Date: 2003-07-10
From: Bear Mountain NY 155

To: Graymoor Friary 520
Miles today: 7.1

I slept in until almost 8:00 in a bed with cotton sheets and a real pillow. It was awesome. We got ready to leave the Academy Motel (we are near West Point) and called Ken. Guess what - no answer. Surprise, surprise, surprise! We watched a bit of Regis and Kelly and started walking. We passed The Bagel Cafe and I got the best carrot muffin I have ever had, grapefruit juice, and of course, a Mt. Dew. It is harder to find up north. We started walking again and went to a grocery store. It had two shelves of food and was useless, so we went to the mini mart which was a little less useless. Twilight zone!As we were leaving, it was starting to rain a little and this guy pulls up in a pickup truck with NJ plates. When he came out of the store I asked him if he would give us a ride to Bear Mountain and he did. We all had to ride up front because NY law doesn't allow you to have anyone in back. He dropped us off and we started walking through the Bear Mountain zoo which is part of the trail. Then Booble figured out we needed to go to the post office before we went through the zoo. We turned around and Sweet Ass stayed to use the phone and Booble and I took off. We went the wrong way, walked a long time, and finally asked someone and found it. The map was terrible, as is the location of this post office. It is fairly close to the trail though.When we got our packages, I found out my food drop had not arrived. Not good I thought. I still had some breakfast and dinners left over, found another dinner in my bounce box, and got a bunch of food from the hiker box including a jar of peanut butter and Ramen and a bunch of GORP which I am sick of, but I was in a bind. Booble got a bunch of stuff too. A trail angel we had met at Heaven Hill Market showed up and took us back to the trail head even though we were really close. Very nice man but I didn't get his name. We found Sweet Ass by the soda machines - no surprise there - and I called my sister about my maildrop, then we took off through the zoo again. The day was cloudy and cooler which made for nice hiking. Once we left the zoo, which was the worst zoo I had ever seen, we had to cross Bear Mountain bridge. It is about a quarter of a mile long over the Hudson River, very busy, and very loud. Nice view of the river though. The Hudson is an impressive body of water.After the bridge, we started climbing. We went from 180 feet to 700 feet in half a mile. The trail was good though and had lots of rock steps. The rest of our short hike today involved only one other climb from 460 feet to 900 feet, also on rocks part of the way. NY does not believe in switchbacks. The trail clubs here take you straight up the mountains and straight down them. Makes for a shorter more direct route I guess. We hiked the 7.1 miles to Graymoor Friary without getting derailed once! We wanted to get there by 4:30 so we could be in the headcount to eat at 5:30. The monks allow us to camp on their ball field where there is a concrete dugout/shelter, cold shower, mop sink with running water, port-a-john, picnic tables, and lots of flat grassy area to set up a tent! It is awesome! We made it by 4:17. When we got here, we saw Burn, Eric, Texas Jack, and some section hikers we met yesterday. Freemont showed up after dinner. At 4:30 one of the monks came and explained how dinner is organized and at 5:20 we walked up to the former monastery which is now a Spiritual Life Center. This is a five story building and the dining room is on the 5th floor. We had 14 hikers and one monk in a freight elevator. Only one of us had showered today. You guess which one.Dinner was served by homeless people who are working to make a better life for themselves. They were fantastic and so was the food - bbq chicken, fried rice, salad, and egg drop soup. Outstanding! The monk who talked with us earlier sat next to me and told me there are 20 monks living at Graymoor. He asked a lot of questions about the trail and was very interesting to talk to. After dinner he explained the history of the monastery and sent us on our way so the homeless people could clean up. Awesome, awesome meal. This was an unplanned stop for us, but I think every hiker should stop here no matter how few miles they do. Don't miss this dinner and this experience!After dinner I got caught up on my journal, we planned our day tomorrow, and the section hiker kids told us some corny jokes. Burn and I talked about Tucson since she has family there and it made me a bit homesick. She is from upstate NY and majored in political science and economics. She is interested in going into comunities where the economy is bad and helping bring in jobs to improve the community. She is very outgoing and I think she'd be great at it.Freemont is from Washington state and lives in an area of Seattle called Freemont. You get the connection. He is really funny and has lost over 50 pounds on the trail. He is the only hiker I've ever met who actually looks like he jumped in a pool at the end of his hiking day. He is that wet from sweating! I am in my tent escaping the bugs. I am not too tired tonight, but I think I will sleep just fine here. There is a certain calm and peace I feel here.Goodnight Oscar.