads we¢ve crossed. We learned later a hiker was killed there last year, so it makes sense that they would want to avoid a repeat accident. Kerry and I didn¢t know that when we elected not to take the detour, which would have made our long day even longer. The blazes on the old route had been eradicated (but now brown, you could see them anyway!). Others had an orange square added to the middle of the white blaze, as though we were on a new/different trail. If the ATC is abandoning the old route they shouldn¢t call the new one a detour¢¦it¢s begging for people to ignore it. We met Forest (started at Harpers Ferry) and his friend Turtle on the old route and they basically had the same thought that we did. In addition, they were headed for West Mountain Shelter, which is on the old route.Felix managed to scare up 3 deer, I saw 2 garter snakes and this morning (and during the night) we awoke to the whippoorwills singing. The views we might have had on a fine day were diminished by the threatening rain, but even that had no effect on our view of the vast expanse of mountains covered in green trees, mostly deciduous, for as far as we could see.After we rejoined the AT post detour, we had a lot more ups and downs on Bear Mountain where there is a tower (shut and locked when we walked by) obviously frequently visited by the locals judging by the number of people we met headed there, even on a week day! What impressed us was the amazing stonework and stair building all the way down the mountain to the Hudson River. At the bottom, there were information panels explaining about Trail building and how the stairs were made.Another milestone: we went over 1400 miles today!We walked on. The zoo that the trail goes through was closed. A nice man, named Mark showed us where to go to meet up with Grandpa, the owner of the Bear Mountain Bridge Motel, who came to pick us up. Like Jim at Lake Lodging, he washed our clothes and tomorrow he¢ll take us back to the trail.The rain that was supposed to start at noon, and later at 4 p.m., finally started at about 8 PM and we are very happy to be under a solid roof, clean and well fed!