Date: 2014-08-23
From: Pawling, NY

To: Bear Mountain/Fort Montgomery, NY
Miles today: 47.3
Weather: broken clouds

Yes! I am still on trail and loving every minute! Sorry for the gap in updates. I have been out living the dream! Updating my trail journal does not always make it to the top of the list when in town, assuming there is even a computer available to me in town. Some of small town America is so small that there aren't libraries or if they do have a library don't always have hours conducive to my schedule. I'll try to get as much updated as possible right now.In Pawling I stayed the night in the Edward R. Murrow Park. The town lets hikers stay in the park pavilion at night. This turned out to be a great spot. There were electrical sockets to charge devices, flush toilets, picnic tables, and a pavilion to sleep under so that my tent didn't get rained on. What more can I ask for? The next morning I headed out to meet up with Knives and Unplugged at Ralph's Peak Hiker shelter. RPH is a special shelter. It sits smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood and used to actually be someone's home. Because of this feature hikers can order pizza to be delivered right to the shelter. How great is that? While hiking during the day we had extensive discussions about the number of pizzas needed to satisfy our hiker hunger and what toppings to get on each pizza. Our mouths were watering, and eventually the subject had to be changed before we went insane. That night though, the hot, melty deliciousness completely hit the spot. And what goes great with pizza? That's right. Booze. I had packed out a couple of bottles in anticipation of this day. The three of us polished off a bottle of Captain Morgan with our dinner. Glorious. It was one of my favorite days on the trail so far. From here there is a long stretch between places to stay. Knives, Unplugged, and I made a big 18.8 mile push to make it to the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, a Franciscan friary where hikers have been welcome to stay since the 1970s. They have a sweet little set up for us in the pavilion near the baseball field. There was even a shower! With dinner that night we finished off the bottle of Jim Beam I still had in my pack. No pizza this time, but tuna mac tastes almost as good when paired with booze. I had originally been planning to hunt down one of the friars in the morning to ask for someone to pray with me, but then Knives and Unplugged pointed out that the next day was a Saturday and the post office where my bounce box (and next section of my guidebook) was closed at noon. This meant getting up earlier than normal and hiking out to make sure I got there in time.   In Fort Montgomery I said happy trails to Knives and Unplugged who were meeting up with a friend who had driven up to see them. After finishing up at the post office I decided to take the trail less traveled. Instead of taking the road back to the trail I wandered through the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site and let my inner history buff come out. Fort Montgomery played a key roll in the Revolutionary War due to its location right on the Hudson River. The historic site has excavated chunks of the old fort with detailed signs explaining everything. My favorite was about the privy. The sign pondered how a fort of such size and so many soldiers could have only had one privy, yet this is all archeologists have found. From there I wandered through the Trailside Museum and Zoo, which the AT runs right through. It is basically a museum and zoo of flora and fauna found along the trail. No big thing for hikers who see this sort of thing everyday. What I think is neat about this is the chance for the general public to see it and interact with hikers in a non-threatening environment. It continues to amaze me that so many people react with fear to hikers or the great outdoors. I try very much to be an ambassador to those people and leave them with a better impression of hikers than they had before. Leaving the museum and zoo I had a shock to the system. I had read in my guidebook about the Bear Mountain Recreation Area, but I was not prepared for what awaited me. Looking back now I should have been more aware given that it was a gorgeous Saturday and that New York City was only about 25 miles away... I rounded a corner and was suddenly in a huge throng of people. People everywhere. Of every race, ethnicity, gender, manner of dress, tongue, etc. About 10,000 had converged into just a couple square miles. There were people paddling in boats, children on the playground, basketball games, and lets not forget about the cookouts. Every picnic table was taken over with dishes from all over the world. Music blared out from about 100 different stereos. Now on the trail, a crowd is a dozen people. This was incredibly overwhelming for me. I hadn't been around so many people for so long. At first I found it novel and sat on a bench people watching while polishing off a hot dog and cold beer from the concession stand. Then I started to get stimulus overload and had to get out of there. Off I headed up Bear Mountain. This was no help though as there were tons of people going up and down the mountain as well. There is a good view of the NYC skyline from the top and everyone wanted to get up to see it. A good uphill is something I love, but that day was frustrating since I had to keep pulling over every few feet to let someone pass. About 1/3 of the way up I heard a sound that surprised but definitely got me excited to keep going. That's right. It was a bagpiper. When I finally reached him he was about to pack up and head home. I successfully convinced him to play just one more song for me. It totally made my day. Only in NY! That night I stayed in the West Mountain shelter. It was a bit hard to find and there was no water source, but this shelter made up for it in another way. It has a spectacular view of the Hudson River and NYC! I was the only one in the shelter so turned my sleeping bag to face out lengthwise. As the sun set and the moon rose, the NYC skyline started to light up and twinkle. That was the last thing that I saw as I drifted off to sleep, the lights of the city that never sleeps.