Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 53 – Bear Mountain trail closed
17th September 2023
Hemlock Springs Campsite (785.7) - Fingerboard Shelter (806.3)
Daily miles: 20.6
Total miles: 814.2
It was an ok night, the train went by a few times tooting it’s horn but I had my ear plugs in. It was another get up in the night to wee situation which I had already anticipated because I didn’t bother doing a pre bed wee.
Morning Cowboy Campers
We all tried to get up a bit earlier today because we wanted to get to the Bear Mountain Inn - the others to charge electronics and me to use the loo because I didn’t want to do a nature poo.
I left second after Lemonhope and then I caught up to him pretty quickly because my motivation to move fast was strong. I came out on to the road and it was a short walk to the bridge over the Hudson River. It looked beautiful this morning in the light of the sunrise. And the road wasn’t too busy.
I could also see the freight train chugging by which was the train which had been making the noise all night.
Road walking
Bear Mountain Bridge
The Hudson River
A great morning
Crossing the bridge
Over the bridge the trail goes through the zoo, but as it was so early the zoo was closed, so I went around the zoo and walked into Bear Mountain recreation area; so different to when I was here last time when it was absolutely chockablock with people but now it was deserted.
New York!
Trailside zoo - closed
I arrived at 8am and I went straight to the Bear Mountain Inn and found a bathroom. I only just made it. I ordered an egg, cheese and bacon croissant. Not because I really wanted it but because I felt like I had to order something. But I was actually glad I ate it because I had nothing but sweets and crisps in my pack.
Bear Mountain State Park
Vulture?
Bear Mountain Inn
Breakfast croissant
The others arrived and got coffee and we plugged in electronics for a while. At 9:30am we decided it was time to move on. The problem we had was that the trails were all closed within Bear Mountain, including the AT, and there was a road walk around it. We know some people have ignored the closures and hiked it anyway; I was happy to go with the will of the group. I had already been up to Bear Mountain so by doing a road walk I don’t feel like I’m missing anything, my instinct is also to do the road walk.
The thing is that the trail is very obviously closed, there are signs everywhere and there was a huge orange plastic barrier up. It was also really exposed so people could see you going through the closed section - and there were a bunch of rangers around; they would have definitely noticed 5 people trying to hop the orange barrier.
All hiking trails closed
So anyway, my thoughts on it aside, the group decided to road walk. So, after chatting to a ranger to make sure we were on the right path, we set off on the road walk around 10am. This is 2 miles uphill and it’s a road also favoured by cyclists and motorcyclists. The cyclists going up looked in pain. One guy in particular was going only just faster than our walking speed, he definitely would have benefited from a higher gear. The cyclists on their way down the hill looked like they were having a great time.
Alternate route
It was more uphill than it looks in this picture
The other end of the closure
It was only 2 miles on the road, which meant we cut off 3 miles of trail. Back on the AT May Queen stopped to pee and we carried on. We were looking for a blue blaze that supposedly took us to a point where it was safer to cross the interstate. We missed the turn completely and we ended up taking the trail which took us to the “more dangerous crossing”.
Hiker train
After a quick comparison of out Far Out maps we discovered they were all different. On my map the AT was a red line and the Alternate route was blue, on Pyro’s map the red and the blue parts were the other way round. Lemonhope had his in colour blind mode (not on purpose) so his line was yellow, and Toe didn’t even have a base map, she just had a red line on a black screen!!
We sat for a while under the shade of a tree to see if May Queen would make the same mistake, but a phone call to her confirmed she had taken the blue blaze. So we continued on and we crossed the interstate via a bridge with a sidewalk. Couldn’t have been safer.
The scrape on my leg is scabbing over
Crossing the interstate
The trail after the crossing got a bit steep and rocky and it was super hot too so that slowed me down and I caught up to everyone when there were down at the stream. There was supposed to be a view of Manhattan in the distance but I couldn’t see it. It might have been too hazy. When we caught up with May Queen she told us that she had crossed the interstate as a 4 lane road and it was sketchy!
It turns out we had purely by accident taken the correct trail and gone the right way even though we thought we went the wrong way.
The light through the trees
800 miles hiked
Views across the tree tops
We only had 6.6 miles left for the day and we knew our last water source was 3 miles before the shelter so we would have to load up, but then we saw there was a short side trail to a lake with a beach / toilets / outlets / vending machines / water and that was only a mile away from the shelter… so we decided to go there.
We hiked mostly together on the trail, and all walked the road. The others were going to swim but the beach was closed. We managed to find some outlets and use the bathroom then it started to rain so we went and sat under the shelter where the vending machines were. There were 3. One sold snacks. One sold soda. One sold overpriced ice cream. We all wanted a soda and that was the only machine not working.
It was all a bit sad.
Toilet stop
Out of order
Disappointment in the rain
If we stare at them maybe they will work
So we decided to just fill up on water and get to the shelter before the rain got any worse. We also decided to walk the road along the lake which ran parallel to the AT and then take a different side trail to get to the shelter.
The road walk was fine and I had amped up the side trail in my head to be really steep and bad so it was a pleasant surprise when it wasn’t bad at all.
An alternate walk along the river
Trying to beat the rain
Carrying the essentials
Didn’t beat the rain
We were there by 5:30pm which was super early for us! We were all excited to get there early but after about an hour we were wondering what to do! It was a bit early to go to bed.
A Lithuanian couple arrived just before it got dark and asked if there was room. We squashed up to make room for them. I don’t have a good position in the shelter. One side I have Toe who is an active sleeper and the other side I have Lemonhope whose sleeping mat smells so terrible!
Inside the shelter
It’s now 19:46 and I’m listening to a chorus of bugs and maybe frogs outside.
