Date: 2018-07-29
From: West Mountain View Campsite

To: Graymoor Spiritual Life Center
Miles today: 12.7

I woke up at 5:30 am and saw that the sun hadn't come up over the mountain yet. The sunrise was at 5:48 am. I hobbled out of the tent and walked over to the view to watch the sun come up. As the first rays of light shined out over the mountain I played The Lion King's circle of life song. The sun rose to meet the clouds and everything was bright orange. I hobbled back to my tent and got ready for the day. I made some oatmeal and coffee for breakfast and ate it at the view. I had my stuff sprawled out on the view as other hikers walked by. I got packed up and headed down the mountain.On the way down I stopped at a water source to get an extra liter of water. Spot stopped by and told me about camping at the spiritual life center. It had camping in a large ball field and had a shower and outlets. It was not too far ahead. He always stayed there on his past thru hikes. I trekked onto bear mountain. On the way up I ran into Magic, Big Red, and Gazelle. They were sitting on a fancy wooden bench admiring the view. I hiked on with them up the rest of the mountain. Bear mountain was covered with day hikers. It's a place where a lot of New Yorkers go for the weekend. It was the most people I had seen on the the trail. At the top there was a large lookout tower but it was closed. We hung out near the vending machines. A guy showed up with sodas and candy. Trail magic! We all chugged a soda and got hyped on sugar. We all headed down the mountain to the trailside museum and zoo. On the way to the zoo we passed hundreds of people grilling and eating BBQ. I now believe this is the hardest part of the trail. No one was feeding us. Luckily this time there was a concession stand and I got a Nathan's hot dog. We hung on a bench near the water and watched people paddle boat across the lake. I was getting excited for the pool and zoo.  We headed for the zoo. At the the entrance there was a large pool filled with tons of people. They allowed thru hikers up swim for free! They had signs on what you couldn't wear in the pool. Underwear was one of them. I decided to jump in with all my clothes. At least they would be semi clean! My first dip in was a cannon ball off diving board. It felt so good after hiking in hot humid heat. I imagined brown water coming off me but it didn't happen. Gazelle and Magic were diving off the diving board. Unfortunately flipping wasn't allowed. I sat in the sun trying to dry out a little. It didn't matter since it was so hot that my pants would eventually dry anyways. We headed out from the pool and checked out the zoo. The zoo featured animals and plant life that lived in the region. The reptile exhibit was interesting since it described how rattlesnakes choose snake dens. They usually had the same den for centuries. There were also two black bears at the zoo. Their cage was filled with turkey vultures. The bears didn't seem to care about the birds. I hiked out of the zoo. At the exit there was a huge suspension bridge over the Hudson river. It was built in 1924 and only took 20 months to complete. On the other side was a steep 700 foot climb. My motivation was an the Appalachian trail deli on the other side of the mountain. When I got to the top I ran into Stealth and Truck at the top. I thought Stealth was further ahead of me. He ended up staying at a spiritual life center where they fed you dinner and breakfast. He also managed to yogi some hamburgers at Tiorati lake yesterday which I couldn't manage. We hiked onto the deli.  At the Appalachian deli there were several packs there already. Tree Beard, Bear Box, Toast, Magic, Big Red, Gazelle, Fetch, and F Word were there. It was the place to be. Inside I ordered a hero size chicken BLT sandwich. Stealth decided to try four loco. I told him it was the drink of choice for underage kids in college who wanted to get drunk really fast. I ate at the picnic tables outside. Cosmic walked up and bought two huge sandwiches. She had been having a great 4 month trail anniversary today. Stealth gave her a deep tissue back massage to make the day even better. From the deli we headed over to The Graymoor Spiritual Life Center to camp. It was a monastery that allowed hikers to camp for free. It also had a Latin festival going on! As Cosmic and I hiked over to the monastery's ball field we saw several people leaving. The festival had ended. At the ball field there was still a few people packing up their food. It all looked amazing and I wished I had gotten here earlier. There were about 20 hikers at the ball field hanging out. I setup my tent in the field. Some hikers were playing baseball with an axe handle and a tennis ball. They switched when someone found a football to throw. Stealth started working on a new prayer flag. He had materials to make about 30 of them. Cosmic gave me some shampoo and I took a cold shower. My body clenched up as the cold water hit my body. It was still worth it. Stealth told a few stories about the place he lived at in Hawaii. He told a story about a cow named Moony who gave birth to a cow coming out hooves first. She was in labor all night. Stealth had to help her by pulling the calf out of her body. Tree Beard had been reading a single chapter of The Hobbit each night. He didn't want to speak too loud since there were 20 people in camp. People started cramming into his two person tent. By the time I got to the tent 5 people were in there. Stealth and I crammed in. We were all huddled together while Tree Beard read a chapter from the Hobbit. He made different voices for each character. Gandalf had a french accent. Beorn was Scottish. I tried to stay in the tent as long as I could but my legs started cramping up. I walked back over to my tent and listened from there. He finished up the chapter and I was finished for the night.Tonight I'm camped together with several of my hiking friends.