1400 Miles and Counting

1,400 Miles!

Today, we didn't do any hiking. The storms that have been tearing through the Eastern half of the US finally caught up with us, and the weather was pretty horrible. So we opted not to take our chances in the thunderstorms and did laundry instead. I was actually glad for a rainy day. I think my sore hamstring needed the day of rest. Yesterday, we hiked about 8 miles. We started at the Trailside Zoo, which didn't open until 10:00am, so we got a later start than usual. But we said hello to our animal friends and then set out to cross the Hudson River. From the top of Bear Mountain, it was very easy to underestimate the size of the Hudson. Crossing the huge Bear Mountain Bridge, it's size was incredibly apparent. There was even a really neat historic toll house at one end of the bridge.

Trolls live here

After crossing the Hudson (which, interestingly, has suicide prevention signs posted right next to it's warnings about the local nesting perigrin falcons), we climbed the mountain on the other side of the river. Obviously, after having passed through the lowest point on the whole AT, we had to climb a huge hill on the other side. But we made it up and over, one step at a time, and finished our hike just outside the Greymoor Monastery. It was actually very neat. We had parked our car in a grassy patch outside the entrance to the monastery, where the AT crosses. When we leave our car at the Trail, we leave a sign in the window with our phone number in case of any problems. We actually got a phone call from one of the monks, asking if we were ok because our car had been there for several hours. It was a simple act of kindness that I truly appreciated. We stopped at a local market on the way back to the RV for some delicious homemade deli sandwiches. Overall a very satisfying day. Hard to believe we've hiked 1,400 miles. I feel nice and rested after our rain day, so it's back on the Trail in the morning.

See you on the far side of the river