Date: 2018-07-14
From: Lake Tiorati camp

To: Graymoor Spiritual Center 
Miles today: 19.4
Weather: clear sky

I had pizza for breakfast this morning and I think I¢ve discovered the perfect hiking food. It sustained me for the entire morning and into the early afternoon. The hike was pretty demanding and it was another hot day. The climb up Bear Mt crossed the 1400 mile marker and there were throngs of weekend hikers around the summit when I got up there. A vending machine provided a much needed Powerade and I checked out the panorama from atop the observation tower for a minute before deciding to book down to the park down below where concessions awaited. I cruised past a tour group that marveled at the novelty of a thru hiker and got a lot of strange looks from day walkers, probably wondering why I would need trekking poles for a paved path. It was an absolute crush of humanity when I reached the lake park at the base of the mountain, I¢m talking thousands of people. Every square inch of picnic ground was occupied by families bbqing and my head was spinning from the flurry of activity around me. I grabbed a Gatorade and corn dog at the concession and made quick work of that before walking on. The trail passes through the lakeside park before going through a public pool area that is free to thru hikers. I took one look down at the throng of screaming kids and just kept right on going. Next, the trail went through the bear Mt zoo which is a sad little place with animals that are injured and rehabilitating. I sat down near the bear exhibit (the low elevation point on the trail) to check my texts and see where ibex and chef were. Not getting an immediate response, I made the decision to hike on. It was too hot to stay down here and the crowd-weaving was giving me a bit of anxiety. The original plan for the evening was to hit a camp about 4 miles past the park but since it didn¢t have water and there was a roadside deli a couple miles further, that was a no brainer. I filled up my empty water bottle from the drinking fountain at the zoo and pressed on. The trail crossed a toll bridge over the Hudson River with really incredible views and then pitched steeply uphill on the other side of the gorge. I toiled up and stopped to take a drink. The water from the zoo tasted like an absolute swamp and I nearly gagged. I had less than a liter left in my other bottle, so I would have to ration that until I made the deli. The rest of the way wasn¢t so bad after I crested the ridge and I still hadn¢t heard from the others so I kept going. I got to the deli and took my time with a sandwich and a couple tall boy beers. There is a spiritual center less than a mile up the trail that allows tenting on their athletic field so I made my way there and set up just as it was getting dark. Heavy rain started at about 10pm and I discovered that my top seam was leaking a bit. I spent the next hour and a half holding my camp towel against the problem area while the rain came down in torrents. Will need to get some seam sealer soon because apparently we are in for more rainy weather in the days ahead. Just after I had fallen asleep, my phone started crazily buzzing with text messages from throughout the day. Chef and ibex had stopped at the earlier campsite and thought I had disappeared from the trail. I¢ll now be starting the day 6 miles ahead of them tomorrow so will have to see how we can reconnect.