Date: 2016-07-06
From: The Bronx, New York City

To: Denning Hill Ledge
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: thunderstorm

Marla fed us a delicious muesli breakfast and drove us back to the visitor center. Thanks again we appreciate everything Marla! We originally thought it was only 5 miles to the post office, which is only open 9-11am, and found out we actually had 7 miles to go and we were starting at 8:30am. We hiked as FAST as we could and it was brutal! I'd heard on the news that morning that New York is in a dangerous heat wave; temperatures in the 90s and humidity through the roof! "Get your exercise in early," they said, and " Stay hydrated and stay inside!" Well, how about I hike as fast as I can up and down mountains for a couple hours? When we realized we weren't going to make it (or maybe would have barely made it but it would have sucked and we might have passed out after), I called the post office and asked if they could either stay open just a little longer or even just leave the package outside for us. The guy was very nice and understanding and said he'd leave it out for us! I was shocked and SO relieved. We hiked Bear Mountain, a popular hiking spot for local New Yorkers, and thankfully, that means pretty wide, well-groomed paths (and New York definitely has a thing for stairs). At the top, we saw Sacagewea and met Toiling Midget (who knows Bombadil!) After hiking down with Sacagewea, it was time to search for the post office. Again, it was a ridiculously hot and sunny day, so ice cream was also necessary. I found the post office, after much confusion and searching, ate a delicious vending machine ice cream, and went through our food while figuring out how many days until the next post office stop (Kent, CT). I've also discovered a love of skittles. We found out that our comfortable plan of getting us to Kent on Sunday wasn't going to work because the post office is closed there on Sunday, and worse, it's only open until 12:30pm on Saturday! We had to reevaluate our plan, which mostly meant make our days bigger so that we could try to get to Kent by Saturday by 12:30. Man, bad post office luck!We then continued on the trail through the Bear Mountain Park but didn't get very far because we were distracted by concession stands. We both got black bean burgers that were SO worth it because they were very scrumptious. We then walked through the Bear Mountain zoo (the trail goes right through it) and it was actually really sad. We saw all these animals that we see in the woods all the time (porcupines, foxes, bears) except they were tired, super hot, and caged up. It made me really sad. (Cute snapping turtle from the zoo pictured above.) Crossing Bear Mountain bridge in the sweltering heat was not very fun, and going up the half mile hill out of the lowest elevation on the trail want very fun either. We dos run into Pigeon Toe though and he's quite the storyteller.We got further and further and I got more and more tired, and just when I was starting to get grumpy, we emerged from the woods and saw an Appalachian Deli right by the trail! We, of course, HAD to investigate. We went in with just the idea of getting water and maybe some fruit, but we ended up getting dinner there (veggie salads, tuna salad, potato salad, and a pint of Ben and jerrys Phish Food). YES! Even though we spent a little extra money today, I thoroughly enjoyed every cent. We were soon joined by Sacagewea, Other Brother, and Pigeon Toe. Verge and I went just a couple miles further to keep up with our plan to get to Kent by Saturday afternoon, though it was difficult to pass up the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, free tenting run by monks. Hiking was very happy with that delicious food in my belly. We found a beautiful ledge with a nice view and tented right nearby. Bugs have been awful lately. Ew! Goodnight!