Day: 088
Date: Friday, 21 July 2023
Start: Fingerboard Shelter (AT Mile 1392.1)
Finish: Bear Mountain Bridge (AT Mile 1410.4)
Daily Kilometres: 26.1 (Ascent 2979', Descent 4085')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2357.5
Weather: Warm, humid and partly sunny with a thunderstorm in the morning and some rain in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Mars Bars
Dinner: Pulled pork melts, ice-cream.
Aches: Dave - very tired; Julie - nothing to report.
Highlight: We were very fortunate to be able to see the skyline of Manhattan, 40 miles away, from the top of Bear Mountain. The chances of seeing this are apparently diminishing as time goes by because of pollution and heat haze.
Lowlight: Our timing was poor packing up this morning. Knowing that thunderstorms and rain was forecast around dawn we woke at 4:45am to find it was still dry. We hurried to pack up but, just when we had everything out of the tent, it began to rain quite steadily. The tent and some of our gear got quite wet before we could pack everything.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We made an earlier than usual start in an effort to beat the forecast rain, but were unsuccessful (see above). We started hiking at about 5:30am in steady rain and very gloomy conditions, unhappy that we were already wet. It didn't take long for the rain to collect on the trail and create large puddles and occasional bogs.
Our progress was slow, partly because of rocks and trail made slippery by the rain and partly because Dave was still feeling tired from yesterday's tough hiking. We weren't sure exactly how far we had to hike to get to Bear Mountain Bridge and our booked motel today, because there were two trail detours marked and it was hard to determine how our navigation app was calculating distances, but we assumed we had between 15 and 18 miles to do.
Even after the rain had stopped and the trail had dried out there were rocks and climbs/descents, including some arduous rock-scrambling, that kept our pace slow. On the other hand it was very pleasant forest and the clearer air allowed some good views.
The first detour we encountered was a temporary re-route of the Appalachian Trail to avoid it crossing a busy divided highway. However, on the map the detour looked a little longer and also missed some of the good viewpoints, so we decided to hike the original AT. It probably took us longer than the detour because it included a much longer climb, but from the crest of the ridge we had excellent views to the west and to the east, where we could see the impressive Hudson River.
The second detour was because Bear Mountain State Park was hit hard by heavy rain and flooding in mid-July and many facilities, including trails, were badly damaged. The park is a very popular destination for New Yorkers, so having it closed to all but AT hikers at the height of summer is a big deal. The AT detour directed hikers down a closed park road, but our crowd-sourced navigation app said that the original AT route over Bear Mountain was still useable so we chose that route. The trail took us up and around the summit of Bear Mountain and we had great views along the way (see above). At the summit near the closed lookout tower there were some vending machines to cater to the many tourists who come to look at the views to NYC and along the Hudson River, but today there were just a few thru-hikers, all of whom we knew, buying much appreciated cold drinks and enjoying a chat and the unusually peaceful scene.
The trail down from the summit is an engineering achievement of which the Park is justly proud, so it was disheartening to see how much damage had been caused by the flash flooding. Huge rock steps had been washed away and boulders and debris had been dumped on the trail. It is going to be a long time and a lot of work before the trail is restored.
When we reached the base of the mountain, the vast picnic area and other attractions were deserted apart from squads of workers trying to get things back into shape for what's left of the summer.
Our motel was two miles away from where the trail reaches the Bear Mountain Bridge and we called the motel owner who was known to pickup thru-hikers who were staying there and give them a ride. However, this was complicated by the serious damage caused to a smaller road suspension bridge linking the Bear Mountain Bridge to towns and the western shore to the north. It was closed to vehicles, but pedestrians could use the path attached to the closed bridge to get to its northern end, which we did, before the motel owner could reach us with his car and pick us up. While crossing the bridge it started to rain, but we managed to get picked up before getting seriously wet.
Also staying at the motel is a thru-hiking French-Canadian couple we have got to know and we later enjoyed a very nice dinner with them at the BBQ restaurant across the road.
Day off tomorrow for us. We passed the 1400 mile mark today!
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