Bear Mountain

Since I'm so far behind, I decided to skip ahead and hopefully come back to what I missed as I can, otherwise it's a pretty overwhelming task to catch up now. 

Friday, June 19

Weather: cool, overcast morning

Miles travelled: 23-ish

Total miles on AT: 1405-ish (less than 800 left!)

I woke up to South Pole saying, "the bathroom's free". I rolled over and looked at my watch. 6:00. I'd been dreaming but the sudden wake up had made me forget the topic of my dream. I got up and dressed, packed my things, tore apart the sheets and pillowcase, and went downstairs. I was exhausted. I hadn't slept well, or enough, unable to fall asleep the night before. 

I greeted the crew groggily. "I can see who's not a morning person," Joe commented cheerily. I nodded my head. He made me an omelette with fresh eggs and sausage, and when we were all done eating and packing up he took us back to the trail, dropping us off and bidding us farewell with hugs and requests for postcards from Katahdin. 

I felt happy after the homestay, however groggy and tired I was. The trail in Bear Mountain goes right through a zoo so if you get there outside business hours you have to "blue blaze" and take the path that goes around the zoo instead of following the white blazes that go through the zoo. South Pole was intent on making it those 20 miles before 4:00, but I doubted I could so I quickly fell behind South Pole and Andreas. We went through the rock climb together, and the lemon squeezer (I barely fit), and then I didn't see them again until Bear Mountain.

The walk was pleasant. I felt good, and happy to be alone for the first time in what felt like weeks. I hummed to myself and looked around. At the first shelter I stopped for a snack and chatted with Typo, Peter Pan, and Mouse, three guys we have been seeing in the trail logs and only recently caught up to. They're of the wilder, louder, young types. That seems to be most of the people we meet nowadays, since we're more at the start of the bubble of northbound thru hikers. Lots more younger, rowdy, fast hikers, and fewer people that take their time. I must be one of the slowest hikers now, I just hike longer.

I left the shelter after about 15 minutes, expecting them to catch up quickly, but I didn't see them again. Five great miles later, I bumped into the next shelter. It took me by surprise because I thought it would be another half hour before I saw it. I sat for a snack and caught myself in conversation with Micro Gooch for half an hour. We were talking about how we'd been with our hiking partners so long and he said, "we should be hiking partners, Crafty! You'll rescue me from Blodje and I'll rescue you from South Pole!" I didn't want to tell him that I was sure about half an hour would be enough for me, so I just shrugged noncommitally and moved on. He was waiting three days for the post office to open on Monday in Bear Mountain, and there was no way I was waiting for that. 

A couple miles later was when I realized I was running out of water. It would take half an hour for water to sterilize using my drops so I thought I'd just wait 4 miles and get something from the vending machine on top of the mountain before descending to the town of Bear Mountain. This turned out to be a mistake. I had to ration my water and in turn became dehydrated and cranky. I began to glower at the stupid chipmunks. And the mosquitos. And the day hikers who smelled like soap and had soft beds. Why was I doing this anyway? Voluntary torture? I hated the stupid trail and its rocks and roots and ups and downs and the sun and trees... A weekender asked me if I was a thru hiker and where the next road was and then said good luck, and I was annoyed because if I make it to Katahdin it won't be because I've had good luck, it'll be because I've worked my butt off to get there.

I finally made it up the stupid mountain and cheered up immediately. There was a big parking lot and lots of people up there. I struck up a conversation with a couple from Florida and wasn't even annoyed when they asked if my parents were worried. I bought drinks from the vending machine and began my walk down the hill. There were lots of tourists taking pictures of the view but I didn't bother because it was actually a pretty mediocre view. As I passed two women, I heard one say to the other, "did you see the movie Wild?" I wanted to say to them, "yeah, this is what Reese Witherspoon smelled like on set." I was still pretty dehydrated so that made my mood swing again and I was mad at the people who drove their cars up here to look at this mediocre view and had never heard of the Appalachian Trail. I stomped my way angrily down the hill. It was past 4:30 already; I missed the zoo. Why did I wake up so early? Why am I not walking alone so I can sleep when I want to? I was angry with myself for spending so long with the same people and not hiking my own hike. 

Half a mile later, I passed a day hiker headed the other direction. "Come a long way?" he asked me. "From Georgia!" "Wow!" His eyes bugged. A moment later he said, "want some peppermints?" and pulled some out of his pocket, handing them to me. "Thanks!" We made the exchange and passed. A few moments later he yelled back at me, "good luck!" And I wasn't annoyed, I was elated, and I walked on air the rest of the way down the mountain, eating the candies I would never enjoy in any other situation. I said hello cheerfully to all the panting day hikers and soon was in Bear Mountain, sitting with South Pole, an exhausted Andreas, and Wookie, who took a zero waiting for friends. Andreas was grumpy and didn't even want to eat dinner, but we cajoled him into going up to the restaurant next to the grand room where they were having a high school prom. We were smelly and dirty and the prom goers had fresh round faces and ill-fitting suits and dresses. The waiters were very rude. Outside the restaurant we met another Mouse and Vulture, who we hadn't seen since the Greyson Highlands almost two months ago, so it was fun to chat with them, although they're taking a day off now. Apparently they've only been a day or so behind us this whole time. It's like a different world with everyone behind us because we have no idea what's going on back there.

We convinced Andreas to hike on and then left Wookie waiting for his friends. We went three miles, crossing the huge Hudson river and going up an awful steep ascent before thankfully getting to our campsite, where I am left to ponder if I want to go solo or not....