Date: 2005-07-13
From: William Brien Memorial Shelter

To: Graymoor Friary
Miles today: 15.2

Ahh, a much needed day with a little less milage. Although we did hit a low point of the hike. Yes, the lowest point on the AT is in front of the bear cage at Bear Mountain Wildlife Center at 124 feet elevation.   Our whole objective was to hike 15 miles and get our mail drop box from the P.O. in Fort Montgomery and still make it to the Friary tonight by 4:30 PM for a 5:15 dinner. After yesterday's more challenging hike, we were wondering if this would be possible. Thankfully, things were easier today. Most climbs had views at the top. We again thought that the section was beautiful. At one point we crossed the Palisades Interstate Parkway and the milage by road at the point to New York City was only 34 miles. At several overlooks the city would have been visible. However, the haze from the humidity kept it just out of sight. In the morning we reached Bear Mountain and it's fire tower, which is also a type of museum with photos and descriptions you can view on your way up the stairs. On the way down the mountain, we saw a fawn (still spotted) that was not at all afraid of us. In fact, when we stopped, it approached us and then proceeded to lick the salf off of Hopeful's legs. It was very strange, but cool to be so close. We fear that it may have been abandoned by it's mother, but we hope not! Also, on the way down, Hopeful slipped and fell. She's OK, just a little scraped up, and was relieved to hear later that she wasn't the only hiker to have done the same things that day.    At the bottom of the mountain was a large recreation area which had a lake with paddleboats, ball fields, a huge pool, picnic areas, snack bars, and, of all things, a zoo. After a snack break, we followed the AT through the small zoo, which was serves as a wildlife refuge and rehabilitation center for plants and animals native to the area. It does make us appreciate even more the animals we've seen walking freely in the woods all the way from Georgia. Being so close to a metropolitan areas, there were lots of families and groups of kids around, who looked at us oddly with our big backpacks.    Just past the zoo, we went to the town of Fort Montgomery, just .8 off the trail. We made it in and out in a record time of less than an hour. This included picking up our package and repacking our backpacks with the fresh supplies. They always feel far too heavy again whenever we do this! Hats off to the Merril company which, you might remember, gave me a $100 gift certificate toward a pair of their shoes. After 550 miles these shoes were out and Merril replaced them for free. In addition to our mail drop, today I got the replacement pair.    Back on the trail, we crossed the Hudson River on a huge bridge and climbed back up on to the ridge. We cruised through most of the remaining six miles and made our 4:30 PM deadline for dinner reservations. Here at the Friary hikers set up camp near a pavillion by a soccer field. The campus is on the hill above. Friar Bob stopped by the pavillion to take a dinner head count and gave us instructions and told us when to join him for dinner. One of the ministries here is to provide job training for men going through drug and alcohol rehab. They cook us dinner and serve us at our own table. So, we were the grateful recipients of free food. Following dinner, Friar Bob gave us a tour of the buildings, including a couple of chapels and the courtyard area which has beautiful flowers. The most interesting things to me were the statues/culptures of St. Francis (one of the two was made from the his death mask) and the marble altar which is from the church in Italy where St. Francis served nearly 800 years ago. The friars here are Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, and we learned a lot more about what that means.   Tonight we're sitting in the pavillion watching some locals play a pick up soccer game. There's an cold shower available here, which felt great. Most of us have our tents set up. In Fort Montgomery today we finally caught up withSparkplug and Snowman! We hadn't seen them since Bear's Den Hostel, a month ago. Also, when we arrived at the Friary tonight, we were happy to see Thunder, another face we hadn't seen for a month or so.