Date: 2017-05-11
From: West Mountain Shelter

To: Bear Mountain State Park
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: broken clouds

Buzz was the first one up. He woke the rest of us so we could see the sunrise. Buzz and I went out of the shelter and took pictures. I went back to bed. The rest of the shelter saw the sunrise from their sleeping bags and went back to sleep. It was a beautiful spot to watch a sunrise.   As usual, we got a late start. The difference was today was our last day on the trail. None of us were in a hurry. We met some trail maintainers at the base of the "Stairway to Heaven", at the road crossing. "Stairway to Heaven" is a long rock stairway. It was beautiful and a cool temperature. Most of the stairway was in the shade. It was a marvel to the hard work of the trail maintainers. We came to a paved road that continued to go uphill. We were now in Bear Mountain State Park. Buzz buried every cigarette butt he found and also collected trash. There was a lot. It was a slow walk to the top. Once at the top, the trail went along the top and then headed to the Perkins Memorial Tower. Buzz said he was here before and went in the tower. The tower was closed and locked today. It was Thursday. Maybe the tower is only open on weekends??? As we got closer to the tower, there were more and more people. At the tower, there were multiple groups. We each purchased a soda from the vending machine, near the porta johns. It was very refreshing.    The trail from the tower was a little difficult to pick out. It was difficult to scan the area for a white blaze with so many people standing around. We found the trail. A group of 20 with many teenagers were going the same way. The trail was wide enough to be a road.     At the bottom, were kiosks describing how the rock steps were manually created. From here it was another challenge to find the white blazes. Actually the blazes went straight to the lake and then turned right, along the lake. After going along the lake a bit, the trail went past the Bear Mountain Inn. We dropped our packs at Buzz's vehicle.     When I was here last year, I was coming south. I came across the Bear Mountain Bridge and lost the white blazes. I missed the zoo last year. I wanted to see the zoo today. I later learned I needed to cross the road, BEFORE I got to the round about and TURN LEFT (backtrack) to a wall and then turn right, into the zoo. Last year, I crossed the road at the right spot but when I got to the wall, I thought I was in the wrong place. So I took the bypass trail. The bypass trail is for times when the zoo is closed.   Today, we had lunch and ice cream. Then we spent a few hours at the zoo. It was very nice, especially for free. This is where the AT started. The bears at the zoo were slow moving, basking in the sun. It was hard to believe these were the animals that so many stories are told. There were many other animals in natural habitats here. Best of all, there were flush toilets at the zoo. I was glad I was finally able to see the zoo. I came out of the zoo to the wall and then to the Bear Mountain Bridge. We did not cross the bridge, as I had done that last year.   At last, we finished viewing the zoo and piled into Buzz's vehicle. We drove to Tag Along's car at John Stempas' house in Pennsylvania, a few miles south of Delaware Water Gap. I was glad Buzz was driving. He was used to busy interstate New Jersey traffic. I was in trail mindset. The cars were going too fast and were overwhelming. When we crossed the Palisades Parkway, Tag Along wondered why all those cars were in a hurry. Now we were the people in a hurry.