Date: 2009-07-11
From: East Side of the Hudson River, Bear Mtn Bridge, NY

To: Graymoor Friary, NY
Miles today: 6.3

Cell GoodOG notesI said I would describe today's hike and compare it to my memory. Well there was only one hill that was harder then I remembered, the rest was as expected. The trail surface was not as rocky as we had been hiking on the last few days. Thank goodness for that.At one point, as we came out of the woods, we saw a huge colorful balloon in the parking lot of a new convenience store. The last time I was there it was an abandoned gas station. The reason for the fanfare was to celebrate their Grand Opening. But wait, it's been open quite a while; I think the woman at the counter said 9 months. She said they wanted to do the grand opening celebration in the summer and not last fall. The station sells Shell gasoline. With that, the number 29 show car was on display. That's the NASCAR car that Shell sponsors. There was a Mountain Dew display giving away free ice cold soda. They also had a blow up thing that kids jump like they're on a trampoline. Then to top it off they were selling hot dogs for 25 cents each, a cheap meal.Our day started by hiking from the Fort Montgomery to Bear Mountain Bridge. We discovered a new visitors center right near the bridge. It had a very nice display inside and I actually learned that there were two forts there during the revolutionary war. One fort was Fort Montgomery and the other was Fort Clinton. Sometimes you learn things by accident. C6 and I want to take part in trail maintenance next year. We want to try to help on the crew making the stairs on Bear Mountain. While we are in the area I would like to revisit the Fort Montgomery visitors center. I know C6 and I sometimes say the same things in our entries. She usually writes first, I read her entry and then I write. Some days I try not to repeat what she wrote and steal her thunder.Speaking of thunder we expect to get hit by a thunder storm tonight. We are safe and sound in our tent now. We should have an uneventful night. So with that I'll say goodnight.   C6 notesAnother fun day! The weather prediction for tonight calls for thunderstorms starting later this evening and going through the night. Then it's supposed to be decent until the end of this week. With that prediction, we decided to not rush out early this morning, and do a short day so we could sleep under a pavillion at the Graymoor Friary. As I write this it's raining, so we're glad we made that decision. There are two pavillions hikers can stay under. The upper pavillion (by the picnic tables) is very large and a note says it will stay dryer if it rains. It's large enough for us to set up our tent under the roof. Right now there are only 4 of us here - OG, me, Seeker, and Nest. Seeker and Nest are nice folks. We've been enjoying their company. Nest wandered around the Friary grounds a short while ago and said there are some other hikers in the lower pavillion now. He didn't go talk to them, so they'll probably stay there unless they read the sign I did about this! shelter being more dry. There are some holes in the roof of this pavillion, however, so we have to be careful where we set up. That's one of the reasons we set up our tent - added protection from rain.A real fun thing that happened today is that we decided to stop at a market that's on the AT to grab a sandwich for lunch and found they were having a grand opening celebration. Free Mountain Dew and hot dogs for 25 cents each! And, to top it off, guess who was there?! Elmo!! And SpongeBob Square Pants!! Our grandson, Tyler, loves Elmo, so we made sure we had our picture taken with Elmo!! Thanks, Ray, for being our photographer. We enjoyed meeting you and talking about our hike.The man in the Ft Montgomery Post Office is so nice! He had our box with him this morning, as promised. We didn't get there until about 9am. We were originally intending to hike about 17 miles today, but right after we got our box we discovered we only had put 2 days' food in the box. It was supposed to be 3 days...we aren't sure why we only put 2 day's of food in it. It will work out just fine, however, because OG knows of places where we can buy food over the next few days. On the spur of the moment we decided to only hike to the Graymoor Friary to line us up with the places to buy food. It's so nice to be able to be so flexible!! It's been a real good day!!Old Goat & Check Six