Date: 2003-07-25
From: Fingerboard Shelter

To: Bear Mt. State Park
Miles today: 13.4

I awakened again this morning with a swollen foot, but it fit comfortably in my boot and off I went with Moon Shadow. Our goal was to get to the Bear Mt. P.O. before they closed at 4:45 so we left the shelter at 6:45am.I walked fairly comfortably, taking my time seems to really help my feet.Shortly after starting we were met by Rubberband Man who had slept down by the lake in Harriman State Park and scored major trail magic of food from a family just coming in from fishing. We walked with him for a short time and talked about how great the weather has been for us these past 3 weeks.Our 1st stop for the day was at Harriman State Park for water. I had given away a liter last night to Chicken Legs and C.C. so they didn't have to go any farther in search of it. The spring at the shelter was dry and the next water was at least a half mile away. After that day, it might as well have been 5 miles away.We sat at the park for an hour and drank as much water as we could before filling our bottles for the last time and heading back out the .3 miles of road walk to the trail.The trail treated us more gently today, probably feeling guilty for beating us to bloody pulps the two previous days.It got tougher in the afternoon, helped by the blazing sun and temps in the high 80s.We stopped for lunch at a rocky area in the shade with a view of the surrounding mountains and I took my boots off to give the dawgs a rest.I did the foot stretches that my brother had taught me the 2 previous weekends to keep my muscles and ligaments in tune and just enjoyed being off my feet.Moon Shadow and I took a break at the William Brien Memorial Shelter where we met up with Scubaman and Blink Blink, and Chicken Man and C.C. We chatted for a while then headed back to the trail.At one point we mastered crossing the most dangerous highway on the A.T., the Palisades Interstate Parkway. We crossed the 2 eastbound lanes, went through 50' of woods, then crossed the 2 westbound lanes. Yikes, that was the most stress I've had on the trail!After stopping for water at Beechy Bottom Brook, we started our toughest climb of the day, Bear Mountain. Up and over we went, and I, who don't like to sweat, broke my personal sweating record. While we hurried down the mountain, we met an orthopedic surgeon who says he is living vicariously through the hikers he meets every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday when he hikes the trail. He hurried along with us, asking questions as we went. At one point he was between me and Moon Shadow on the steep descent, so I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him a medical question. "Am I doing long term harm to my sore, abused feet", I asked. I told him that I didn't want to ruin my retirement by being unable to walk. "Well, it depends", he says. "Older ligaments don't heal as nicely as younger ones, but if you do a LOT of stretching every day, you should be ok". Thanks Doc. He also said that stress fractures in my feet probably wouldn't have shown up on the x-rays that I had taken in Pe! arisburg, I would need a bone scan for that. So I may have had stress fractures all along but just don't know it. That would really tick me off big time to find out that I've been hiking on broken feet for over 700 miles, telling myself to "toughen up" the whole time. Doc also said that it would do me a lot of god to take two days off regularly and do nothing but stretch and ice my feet. Oh how I wish!We made the Post office by 4pm, went through our food drops, chatting with Buttercup and Oreo who were doing the same thing, then I sent a few things ahead and a few things home.By this time the gate to the Trailside Museum and Zoo (which the trail runs right through) was locked. You are able to do a road walk on Rt. 9 around the zoo but we weren't comfortable with that, plus we wanted to see the animals.I went to the Ranger Station to find out if they would allow us to camp anywhere close by and was told with a smile, "We don't check the woods". So, I'm stealth camping in the woods above the Bear Mt. Inn where the rooms start at $99.00. We may not have a bathroom, but you can't beat the view!