We’ve had few days on this journey with rain from start to finish, but with the 36 hour forecast showing 90% – 90% – 90% for precipitation, today looked to be a wet one. Lucky 10, Carver, and the Charons all decided to take a zero, but with Matt the manager’s offer to once again drop us off and pick us up, we decided to splurge and stay at his motel one more night. The rain did not seem as daunting with the ability to end the day with a hot shower, clean laundry, and a dry bed!

We started hiking in a steady soaking rain. On the four mile walk to the next shelter we passed several tents where it looked like Gumby and her posse had hurriedly set up as the rain arrived last night (and, to quote Clement Moore [whose 233rd birthday they observed just five days ago in nearby NYC], “not a creature was stirring…”). The shelter was an imposing stone affair from the outside, but from within, you could see daylight through several holes in the roof. Also, a solid rock face formed the back wall, which was leaking badly. Inside were Four Spoke and Tag who had stopped in to warm up, but were leaving as we walked in. We didn’t tarry either, moving on after eating a snack, and putting on our rain gear. We did take one picture there which in the rain we thought might be our only photo of the day.

If we hadn’t been afraid of water logging the phone, we would have pictures of Animal hunkered over his plastic bucket fixing a hot meal under his umbrella (Animal is trying to hike the trail for under $500. He famously carries a large five-gallon plastic bucket which allows him to buy food cheaply in bulk. It sounds terribly awkward, but in his $14 running shoes, he was poetry in motion gliding up and down the wet rocks today…) Now where were we? Oh yes, pictures we didn’t take: the non-view of the NY City skyline in the fog from the top of Black Mountain, and X getting sprayed by the 18-wheelers while waiting for her chance to cross the Palisades “take your life in your own hands” Parkway (with a sign “New York 34 miles” in the background).

The AT passes through the Trailside Museum (“the only zoo on the Appalachian Trail”) at Bear Mountain State Park, and the gates are open only from 10:00 to 4:30. When we realized, with the wet conditions, making that deadline would be a close call, we backed off and decided to stop for the day after only 13 miles.

As a result, the last four miles of the day were by far the most enjoyable. The rain finally let up for a while, and the stone steps up Bear Mountain were an amazing example of craftsmanship built to last the ages. The trail circled the mountain on the way up and we had good views back the way we had come. On top, we still couldn’t see NYC, but we did have clear views down to the Hudson River. The trail down from Bear Mountain has undergone much recent restoration and while the workmanship is not quite as good as New Deal era stone work we’ve seen, the stone stairs there are wide, level, and by all indications durable. We’re glad we ventured out in the elements today, but hope the rain will be gone by tomorrow…