Date: 2008-06-11
From: Stealth site by Lake Tiorati, NY

To: US 9W, Bear Mt. Circle, NY
Miles today: 13.1

Man, wild nite last nite. After it all passed, I don't think I moved all nite. It was 20 degrees cooler @ 64 degrees when my alarm went off @ 5:00 a.m.! Finally, it felt nice again. I was exhausted though, and had a really hard time waking up, so I didn't get up till almost 6:00 a.m.Today ended up containing the most unbelievable "coincidental" occurance of my entire hike. Just read..you'll see.I had 2 options today, hike all the way into town (Karen is driving up Thursday evening for the weekend and meeting me near Ft. Montgomery in Highland Falls), or hike 6 miles to a creek and camp\hang out all day. I was going to let the temps decide, but it did appear to be manageable again.I packed up, walked back down to the restrooms, filled my waters and called Karen to let her know I'd survived the nite. She was a little worried.I stepped off around 8:00 a.m. to gorgeous cool temps and sunshine. It is amazing to me how nature sustains through violent natural phenonmenon. I said goodbye to my deer family too, who were back eating acorns.It was very nice hiking for the first 5 miles. Some ups, but nothing major. I got to William Brien Memorial Shelter, and it's the cool stone shelter that is built so a giant rock wall (natural) is the back wall of the shelter. I liked it.Coming up were 3 climbs. First was Black Mt. Short but very steep in places. However, when I got to the top, I was SO excited! I saw, with my own 2 eyes, for the VERY first time in my life...the NYC skyline waaaay off in the hazy distance, and could pick out the Empire State Building (where King Kong lives right )!!! Wow...I don't know why, but I was in awe. NYC seems like another Hollywood creation to me because it's everywhere on TV, but I've never been there. So, I dropped my pack, sat on top of Black Mt., and ate lunch at 11:00 a.m. while staring @ the skyline.I wondered if anyone in the buildings I could see was looking out of a window @ me on the mountain (not that you could see "me.") It was a really special moment for me.I finished eating and headed down Black Mt., 1 down 2 to go. You have to cross over the split highway, Palisades Parkway. I saw a sign that said, NYC 34 miles; Lake Welch (where I swam yesterday) 3 miles.I got across 1 set of lanes and went into the dividing strip of trees where there was a trail register.Man, the things people write sometimes..makes me laugh so hard. This is a bit gross, so sorry, but you have to put it into context. You're out here in between 2 sets of HEAVILY traveled lanes of traffic, and you have to wait till it's safe to cross with cars coming @ you @ 75 mph. The register asks for your name, # in party, where you're from, where you're headed and finally a comments\suggestion section. Well someone wrote, "I have to poop so bad, I can't think of anything else!" LOL I mean, that is hilarious! You can't "just" do your biz anywhere out here, like on the side of a parkway, so I really felt for this guy, but died laughing @ the blunt honesty too. Of course someone else wrote, "Need more escalators, elevators, moving sidewalks, resaurants, and restrooms."I enjoyed the reading and finally made it across the 2nd set of lanes. I then arrived @ Beechy Bottom Creek, where I chose as a potential stopping place. It was beautiful, a nice creek, perfect hanging spots, but hey...it was a nice cool day and now only 7 more miles to town, so I decided to go the whole way.Now the next climb was grueling, steep, and despite the fact it was only .5 mile up, it was the hardest climb of the day for sure.On the way up, a group was coming down towards me. They are an older adult hiking group called the Wednesday Hikers (but one woman referred to the group as the Wednesday Crazies.) Nice people and the hike leader (when they find out I'm heading to Maine) opens his pack and hands me a 32 oz bottle of GATORADE!! Then, everyone else starts handing me food and snacks! It was so hilarious, I felt like some sort of queen being adorned with gifts. I thanked them a ton and was almost to the top of the mt., where I planned on eating my Bing Cherries, gorp, and gatorade.I got up there, opened the Gatorade and there was sort of solid mass floating on top. I thought, "What could this foreign object be?" I then realized..oh my gosh..IT'S ICE!! WOW!! He had obviously partially frozen this gatorade and it was the best damn bottle I'd had. THANKS WEDNESDAY HIKERS!While sitting there, Jinx from Iowa hiked by. I also saw a day hiker briefly, still north of me, but he disappeared somewhere.I headed on after my now second lunch, oh, and the hiking group told me I'd be @ the Bear Mt. Zoo probably in 1.5 hrs (it was still 5 miles away! No way would I be there that soon). I could see the tower on top of Bear Mt., which was my next and last climb of the day.I got going down this mountain and quickly caught up to the dayhiker. I could have passed him, but decided to talk instead and find out what he was about. So get this people, Rick's job for the past 20 years was climbing all of the cell and radio towers to perform repairs and maintenance (he's the guy who changes the light bulbs on top!) He said he's been on top of every building in NYC (including the World Trade Centers, where he was supposed to be ON 911 but they couldn't get access that day for some unknow reason!) But here's the amazing thing, last year he and 2 co-workers climbed a 225 ft tower and at the top of this thing he has a freakin heart attack!!! They hooked him to his buddy and rapelled down, he then had a triple by-pass and 30 days later open heart surgery where they patched up 2 holes in his heart where it had essentially exploded during the heart attack!! Can you believe that!? His chest bared the scars of all of this, so I knew he was ligit.It was great talking to him, and we got down to Lake Side Drive, around 2:00 p.m., and he had to walk down to a parking area to get his vehicle while I headed towards Bear Mt., and a 2 mile climb. I took Rick's pic and thanked him for sharing with me.So it was now that I figured would be a horrible climb. I have to be honest, it wasn't that bad. Part of the "climb" up Bear Mt. is walking next to the road that goes to the top, because you'd need climbing gear to make it up the rock face. It does eventually go back into the woods, and when you emerge on top, there's a large rock tower, benches, vending drink machine, but the restrooms\water were closed for renovation. Shaft...I was hoping to get water, but wouldn't pay $2.00 for a 20 oz bottle in the vending machine...what a rip.I walked towards the cliffs and met Rodney (from Westchester), his friend Debbie (from the Bronx), and another man Minhi (from Korea but living in NJ). Oh my gosh, YET AGAIN I connected with these wonderful people and enjoyed about a 45 minute long conversation with them. They hadn't heard of hiking quite like this and asked some really great questions about safety, wildlife, hitching, etc. Rodney rides a motorcycle and he drove his bike all the way to Florida IN THE RAIN! Now that seems more dangerous to me than what I'm doing. He's a pianist and had a wedding to play tonight. I didn't catch what Debbie or Minhi do, but in trail tradition, it sort of feels rude to ask you know. All I know is that talking with these 3 people absolutely energized me, it felt so great to meet such nice and wonderful folks. I wish I could gather up all of the great people I've met and move them all near me so I could hang out with them more. So to Minhi, Debbie (who had some cool tats),! and Rodney, it was a TRUE pleasure meeting you and thank you for the conversation!I walked over to the edge and could see the rock face of the last mountain I had climbed. I asked a kid to take my pic, and then he told me that some guy jumped off the Bear Mt. Bridge into the Hudson yesterday, because he'd just been sentenced to 20 yrs in prison for some money laundering thing. The cops can't find a body, so they think it may be a fake suicde! Do you all see why I'm chatty cathy out here? You find out the most interesting stuff!So I started the descent down Bear Mt., and it was only a small portion of road walking. I actually ran into another woman, she's 1 of the 4 women who make up "The 4 Sisters" (not really sisters) and they are thru-hikers. Kate somehow missed part of the trail and totally bypassed the summit of Bear Mt. somehow. She was trying to connect with her friends, but it was nice talking to her.Down and down and I started hearing oldies music like Rockin Robin and the such. It made the downhill sort of fun, ad when I got down, there was some sort of classic car show @ the Bear Mt. park. I hiked around the little lake and finally made it to te infamous zoo. Well, it was after 5 p.m., and the zoo is closed (I don't think I'm ready to see "native" animals in captivity just yet, so it was a blessing in disguise I was too late), so the Companion says to just hike down 9W to by-pass the zoo. I did actually go as far as I could, but the gates were locked. There's one great swimming pool there though!So I went back to 9W and headed in (what I hoped) was the right direction..no blazes on this "official" alternate route. It was cool seeing all these awesome classic cars driving by though.I finally got to the Bear Mt. Circle, a rotary and knew this was where I needed to try to hitch the 3 miles into Highland Falls, NY. Shoot, getting across the road at a rotary is tough. I finally got to the lane that headed to 9W, and decided to try a new tactic. I got $ out, and while (illegally) trying to hitchhike, I waved the $ so people would know I was willing to pay.I don't know what it is about hitching, but everytime I try, I can't stop laughing. I KNOW what the drivers are thinking when they see me, and I'm so NOT a transient or dangerous criminal on the run. Car after car passes me, and a guy on a motorcycle yells "I would if I had another helmet!"I'm standing there laughing, and this rotary is extremely busy with a few different major highways intersecting here. Tons of people drive it zooming by as fast as is allowable.So ok, the unbelievable "coincidence"...I'm standing there trying to hitch when I hear a horn. I turn around and see someone pulled over in a white truck. I run up there..and IT'S RICK!! The tower climber! People it is 6:00 p.m. now, we split and he went to his vehicle about 4 hrs prior while I hiked 4 more miles! He said he had gone up to a nearby town to get some lawnmower parts and was heading home, saw me, and realized it was the person he hiked with this afternoon, so he pulled over!! Ok, are you all understanding how miraculous this all is? A driver spends approximately 10 seconds or less driving around this rotary and continuuing on to their highway of choice. I just HAPPEN to be there during the 10 second time frame that a guy who I HAPPEN to meet on the trail and decided to talk to, was driving through, and he just HAPPEN to see me! If I hadn't stopped to talk to Rodney, Debbie and Minhi, if I didn't take that break on top of the mountain, if I actually got! up on time and left an hour earlier, (I could make a list 10 pages long), I would have missed either meeting or being seen by Rick @ this road. I'm speechless people!So I run over there, and he gave me a ride up 3 miles to the Econo Lodge of Highland Falls. I offered him some $, but he wouldn't accept it. Oh my gosh...this trail is AMAZING!! Unbelievable.Now I'm at the Econo Lodge (which I found out about thru someone listed in the Companion because they were booked solid) and Cathy, the extremely competent manager is SO awesome! She gave me a discounted rate for all the nites, and get this, I asked about laundry facilities. She goes "Well, we can't let you do it, but I can just have someone here throw your laundry in our machines." I was ecstatic and said I'd pay, and she said, "Oh, just give him a tip." Can this day get any better?i got checked in and Cathy gave me her desk book of local restaurant menus so I could order dinner. Oh, that horrible storm last nite came through here too and hit the cell tower (where's Rick?), knocked out the cable and the internet too. I'm telling you folks, that was a true electrical storm. No worries, there's also FREE local and long distance calls here! I'm going to tell her to get this place listed in the Companion. Even if I couldn't hitch, there is a taxi servce too.So I'm laying in a bed, clean, feet propped up on pillows, full stomach from a huge salad, fried calamari and stromboli, and am still trying to process the amazing events and people that I had the fortune of experiencing today.When you have a bad day on the trail, it's really bad; but when you have a good day on the trail, it can be outright miraculous.~Certain