Date: 2012-07-04
From: William Brien Memorial Shelter

To: West Point, NY
Miles today: 9.4

This morning we were planning on waking up at 5:00am but it started to rain last night and it was still raining this morning so we did not get up until 6:00am. Also last night four more hikers¢ showed up at the shelter at around 10:00pm. Everyone waited for the rain to stopped before getting up. Today we had a little over nine miles to do but there were two mountains between us and town. The first mountain was not too bad but the second one, Bear Mountain, was a little harder. There were a lot of steps all the way up and then the sun came out and we were in the direct sun light almost the entire way up. There were also a lot of day hikers because it is a very popular hike being so close to New York City plus it was July 4th! We finally got to the top and there was a little state park there but it did not have any water and we needed it badly so we decided to just buy four bottles of water at $2.00 each out of the vending machines. We were stopped several times by tourists wondering if we were thru hikers and they asked us all the usual questions. We even had our pictures taken by a few of them. There was a tower on top of the mountain and from the top we could see the New York City skyline, the Hudson River and some of the mountains we had climbed over in the last few days.We continued on down the other side and saw that the trail was packed with day hikers. Luckily the trail was very well maintained so it was wide enough for everyone to pass by. There were a lot of steps going down the mountain, just like the other side, so we made it down in no time. When we got down to the bottom, the park was very crowded with tons of people having picnics. I felt very uneasy being in such a crowded area and we had to zigzag in and around all the picnickers so we got out of there as fast as we could. Soon we got to the other end and went under a road to a zoo that the trail went through. We got in for free because we were thru hikers but it was very small and the animals were about the same as the ones we¢ve been seeing the whole trip. We once again got stopped by some tourists and had our pictures taken with a few of them...it was like we were one of the attractions at the zoo!!Once we got to the other end of the zoo, we called Big Sky¢s mom to see if she could pick us up and she said it would be easier if we just walked into town and meet her there because the roads were all jammed pack with cars. So we headed into town and called her from town but she ended up getting a motel room in West Point NY the next town over because the ones in Fort Montgomery were all full. When we called her, there was a parade going on out in front of the motel she was at so still couldn¢t get out to get us. We decided to get a taxi to take us to West Point and he dropped us off as close as he could to the motel. We got to the motel where Big Sky's mom was waiting for us. Big Sky and her mom were very happy to see each other after four months.We headed into the nice cool motel room and each chugged down a Gatorade that her mom had picked up for us. I was able to watch the remainder of the parade in front of the motel while Big Sky and her mom were catching up on everything that had happened over the last four months. We both got cleaned up then headed into town to wash our smelly clothes and to grab a bite to eat. I asked around and apparently there was going to be a fire work show tonight in town so we were stoked about that because for the last two nights we could hear them off in the distance but could not see them. We finished our laundry and did our resupply to get us out of New York and into Connecticut then headed back to the motel. It got dark out and a thunder storm rolled in just as they started the fireworks but the storm missed us so they continued on. It was cool watching a thunderstorm and fireworks at the same time but I was not very impressed with the fireworks. I expected a little bit more out of a military town like this one. Once the fireworks were over we headed to bed, tomorrow we are going to try and do 18 miles to a state park but the third heat wave in a row is heading in tomorrow so we will see what we can do...night all.