Date: 2016-06-18
From: West Mountain Shelter

To: Graymoor Spiritual Center
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: broken clouds

Day 4 - Woke up at 5am and we're elated to see the first sunrays reflecting off the buildings in downtown Manhattan way off in the distance!! We knew we had a longer miles today than the previous days, so we hit the trail at 6am.Interesting that the 0.5 miles walk back to the AT didn't seem near as far this morning. Once on the AT we followed a ridge with periodic views down into the valley below.One thing we have been wondering about ever since getting on the trail was what major construction excavation project was going on with a lot dynamiting.? Throughout each day we would hear periodic "booms", often one right after the other. Today we figured it out, it wasn't Dynamite, it was cannon fire!! No World War III has not started. We were only a few dozen miles from West Point and as we hiked closer today we could also hear small arms fire...not something we expect to hear hiking in the wilderness!!Soon after leaving the ridge we came to Bear Mountain. It was a 700 foot climb to the top and fairly steep. But the unique thing was, there were steps made of granite blocks built into the mountain. Engineered gravel paths connected each set of stairs...it was like climbing the stairs in a 100 story building. Good workout for the thigh muscles!Once at the top, we viewed the Perkins Tower, grabbed a couple of cold drinks from the vending machines and headed down the mountain. Construction of the engineered trail on this side of the mountain is not completed, so the first part was our old friend of steep, slow, rocky? descent. However when we hit the engineered portion we had steps and gravel trail. This side of the mountain, we also found hordes of people. This being a Saturday, lots of people were taking advantage of the Bear Mountain Recreation Area.At the bottom of the mountain is a lake, inn, BBQ areas etc... also a concession stand. That's where we had lunch. A cheese burger and fries is much better than jerky and dried fruit. We also filled up our water bottles from the bathroom taps?. All in all it was a 1.5 hour stop.Next we walked through a small zoo associated with the Recreation Area and with the hordes of people. Yes the AT goes through a zoo! Nothing was of any particular interest except the black bear exhibit. The black bears are bigger here vs the West Coast. We loved that the exhibit had a hammock which the bear crawled into.Somewhere in meandering through the zoo we passed the lowest point on the AT...124 feet?. After leaving the zoo, we hiked up on Bear Mountain Bridge and crossed the Hudson River...which is where the attached picture was taken.The problem with being at the lowest point is that everything is now up! So soon after crossing the Hudson River, we started to climb...steeply. The problem was that this particular stretch of the AT is also the way to Anthony's? Nose...a popular rock outcropping above the Hudson. So every 10 feet we sloggers had to step aside to let the gazelles without backpacks pass by. Needless to say, this slowed us down. We were happy to find out that when we reached the top, the people going to Anthony's Nose turned right but the AT went left. It was nice to leave the "zoo" in a couple of ways!!After several more ups and downs we arrived at the Appalachian Market. This is a convenience store extraordinaire with burgers, specialty sandwiches, made to order etc. We stopped here for dinner. This is the way we save weight in our pack¢¦ eat out when we can!!After dinner we had about a mile hike to the Graymoor Seminary, arriving at 7:25pm. They allow hikers to stay on their ball field where there are porta-potties, water, cold showers and, best of all, power outlets to recharge cellphones!!We talked to the other hikers then went to bed. This was our highest mileage so far for this hike.Major milestone: we passed the 1400 miles hike on the AT today.