Appalachian Trail Section hiking: Bear Mountain Inn

Day Twelve
Friday, October 7, 2016
Bear Mountain Inn to South Highlands Road
12.6 miles

Another slackpacking day. We called Highland Transit Taxi, listed in our Hikers Companion Book, and got a ride for $30 from South Highlands Road back to Bear Mountain Inn. Joe was a very accommodating taxi driver who wanted to learn all the A. T. parking spots in the area, so we called him for a ride each day for the rest of our trip. He slackpacked us all the way up to the Connecticut line. The name of their company has changed since the book was printed, the sign on his car was Alley’s Way Car Service.

We took off from Bear Mountain Inn following the blazes around the lake and towards the zoo. Unfortunately – although the trail goes right through the zoo – we knew it was too early for the zoo to be open and we would have to go around it. Missing the blue blaze for the trail, we went around the zoo to the right and followed the paved road downhill to the boat dock, although we could find NO white blazes or blue blazes for that matter, and knowing all the time that we were going AWAY from the Hudson River Bridge, but thinking that somehow the trail would wind back around and get to the bridge. Well, it didn’t. So we turned around and went back to the back entrance of the zoo, went around to the front of the zoo and retraced our steps until we found a sign directing us to follow the blue blazed trail when the zoo was closed. The trail went to the left toward the bridge, before you get to the front door of the zoo – just so you know if you ever need this information.

We finally got on the right trail and followed it through the woods a short distance before it came out at the Hudson River Bridge. Oh my! How exciting was this – we had watched youtube videos of others hiking across this bridge – now we are here ourselves. Unbelievable! The fog kept us from seeing the mountain top ahead of us where we should have seen Anthony’s Nose.

We went across on the right side of the bridge. When we got to the other side, we found that it would have been easier to cross the road if we had gone across the left side since that’s the side the trail was on. We had to cross two roads instead of one at a busy intersection before going up the hill into the woods.

It was a steep uphill to begin with, but overall a pretty easy day with only a couple of steep climbs. It was mostly through forested area and low profile. The weather started out cool and we started out with long sleeves but that didn’t last long. It probably hit the high 70’s with no breeze.

We finally did get to enter one of the New York deli’s during opening hours. The Appalachian Equities Shell Station is located at the U. S. 9/N. Y. 403 junction and is opened 24 hours. They have a couple of food counters where hungry hikers can be fed. We purchased a soda and sat at their outside picnic table for a short break.

At one of the overlooks, we came upon a man sunbathing without his shirt on. He scrambled to his feet, put on his shirt and told us we should be able to see New York from here. Upon looking though, he said, “I’m sorry, it’s not visible from here after all, it’s too hazy.” Huh – missed it again!

Upon reaching South Highlands Road, we went to eat at Cracker Barrel and booked a room at Hawthorn Suites for the night.

Day Eleven
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Tiorati Circle to Bear Mountain Inn
13.6 miles

By this time, we are three days behind our projected schedule, so any shuttles or lodging I had lined up was nil at this point. We called 446 Taxi Service (listed on the A. T. Conservancy Shuttle List) to meet us at Bear Mountain Inn and taxi us back to Tiorati Circle for $20.

We started hiking at about 8:30 a.m. and hiked until 4:30 p.m. We are slackpacking today for the first time so it is much easier on us. However, the terrain is also quite different. For the first time in New York, there were no boulder scrambles.

It was warm, beautiful weather, lots of good views and lots of dayhikers in this area enjoying a great day to be outdoors. In several places there were nice stone steps going up the mountain instead of the usual natural rocky terrain, especially around Bear Mountain. Someone has done a lot of hard work maintaining the trails.

As we approached Bear Mountain from the south, we could see a tower on the top with bear rock face around it. We eventually made our way to it. The trail goes right around the edge of the mountain and around the tower; however, we got sidetracked by a soda machine. Too bad. There were lots of people loitering around the rocky edifice at the southeastern edge. We meandered around drinking our soda and talking to an inquisitive man about the Appalachian Trail. Then we saw where the trail picked up again, and after finishing our drinks, we took off down the trail. We never did go to the overlook! It dawned on me later that that’s where the view of Manhattan would be. That’s what all those people were enjoying. Dang! We missed our only clear view of the Manhattan skyline!

The well maintained trail comes up behind the Bear Mountain Inn and Hessian Lake. A beautiful spot. After a pleasant day of hiking, we drove to Fishkill, New York and spent the night in the Quality Inn. But not before stopping at Cracker Barrel for a delicious home-cooked meal. I had no idea they had Cracker Barrels this far north. They even had grits from Georgia on the menu!