Date: 2016-07-04
From: Fingerboard Shelter

To: Stealth Campsite near Anthony's Nose
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: moderate rain

Jul 4, 2016 - I woke up at 3 in the morning to urinate as I do just about every night, but, tonight, I noticed that someone else had pitched their tent in our campsite after we had fallen asleep. I didn't think anything of it, but when I finally woke up, one look at the pack hanging on the nearby tree told me it was none other than Princess Peach. It had only taken him 3 days to catch us after taking 2 zeros at home. He had hiked 94 miles in 3 days to do it - that's a lot of hiking. We only had 16.7 miles from our campsite to Bear Mountain and the small town of Fort Montgomery, NY. However, I was completely wiped from yesterday. On top of that, the heat and the bugs sapped all of my motivation for the day's plans. One of my hobbies out here has been natural navigation or finding my way without map and compass. While I'm definitely improving, I, for the life of me, cannot tell direction (North, South, East, West) in the middle of the woods on a foggy day. However, while walking today, the light bulb turned on. All of the large rocks were clearly pointed in the same northeastern direction. The striations on top of the rocks also pointed in the northeastern direction. Furthermore, the south side of the rocks were far more jumbled and broken up than the north side. All of this indicates the rocks were formed by a glacier moving in the southwest direction. Now, I have a clear cut compass in the middle of the woods regardless of whether the sun is out. Fascinating. I stopped at the top of the mountain just south of Bear Mountain and took in the view of the Hudson River, the Bear Mountain Bridge and Bear Mountain before tackling the next few miles. On the other side of Bear Mountain, I descended into two zoos. The first was an annoyingly large group of tourists camped out for the holiday near Hessian Lake that clogged the trail near bottom of the mountain. I distinctly heard 3 foreigners whisper that I was a professional hiker...if only. I stopped and purchased a jumbo pickle on a stick from an Amish food stand before walking past the most disgusting pool I've ever seen (people were actually waiting in line to pay for access to this cesspool) and through the second zoo. The second zoo was actually a zoo. However, it was so sad seeing animals like foxes, bobcats and bears trapped in tiny enclosures with no room to run while idiots gawked at them. I walked quickly through this zoo as it made me a bit angry. The trail family waited on the south side of the bridge while Jingle, Peach, and Great P walked to Fort Montgomery for a resupply and some beer (and cider for Great P). My left butt cheek had started to disagree with my right butt cheek and the resultant chafing was rapidly becoming uncomfortable. Matt and Tom's give of my Gold Bond Friction Defense stick was a god send. We crossed the bridge with hot dogs and beer and stealth camped near the top of Anthony's Nose, which provided an absurdly beautiful view of the river and the bridge. Hot dogs, beers and a nice fire put a nice end to our holiday even though we didn't have the day off. We even stayed up until almost 11 pm...whoa.