Saturday, August 1 9:46 pm 17.9 mi
AT 1388.2 Island Pond → AT 1406.1 Stealth site by zoo
Weather: Hot and sunny
Trail Conditions: Tight quarters and tricky climbing at the Lemon Squeeze. Lots of vending machines today – 3 different opportunities for pop, candy, and ice cream, all of which I took advantage of. Extremely crowded at those parks, particularly Bear Mountain down to the inn and adjacent park/beach
My Condition: Woke up sore from tough climbs and descents yesterday, but loosened up quick once I got going. Probably had more miles in me, but slowed down for the trail family who were hurting, especially Blue whose shoes are shot. We’re stronger together and we’ll get one another through this!
Hit the 1400 mile mark today! Scratched and scraped my pack, and especially the water bottles, squeezing through the lemon squeeze. A day hiker, who had an easier time than me climbing up the rocks unburdened by a large pack, grabbed the top of my pack and helped pull me up, which I very much appreciated. Climbing isn’t easy with a full pack on! Ran into Shark Boy and Lava Girl again today slackpacking SOBO. Ate a chipwich and strawberry shortcake bar, and drank a Coke and lemonade, as I listened to park rangers again and again tell people the same thing – “you can’t park here. Move along.” I’m currently hearing someone with a siren and loudspeaker frustratedly repeating “We’re/roads (pronunciation unclear) closed turn around we’re/roads closed.” Maybe clearing out the park? Bear Mountain is beautiful, but WAY overcrowded and under-cared for. Trash cans and recycling bins overflowing. Garbage everywhere. Nauseatingly chaotic crowds and masses of people. Today I put on my mask, not so much to protect others from me, but more to protect myself from others because I felt unsafe among the crowds. Nice day hikers, who had their labradoodle follow me on Instagram, gave me a melted ice pop and 2 rice crispy treats after asking all about my hike. They asked if the trail went to the observation tower, and I made my favorite joke and said actually it goes all the way down to Georgia! True, but blows people’s minds.
Post Trail Analysis
This was definitely a weird day. I was completely flabbergasted by the crowds today. The peak of Bear Mountain was gross – trash piled up on top of, and around the bases of, all of the trash cans. Some of the trash cans were, in fact, empty – but there was already a pile going on top of it, so people had just continued to add to it. If I was blown away by the crowds and the mess atop Bear Mountain (and I was), I would be even more flummoxed at seeing the crowds and mess at the base of the mountain. It looked more like a musical festival, or a tailgating field on college gameday, and less like a trail town. Grills and coolers everywhere, bikers, skaters, roller bladers, sun bathers, football, frisbee, families, couples, dogs playing fetch, rc cars zipping past you...an overwhelming sea of people as far as the eye could see. I saw a trash can go up in flames as people dumped their grill in. The respectful among the crowd had bagged up their trash and left the bag near one of the cans, but many more people had gone the same route as up above and piled their garbage on top of the already overflowing can. Generally speaking, I felt quite safe on the trail, and did not find social distancing to be difficult in all but the most technical bits of terrain. Here, though, was the exception. Here, I put my mask on and kept it on!
Of all the states on trail, New York has, by far, the worst water. I love the taste of fresh water, spring or stream. Lots of times, I prefer the water I get ON trail to the stuff I can get in, or carry out of, town. The employees at the inn here were gracious enough to let me fill my bottles up inside. They had one of those fancy-smancy water bottle filling stations that you hold your bottle under. I was thinking how luxurious this was, sure that what I was about to drink would be some of the cleanest, best filtered water the whole way. I could not have been more wrong. It was, by far, the earthiest water I drank the entire trail, to put it nicely.
The trail officially passes through a zoo here in Bear Mountain, before crossing the bridge at the lowest elevation point all trail long. Unfortunately, the zoo maintains normal operating hours. Hummingbird is a purist and wanted to walk past every single white blaze on the trail. I don’t take shortcuts with the intention of cutting off distance or mileage, but I don’t consider myself a purist. If I take a path from the trail to a parking lot, I don’t see the need to backtrack to the exact point at the start of this path where I diverted from the AT, only to follow the trail 30 feet to where it meets up with another path from that same parking lot. I’m still walking every single step from Georgia to Maine, even if it’s slightly off the intended path. I was perfectly ok taking the blue blaze trail around the zoo and the inconvenience of operating hours, a little bummed to be missing the wildlife but otherwise ok with the decision, but it was more important for me to stick with my trail family. We spent the night tenting among the rocks near the zoo’s entrance, with easy access to the vending machines at the nearby swimming pool. We had a clear view of the Hudson River and its bridge. It was such a stark difference from our typical surroundings on the trail, but there was an undeniable beauty to our campsite this evening!
In addition to our campsite, there was also a lot to be remembered fondly about today. The vending machines were an absolute treat. Meeting Chewy the labradoodle and his family was incredible, and their kindness definitely made my day. The signage at the base of the mountain was informative and interesting – the section of Appalachian Trail in Bear Mountain is the oldest section there is, and the signage demonstrates all the nuts and bolts of trail crews and what goes into the building and maintenance of the trail. Really interesting stuff!
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