09/22 - 9/28 New York and New Jersey Part I
Day 74
Wednesday September 22nd
Telephone Pioneers Shelter
731.5 - 744.4 = 12.9
Just when we think it can’t get any more humid it does! We wake up sweating! For the last few days while it’s been nice out, we’ve been able to sleep in our tent with the rainfly off, since there was no chance of rain. This allows for so much more air flow. Our streak of good weather is coming to an end though, with chances of rain for the foreseeable future. It would be nice if it cooled off and bit too. We have been carrying pants and extra layers of clothes for no reason!
Our first couple miles are especially humid and sweaty with some fog as we climb away from the Housatonic River. We enter New York and stop for our breakfast break at the first on trail shelter we’ve seen in a long time. It’s our first New York shelter too, and it’s a really old one. There’s a picnic bench though, and someone has brought in some local apples from their tree for the hikers. There are lots of neglected apples trees around these farm lands and it’s nice to see that someone has brought us some! I use two of them to make us some tasty peanut butter and apple wraps with raisins and walnuts.
The humidity dissipates a bit and the going gets a bit easier and we cruise through the next several miles in the Pawling Nature Reserve. We thought it would be a really nice forest since it’s a reserve and there are more trails running through it than just the AT, but there are a lot of blow downs and it’s all old farm fields that have grown back into a wild vine covered jungle forest. We make it the 10 or so miles to NY Route 22 by 1. That is probably record speed for us! Three miles down the road is the town of Pawling. There’s a Hannaford grocery store and a few restaurants, but no affordable accommodations, just a fancy B&B. We decide not to go into town. We hate hitchhiking and don’t want to try for a shuttle.
Right where the trail crosses the road there is a nursery where we are allowed to sit in a gazebo surrounded by the garden. They also sell cold premium fancy lady teas and some hiker snacks too. On the back of the building facing the train tracks, there is an outdoor shower. We are allowed to shower for free, so we buy some snacks and drinks to support their business. We haven’t had a shower since the Berkshire Lakeside Lodge and we’ve been so terribly sweaty every day that it feels wonderful. The garden center lady assures us no one ever goes back there and there are no customers around anyway. Collette and Dakota were there but has finished showering by the time we arrived. There is a small wooden trellis on one side for a little privacy. We go in with our clothes on to wash them too!
After we’re all clean and refreshed we walk just over half a mile down the road to Tony’s Deli. We get sandwiches, potato salad and a lemon poppy seed muffin to eat while we’re there. They make me a really delicious veggie sandwich with breaded eggplant on it. I didn’t have high hopes, so that was a pleasant surprise. We also buy more snacks, enough to get us another day to the next little store and deli. Like last nights store, they have a few surprise vegan health food snacks and some fresh fruits too. Clif bars are $3 each in the store and were the same price at the garden center. We’re sure paying a premium for carrying less food at a time. This is where Collette and Dakota get picked up by family to head to a wedding, so we say our goodbyes for now.
Our stops take us just two hours, but we are sluggish when we go back. We have another big gap in camping coming up, so we stop early at 5, after just 13 miles, instead of walking until after dark. On the way to a camp we pass a few interesting sights, a railroad stop right on the AT, the Great Swamp and the Dover oak. We have the campsite and shelter to ourselves until it gets dark and another hiker shows up. His trail name is Kruger (like Freddy Kruger) because he wears a fedora hat. He’s come over 20 miles all the way from Kent. We were going to sleep in the shelter if no one showed up, but since he did we set up our tent.
No views from 10 Mile Hill this morning, only fog in the Housatonic River Valley
Connecticut was very well maintained and signed
Another sign at the not so scenic state line
An impressive stone wall in the Pawling Nature Reserve
A train schedule posted in the woods, in case you want to go to NYC! Sure was tempting!
Native Garden Center on the highway just outside of Pawling. The trail crosses NY Route 22.
The shower out back which faces the train tracks
A fine oasis for resting in the garden center
Oooh a welcome sight for hikers, only 3/4 off trail on NY Route 22
A pleasant surprise, an eggplant sandwich!
Appalachian trail train stop! Only serviced on weekends.
Swamp River boardwalk
A rock that looks like it could be a whales head coming out of the water
View of farm fields in the valley surrounding Dover Road, and our upcoming ridge.
The Dover Oak, 300+ years old. It’s right on the side of Dover Road outside of Pawling.
View of the Dover Oak from the other side of the road
Nice shagbark hickory
Nice rocky spine on the way to the Telephone Pioneers Shelter
Cleaning up just before camp in a nice leaf littered stream
Another great example of how we never know anything about how shelters gets their name.
Day 75
Thursday September 23rd
RPH Shelter
744.4 - 761.2 = 16.8
It’s raining in the morning when we wake up. We are tempted to go back to sleep but we force ourselves awake and start packing up. It’s down to just a little sprinkle by the time we are out of the tent and we are able to take refuge in the shelter while we have breakfast. Kruger is still there too. He carries a Turkish coffee pot along with sugar and the special grounds! He offers us one but we decline. I feel like it is often hard to get going quickly when there is someone else to talk to, so we get a little bit of a late start at about 8:15.
The trees are wet and drippy but we don’t get too wet. Our first point of interest is Nuclear Lake, where there was once a plutonium research facility. The faculty blew up in the 70s but it was deemed safe at that time to route the AT through here. It a big lake surrounded by nice forest and should be a scenic and peaceful area, but it’s infested with mosquitos, so we run through. We cross NY 55 shortly after. This is another road leading to Pawling one way and to Poughquag the other way.
All day we walk through the forest. In the afternoon we come out of the woods and cross interstate 84 on a bridge. Just to the northwest we can see a highway rest area and we long for it’s flushing toilets, water fountains and vending machines. We continue on past a little neighborhood on Old Stormville Road. It’s always strange walking past houses and thinking about all the comforts and luxuries inside. We can’t help but wish there were more trail friendly houses. One house is for sale and we imagine opening a hostel. It would be very popular in this section that is sorely lacking in hiker accommodations.
Further on we reach NY Route 52 where we turn off to head for the next Deli. The Mountain Top Deli is just over half a mile down the road. We get more eggplant sandwiches and potato salad. We also get a green juice and applesauce to go with it. Visiting these delis is like treasure hunting, you never know what you will find! It is expensive convenience store prices but it’s nice not having to carry much and getting to have variety each day. We get some bars and cookies and mashed potatoes and ramen noodles to pack out.
It is cloudy all day and we get just a few passing showers but for the last couple miles we get a heavier storm. It’s never fun to hike in the rain, it makes it a little more challenging, but as always our umbrellas keep us dry and comfortable. Just before camp we cross one more highway, the Teconic State Parkway, which is a major thoroughfare between New York City and Albany. We make it to camp by 6:30 which is plenty early for us.
Today we saw so many chicken of the woods mushrooms. We brought some with us to camp and eat then with our first junk food ramen of the whole trip! Normally we eat only brown rice ramen, but the deli didn’t sell those! Our shelter for the night is called the RPH shelter and it’s on a plot of land in a neighborhood just below the highway. There’s a big grassy yard, an outhouse and a cement building that’s open on one side, like a lean to. Inside the building there are 3 wooden bunks and lots of reading material. There’s also an over hang with a picnic table. A trail Angel nearby keeps the place stocked with clean drinking water. It’s like we’re in our own little private hiker house. We are surrounded by trees though so we can’t see the highway and can just make out the lights of the neighbors houses.
We are joined by Kruger again and a girl who is section hiking just the New York section of the trail. They have both set up their tents inside by the time we arrive and take up most of the floor space. It is bad etiquette to set up your tent inside of a shelter if there are other people around. We end up each using a bunk, but it’s tricky for us because we have a shared double sleeping bag. We will sleep with just our liner sheets each and lots of clothing layers and hope it doesn’t get too cold. The weather forecast is calling for 1-2” of rain tonight, so like the last time we got a storm like this, we are so glad to be in a shelter.
A newt somehow found it’s way inside of our tent in the morning.
View from Cat Rocks
Biggest grouping of chicken of the woods we have seen. We didn’t pick any of them!
Maitake or Hen of the Woods mushroom
Snack break at a shelter right on the trail
Nice signage, we like seeing these ones with distances on them.
View ledge with views to the west
Hiking in the rain today
Interstate 84, the trail goes right over top of it on a road bridge at Grape Hollow Rd
A house for sale on Stormville Mountain Rd, right on the trail! Could it be the next hiker hostel??
A meadow with views to the north
A type of aster I think
Many stone walls today
Some nice art done by local children on display at the trailhead on NY Route 52
Mountain Top Market and Deli, about 3/4 of a mile of trail on NY Route 52
Many intersecting stone walls
Not a great water situation for hikers in most of New York
A farm to the East from a tiny viewing window
Lots of cool rock lichen at the top of Hosner Mountain, only 1026 feet elevation! Also some tricky and slow going terrain when we are trying to go fast to get to camp before dark!
A misty view to the west from the top
Approaching the Taconic State Parkway, the trail goes under it
Cool sign at the junction with the RPH Shelter
RPH Shelter
Privy at the RPH Shelter, even had toilet paper!
Day 76
Friday September 24th
Graymoor Spiritual Life Center
761.2 - 780 = 18.8
It storms heavy overnight and seems to go all night. I end up being pretty cold. I sleep with two sheet layers basically, our sleeping bag liners and I gave Jeff the sleeping bag. I wish we could have just slept side by side on the floor, if there was room!
We wake up to blue skies which is nice because that wasn’t in the forecast. We thought today would be stormy too, but I guess the storm gave everything it had overnight, while we were safe (and somewhat warm!) inside the cement cabin.
It’s pleasantly cool in the morning and for awhile there’s no mosquitos. We have a little climb up Shenandoah Mountain for a nice view long distance view that we couldn’t see clearly yesterday.
Mid morning we get a view from a ledge high above Canopus Lake. Down below is a state park and sandy beach. It’s so nice out, I long to lounge away the afternoon at the beach and swim. We are trying to go a long way today though, so we can get to Jeff’s parents by Saturday. There is so time for such leisures, so onward we march!
It is noticeably cooler and less humid all day, but by afternoon the mosquitos become active and don’t let up until dusk. They just above drive us nuts, making us go faster and walk with our head nets on. In the afternoon we have lots of road crossings and ups and downs on small mountains with few to no views. The climbs short but steep and rocky.
We make it 18.8 miles just as it’s getting dark. We reach our intended destination of the Graymoor Spiritual Life center, a center affiliated with the Franciscan friars. They let hikers camp in their baseball field. Why they have a field I don’t know. There are also picnic ground and a cemetery for the friars and many buildings up the hill that we won’t have time to see. There is a covered pavilion for us to use with power outlets, and a little shed with a shower inside and a sink with running water on the side of the shed. It’s everything a hiker dreams of! We wanted to take showers but by the time it’s dark it’s not appealing since there is no light in the shed and it will be too cold in the morning.
We run ourselves entirely out of food with dinner which is just one ramen noodle pack to share! We didn’t find any mushrooms today to bulk it up. We always stir in peanut butter though which adds calories and we have a couple snacks. We don’t suffer and it’s always nice to use up all the food before resupplying and that doesn’t happen often! We’re only about 3/4 of a mile from the next Deli, but there’s no way we’d go there tonight and come back to camp here! Kruger did though!!
Inside RPH Shelter in the morning, with the girl still sleeping in her massive 3 person tent! The other tent was taken down by the time I took this photo, but it took up most of the rest of the floor.
They even had tent pads and poles for stringing up hammocks at the RPH Shelter. Many AT hikers sleep in hammocks instead of tents.
View from from Shenandoah Mountain 1,274 feet
Views to the East from Shenandoah Mountain with some 9/11 graffiti
Canopus Lake. I longed to take an extensive break on the beach below that is park of the Canopus Lake State Park. We didn’t have time for big breaks today though! Trying to get to Bear Mountain Bridge by Saturday.
Telephone of the wind
Walking on some sort of elevated stone road near NY Route 301. It would be nice to know about some of the history surrounding the trail, but as always we know nothing.
Dennytown Road. The trail crosses the road and has a dumpster and a water spigot. There was also a nice grassy field and shade behind the trailhead sign. A hikers oasis!
A look at the forest today
View to the east of the rolling hill country from a ledge on Denning Hill.
Day 77
Saturday September 25th
Bear Mountain
780 - 789 = 9
We do well for ourselves this morning, we’re packed up and walking by 6:45. We’re on a mission to the deli! We slept inside of the picnic pavilion and we’re safe from the heavy dew, making packing up quick and painless.
It’s less than a mile to Appalachian Market, which is a Shell gas station with a convenience store and a deli inside, and it’s right on route 9 where the trail crosses the road. It’s a very welcome sight when we come out of the trees!
We see Skips and Blue are already there and must have camped right next to the noisy highway. We’ve seen them on and off since the Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains. They are another young couple, but we really haven’t talked to them much at all. They are leaving as we are arriving.
I get an eggplant and mushroom sandwich on a roll for breakfast with delicious side of pepper and onion potatoes and bananas too! We get apples and some bars to go! They have munk pack protein cookies which we love and we also get mint chocolate kind bars to try. They have Nature’s Bakery fig bars too, and we get apricot, a flavor we’ve never had! Kind bars are very common and easy to find, but we haven’t yet had any on the trail. We also don’t eat much trail mix. You’d think we’d be out here eating trail mix every day, but the only time we’ve had it is when I’ve found it in a hiker box. We leave the gas station full of excitement for the day and for our fantastic snacks. That was a great little store.
As soon as we are across the highway and back in the woods, we enter Hudson Highlands State park. Most of the trail through the park is just a ridgeline of oak trees, but we get the opportunity to take a side trail to Anthony’s nose, a rocky outcrop above the Hudson River. It’s only about a half mile and the views of the Hudson River are spectacular. It makes me sad to think of all the AT hikers that pass this up. I’d like to come back to this park on a less busy weekday and explore more of the trails. It’s Saturday, so there are oodles of laundry scented day hikers, but it’s always nice to see so many people out enjoying nature.
We come down off the ridge to cross highway 9D and walk the half mile over the Hudson River on Bear Mountain bridge. There are plenty of cars zooming by, but we have a sidewalk and a concrete barrier to protect us. It’s neat looking up river and down below from the bridge, definitely much better views than riding a car across the bridge.
Once across the bridge, we enter the trail side zoo. The walk on a wide paved walkway through forest and past small animal enclosures. We see a beaver, several kinds of birds, a couple bears, a porcupine, coyote and a few other animals. We come out of the zoo and enter another popular recreation area with a huge parking lot near Hessian Lake and the Bear Mountain Inn. There is also a carousel in the area, but the trail doesn’t go right past it.
We have been running all week to meet Jeff’s parents by Saturday and we’ve made it! They meet us in the parking lot in from of the Bear Mountain Inn and take our backpacks. We are also provided with cold sparkling waters and pretzels! Cans in hand we head up Bear Mountain like leisure walkers! There’s a road to the top of the mountain and it’s just 2 miles of trail but always nice to get a break from the backpacks. We’ve been dreaming of this day since before we started!
We walk up the 1000 stone steps like it’s a walk in the park. It feels easy! It’s a very busy day because of the weekend, but we always find it interesting to see tons of recreational enthusiasts. On the way up there are views of Hudson River and surrounding mountains and even New York City. The views from the top are even better!
We are done walking by 2 and Jeff’s parents are up at the top waiting to whisk us away from trail land. We go back to their house for showers and laundry. By 5 we are out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Blue Moon, a Mexican restaurant. We go there every time we visit New Jersey. I get veggie fajitas and Jeff gets black bean tacos. Our plates of food are enormous and are probably the largest volume of food we’ve had at once since before we started the trail.
After dinner we are tired and would love to go to bed, but we have errands to do. Jeff’s parent let us take one of their cars and we go to REI to get a few things and to Trader Joe’s for our food resupply. I ordered boxes of Vitacost food to the house, so we don’t need much. Going into Trader Joe’s is overwhelming. The store is jam packed with people and the shelves are ransacked. Upon returning to the house we lounge on the couches for awhile then get to bed by 10.
Picnic pavilion at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center. Kruger was inside when I took the photo.
Appalachian Market and Shell gas station on US Route 9, right on trail.
Trail crosses US Route 9 right in front of the market
Trail signage on the side trail to Anthony’s Nose in the Hudson Highlands State Park
View ledge on Anthony’s Nose
Looking to the West above the Hudson River
The Hudson River, Bear Mountain Bridge and Bear Mountain
A tug boat and barge passing under Bear Mountain Bridge
Crossing the Hudson River on Bear Mountain Bridge
Informational signs near the bridge
Walking across the bridge for a full half mile.
Looking up river from the bridge
Looking back at Anthony’s Nose
Informational signs on the other side of the bridge
And another
Hessian Lake on a busy Saturday
The trail up Bear Mountain was recently redone to include lots of impressive stone work, including 1000 stairs!
Information about trail work
A very nice set of stairs. Without our backpacks, this was a true walk in the park for us. I’d love to go back and spend more time.
View ledge on the way up Bear Mountain, looking South
Leisure walking up Bear Mountain
View towards the NYC skyline from the top
View of the surrounding hills
Crowds at the top, just a couple minutes walk from their cars at the top of Perkins Memorial Drive
Bear Mountain summit, 1,288 feet! Sadly the tower at the top hasn’t been open because of COVID, but I don’t think it would be very nice with so many people anyway.
Panorama from the top
Day 78
Sunday September 26th
West Mountain Shelter
789 - 793 = 4 miles
We sleep in until 7, having slept peacefully and deeply. It’s our first time in a bed in 10 days. We get to have fruits and yogurt for breakfast and matcha lattes. I spend most of the morning repacking food into individual portions for the trail. I ordered Bob’s Red Mill organic potato flakes and oatmeal, brown rice ramen noodles, dried veggies and dried refried bean flakes and some other hard to find health foods from Vitacost. I also ordered a protein drink to try called Ka’Chava. They’ve been marketing to us on Instagram and Facebook for years and we’ve finally caved. I don’t normally care for meal replacement protein drinks, but I don’t normally struggle to eat enough when I’m living at home vs in the forest!
By lunch time I’ve managed to finish the annoying tasks and Jeff and his Dad go to the deli down the street, La Strada, to get us all sandwiches. They come back with what turns out to be the best eggplant sandwich yet, with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, marinated eggplants and a few other veggies and balsamic dressing. After lunch, we pack a light load, leaving behind anything we can live without for a night because we plan to come back tomorrow.
In the afternoon, Jeff’s friend Kieran drives us back to the trail. Jeff knows him from when he used to work at Campmor and hasn’t seen him since 2012. He lives in Brooklyn and is nice enough to endure the traffic and come all the way to Jeff’s house to get us. We take scenic roads back to Harriman State Park, the Palisades Parkway, 7 Lakes Drive and finally Perkins Memorial Drive to the top of Bear Mountain. It’s a zoo at the top again, but we manage to get a parking spot right away. Kieran hikes a mile or so with us to some view ledges then heads back to the car and we continue down the trail. It was nice to finally meet him, I’ve been hearing about him for years. He was a really nice guy.
It’s another warm, sunny and breezy day. We couldn’t ask for better weather, and the mosquitos are conveniently absent. We have a leisurely 4 miles to camp. We hike down off Bear Mountain, crossing the Perkins Memorial Drive and the 7 Lakes Drive before climbing up to West Mountain. View ledges are ample and the forest is also more open than usual, so we have lots of nice viewing. We hike 1/2 a mile off the AT to reach the West Mountain shelter. From the shelter we can see the New York City skyline. It’s pretty amazing! We are pleasantly surprised that the shelter isn’t terribly crowded, so we decide to sleep inside. There are a few section hikers around who have set up tents in the woods and just one other SOBO through hiker in the shelter with us. Before bed we cook our dinner and watch the sunset and see the lights of the city come on. We fall asleep to the sounds of crickets and other other insects. It’s neat to be in nature with a view of one the biggest and most dense civilizations there is!
A combination of Trader Joe’s resupply and internet orders from Vitacost and Ka’Chava. It is always nice to have the healthier foods we like most, especially the refried bean flakes and dried veggies in the foil bags up top.
Back at Bear Mountain looking north
Looking West
Jeff and Kieran
Panorama view back to Bear Mountain and the Hudson River Valley from West Mountain Ridge
View of Bear Mountain from West Mountain Ridge in the late afternoon light
A nice big larch tree on West Mountain Ridge
Magnificent oak lands in the golden sunset light on the side trail to West Mountain Shelter
Getting to West Mountain Shelter just in time for sunset!
Beautiful view of the Hudson River and the NYC skyline right in front of the shelter.
Day 79
Monday September 27th
793 - 806.4 = 13.4
NY Route 17
We wake up to pink skies at sunrise and views of the city as soon as we open our eyes. We feel like day hiking leisure walkers all day with beautiful ridge top views on our walk through forests of oak and hickory. In the valley bottoms there are beech, birch and ash. It’s so nice to have a few really good days after over a week of running through the heat and bugs without showers, laundry or hostels to stay in. We make the 13 miles to route 17 around 5 and Jeff’s mom picks us up and brings us back to their house in Midland Park, New Jersey. We have a delicious homemade dinner of pasta primavera with so many veggies in it!
View when we opened our eyes this morning
Looking back at the Hudson River Valley and NYC skyline from Black Mountain, 1,181 feet.
Zoomed in photo of the skyline because it’s hard to see in the other photos, but it’s there!
Black Mountain, Harriman State Park
Some fine oak lands in Harriman State Park
View of the lush tree canopy
Breakfast on a view ledge, Silvermine Lake behind me. We are having our daily dose of oatmeal. We make it by boiling water in our jet boil and pouring the water over the oats in our silicone Stasher brand bags. They work quite well and have served us well for hundreds of trail meals. I am happiest when we have packs of oats we’ve prepared ourselves, rather than sugary instant oat packs.
William Brien Memorial Shelter, an old CCC construction
The beautiful bark of the grey birch, plentiful in this park
Fingerboard Shelter, also a CCC construction.
Sunlit hickory trees on a bedrock ridge above Lake Tiorati
So many nice park like woods in Harriman State Park! Such beautiful grasses and oaks!
Trail signage at the Lemon Squeezer a narrow crevasse through massive broken boulders. Some hikers have to take their backpacks off to fit through and some take the detour around it.
The the lemon squeezer, we fit with backpacks on
Looking back toward to opening in the rocks that becomes the lemon squeezer
A portrait of Jeff with his decorative chestnut oak leaves in front of a fine beech tree
The beech tree was so large and impressive that we had to take another photo of it! It’s a shame that so many people carve into these trees.
Stopping for a final snack break at Island Pond.
Trail signage for all of the sights of the AT through Harriman State Park.
Walking over top of the NY State Thruway, interstate 87, on the bridge of Arden Valley Road.
A nice roadside park entrance sign. We rarely get photos together! Jeff’s mom took this photo for us when she picked us up on the side of NY route 17.
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