Hurray for Trudy the trail angel. We woke up this morning to the smell of warm waffles. Our laundry was dried, folded, stacked and ready for us to grab and go. We had a lively conversation around the breakfast table and then Trudy drove us from West Point back to the trail to drop us where we left off yesterday. What a wonderful gesture and wonderful person!
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| One of the many beautiful vistas on the AT |
First milestone of the day, we crossed the Hudson River over Bear Mountain Bridge. It was spectacular, a breathtaking panorama. We could see Fort Montgomery and Bear Mountain looming over us as we crossed. Unfortunately, on the other side of bridge, as is the case whenever you leave a town, we had to pay the price we always pay – climbing altitude to get back up the mountain ridge.
New York is an interesting place (aren’t all the stops on this journey?), it seems that as you reach many of the road crossings, if you pay close attention and you look left or right, you’ll probably see a deli! In our case, after hiking about 8 miles, we reached a road crossing at lunch time. There we found a gas station called the Appalachian Café and inside was a full deli that made hot and cold sandwiches. What a treat to be able to sit down to lunch at a picnic table and have a fresh hot chicken sandwich and a cold green tea!
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the typical highlights of this leg of the hike is visiting Graymoor Monastery, home of Franciscan Friars. The monastery has welcomed AT hikers for decades. In the past, you could stay in the rectory building and be treated to a sumptuous meal but nowadays, you are offered the ball field as a place to pitch your tent and a picnic pavilion where you can eat. Mr. Sunshine and I determined that visiting the monastery was going to take us a mile out of our way so we bypassed it. We also decided to skip the Trailside Wildlife Refuge since we got there at 9am and it didn’t open until 10. It is basically a petting zoo so no big deal. Plenty of other sites to see!
As we pushed deeper into the woods, the wind died and we became the target of every mosquito and black fly in the area. At the end of the day, we both looked like pin cushions and I think we’ll be eating dinner inside our tents to avoid the bugs.
Tonight we are camping at a State Park. At least this place has a potable water well down by the road. At our current rate, we hope to be in Connecticut in 3 days. The states are speeding by.
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