T+25 The technical difficulties blog post

​Apologies for the gap in posts. This one has been a particularly annoying one to put together. Without belaboring things too much the problem is that the hosting domain’s builder interface can be laggy and glitchy in the best of times. When there is a bunch of images or poor internet connection, this is exacerbated. When you have both conditions, it becomes impossible to complete the task of assembling a post.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s my recap of Bear Mountain day!

​
____________________________________
T+25 (June 23, 2020)

Navigation Report:
Start Point: West Mountain Shelter (mile 1399.9)
Destination: Hemlock Springs Campground (mile 1408.8)

Travel Log:
10:40 Break Camp
11:00 Rejoin AT (mile 1399.9)
11:05 West Mountain Ridge begins (mile 1400.1)
12:05 Seven Lakes Drive (mile 1401.7)
12:20 Perkins Memorial Drive (mile 1402.3)
12:45 View (mile 1402.7)
12:55 View (mile 1403.1)
1:15-1:45 Bear Mountain (mile 1404.0)
2:20 View (mile 1405.1)
340 US Route 9 (mile 1406.0)
3:30 Bear Mountain Bridge Motel (Fort Montgomery)

Daily Mileage = 6.1
Total Mileage = 251.8

Commander’s Report:
The day started bright and early with a beautiful red sun rise. I hadn't planned on catching the sun rise, but nature called at just the right time.

Tequila sunrise

​After breakfast and some early morning tasks were completed I was off. Man did the walk back to the AT seem to take 10x longer than the same walk did yesterday! The shelter is great - BUT it's about a light year from the trail.

After the junction, the AT more or less follows a ledge and has a whole series of view points along it. I'm just going to dump a bunch of pics here from that.

​This first one is of Bear Mountain, "the highest point in New York" as the guy who co inhabited the shelter said yesterday. Of course I had to correct him. 1200+ feet tall doesn't hold a candle to most of the mountains in the Adirondacks! It just happens to be the tallest mountain that the AT goes over in NY. But even that is really meaningless as the highest point on the AT in NY is actually Prospect Rock, just after you cross the NY/NJ border. He was so full of reeking BS, I couldn't talk to the guy! (Did you know that Atlanta has aggressive beers? Me neither. Well he told me he was missing the bears back home and when asked told me that he was from Atlanta. He's actually from Dalton 90 miles away on the GA/TN border. Ugh!)

Bear Mountain, as seen from West Mountain.

​Ok, that's the end of the pics from West Mountain. I had to traverse the 2 miles between mountains For more picture worthy content. The first views are from an opening in the trees at mile 1402.7.

​Literally right around the corner is another view point. This one is a large rocky outcropping (with boulder on it) and for my money this location had the best views of the day.

This spot also had a whimsical looking bench made of tree branches and dedicated to a former Forest Ranger. Had I known that this place easily beats the summit of Bear Mountain, I would have lingered here a bit longer.

Just around the corner from that viewpoint, is another with a nice view of the Hudson. I couldn’t decide which picture I prefer more (the second one?), so you get them both.

​The summit of Bear Mountain was next up and there seemed to be about a million people here! I managed to get some pics taken without including too many people in them.

From there it was a relatively easy trek down the mountain and into Fort Montgomery. On the way, the trail passes Hessian Lake, which was particularly picturesque today.

​About a mile after the lake and I was at the traffic circle I was directed to wait at for pickup by the owner of Beer Mountain Bridge Motel. Crazy place, this circle. People definitely don’t know how to roundabout here!

​After checking in at the motel it was errand tire: laundry, shower, resupply, dinner, etc. I'm happy to report that I got most of this done this evening and won't have to worry tomorrow.