I regret waking up as late as I did because the next post office (Bear Mountain post office) I was to go to today only had the hours from 9-11am. So instead of properly looking up the times like I could of to make those times, I decided to assume, which resulted in the burden my Mom dealt with the following day to forward the package upward. I do apologize for the inconvenience Mom.
1400!
Despite my lack of responsibility for the maildrop situation, today happened to be a very eventful day. Climbing Bear Mountain was quite the experience. The trail was probably the most maintained section of the trail thus far. There were literal steps for almost every incline and decline on the entire mountain. You know when you’re near a city when the people you wave to on the trail, look at you like you’re crazy. There were tons of people on the trail! I did not realize New York city was so close to this section of the trail. It was less than 30 miles away. A hiker friendly couple on the trail mentioned one could see the city lights from the mountain in the evening.
Another thing that took me by surprise was that the fact that the trail went right through the zoo there and if you arrived after closing time, you’d have to go around using a blue blazed trail. Determined to continue my perfect record of using only white blazed trails, I hustled to make sure I got there before its closing time, which I found out had been 4:30pm.
Veiw from Bear Mountain Bridge, crossing the Hudson River:
Met up with some fellow hikers at the Appalachian Market Deli and some really tasty pizza, which caught me off guard because this place was a gas station market. Can’t remember the guy’s name for the life of me (his trail name is a lord of the rings character), but while he was talking on the phone he picked two four leaf clovers. I odds of finding one are high. Two is just insane! We urged him to go buy a lottery ticket right then and there.
Anyway, I was very much tired so I called my parents to see if I could arrange a way I could stay with them for the night. A shower would be nice. Orginally, I was going to meet with them the next morning at a location I did not think I was going to make. They were still driving over at the time and my Dad suggested taking an Uber (took me off guard that my Dad knew what Uber was) there if I wanted to and check in so that’s what I did.
There was a chipotle was across the street!
Literally minutes after inhaling the burrito, had a nice long chat with a close friend. =)
Side note:
– People seem really smug in New York. It was very off putting. I guess you could say I had a mini culture shock. =P
