monks and mosquitoes 6/28 I did breakfast, stopped at the water spigot down at the circle, and then headed back up the hill to the trail. It was a real easy walk over to William Brien shelter. This one was a Smoky Mountain reminder, all stone, dark and rather dank. ‘Hurdler’ and ‘Stormin’ were still there. ‘Stormin’ was going to take the blue blaze back to see if could find his tent poles. He thought he’d left them at the water faucet at the park. The climb up Black Mountain was a good work out and there was nice set of views along the ridge up on top. But then it was on down the other side and hold your breath while you crossed the Palisades Parkway. Another long climb followed up to West Mountain shelter. I didn’t take the side trail, it was to hot, humid, etc. I ended up taking a break just before we descended prior to climbing Bear Mountain. There was a nice view but it was a tad hazy. The climb up Bear wasn’t to bad and there was a bit of road walk thrown in on the way up. But just before you reached the top the trail took off thru the woods and rocks for one last time. When I finally reached the monument I was once again out of water, but thank god for the drinking fountains on top. ‘Hurdler’ and ‘Sammy’ showed up and we all drank about a gallon each. The soda machines kind of worked. I think you could put 50 cents in, push the button, hit the side of the machine and two sodas would come out. Both ‘Hurdler’ and I climbed the monument, what fools we were. There were several people up there and of course none of them would believe that we’d walked all the way from Georgia to Bear Mountain. After Bear Mountain, the mountain, it was all down hill to Bear Mountain, the Inn. I passed ‘Dogman’ who was on the way up. It seems that he’d almost caused the demise of his uncle. They’d hike on from Wildcat shelter to the next road crossing with his uncle stopping about every five minutes to rest, throw up, and rest some more. It wasn’t very pretty but at least he hadn’t died. I wandered around the inn until I could figure out where the trail went and then went inside for some coolness and stuff to eat. ‘No Sub’ and ‘Sunny P’ were still there so we sat and ate and talked a while. I’m not sure who can really afford to eat in these places. A hamburger, fries, and a coke were $7.00. But at least she filled my water bottle for free. I picked up my mail drop and sent the pole tips that had shown up there on home. I think this was one of the smallest post offices on the whole trip. I went on back to the inn, rested a bit, and then headed on. The zoo was neat although it seemed very strange to walk thru. I almost managed to get run over crossing the road just before Bear Mountain, the Bridge. The winds were howling as I crossed and I felt I was going to end up taking a dive into the river. The climb from the bridge up to the ridge line was very long and quite steep. It was at least a two stopper, but then it leveled off, all the way on over to Graymoor. I passed ‘Hurdler’ and ‘Sammy’ taking a break. It was a dog day afternoon to say the least. It was late afternoon when I finally reach the Friary. There was a horde of hikers at the baseball field and covered picnic area that the friars let us use. They’d even built an outdoors shower, cold, but very refreshing. ‘No Sub’, ‘Vice’, ‘Silver’, ‘Sunny P’, ‘Stormin Norman’, ‘Grayloxs’, and a German kid who’d just gotten off the train at Bear Mountain. ‘Silver’ needed a new pole tip and since I had several to spare I gave him one. We had a good dinner with lots of conversation but when dark arrived so did the mosquitoes. You couldn’t stand still for a second or they’d carry you away. I finally called it quits and hit the tent. ‘No Sub’ slept in the shelter, no tent. I think he must have drunk some Deet to keep the bugs at bay.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 02:45:02 +0000
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