“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” -Ella Fitzgerald
November 23-
After what felt like an eternity, we got back out on the trail today for a short day with some more challenging ascents. We started on Rt 9D at mile 1409.8 and retraced the trail back North so that we could get to Anthony’s Nose. In the spring, when we were last on the AT, it was packed on the side of Route 9D. Today we were the only car there. As we climbed up, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and yet I quickly felt my thighs and calves start to burn and I was panting and out of breath. (It’s funny to me now re-reading this because I have trail amnesia and it’s rare that I remember something being terribly hard. Even in a few lines of a journal I go from oh it wasn’t terrible to I was winded and my legs ached immediately). It was about .75 miles north to the split for Anthony’s nose. There was still some snow on the ground, which was really cool to see since there hadn’t been any snow in Maryland when we left. It was pretty steep, leveled out for Anthony’s nose trail. “0.6 miles south of the AT on Camp Smith Trail is the rocky peak of Anthony’s Nose, a prominent peak 900 feet above the Hudson River.” (FarOut) Being on Anthony’s nose by ourselves was a treat. The views of the Hudson River, Bear Mountain and the little towns along the river were all a sight to take in. I gave a silent thank you to Ken’s friend Anthony, who passed away a few years ago, for his time on earth and friendship with Ken. As we walked around the rocky outcrop, we saw piles of painted rocks with memorials of fallen soldiers and officers. The space calls people to remember the people they’ve lost who have made differences in the world. The winds began to pick up and we got chilly , so we kept moving to get wind protection from the trees (as well as some privacy to pee).
The descent was familiar (it was the third time we had walked along that 0.75 mile). Since we tend to start “early,” as we were heading back south a few groups of people had parked along Route 9D and were beginning their treks. Being close to New York City, there are a lot of people who escape the city to get a day hike in. Last time on this particular section is when we saw a woman hiking in a skirt and heels, and two young teenage girls who made some kind of comment about how we looked. This time out on the trail, a young couple told us they liked our “tactical gear.” We crossed the Hudson River going over Bear Mountain Bridge. Signs along the bridge, and more information on the south side will tell you about the history. (You can read about its history here) The wind picked up on the water and it was chilly again. It seems like the fall had been so warm, up until we finally got our backpacking weekend and then suddenly it was really cold and there was snow in New York. After crossing the bridge, we got a little mixed up as to where to go, but eventually came to the gates of the zoo right at 10 when they opened. I mean you would have thought I planned to arrive just as it was opening, but I honestly forgot there was even a zoo to walk through. That was cool, lots of old stone buildings, some cannons and history about the importance of the Hudson Valley during the Revolutionary War. We saw a bobcat, a bear, fox, and a porcupine. The animals there were all rescued. The bobcat was raised as a housepet! Under some law, it was raised for its fur. The fox too, and a male fox who lost its leg in a leg trap. The bobcat was excited to see her head trainer/keeper and he told us about “husbandry” training – how they train to get animals to voluntarily step onto scales, brush up to the fences, and get into cages. (The actual name of this is “Trailside Museums and Zoo” and their winter hours are 10am – 4pm and if you arrive outside of those times, there is an alternative route for the AT hikers. Also, the zoo is the lowest elevation on the entire Appalachian Trail, at 160 feet)
After the zoo we walked along Hessian Lake next to Bear Mountain and saw what was to come, the 1,128 foot climb to the top of Bear Mountain. The trail takes you next to Bear Mountain Inn and it’s recreation areas, a place we’d like to bring the kids to this summer. The trail is really well maintained here – there are stairs laid into the ascent. The path curved around the mountain. I almost would have preferred a straight up because I thought we were at the top multiple times. But the stairs just kept going. The closer we got to the top, the deeper the snow became. As nearly every time, the juice was worth the squeeze. The snow-covered peak had spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline in the distance. The tower was closed, and we didn’t have any change for the binoculars, but the skyline was clear enough to the naked eye.
From there it was more rolling ridge walking, a descent but nothing significant. We ended pretty early in the day despite taking some time stopping and – well I guess the chill and wind at the view points kept us moving right along. I had dreaded the pendulum option we went with – up, down, up – but in the end it was nothing we couldn’t handle. Especially since we ended the day at the 1777 parking lot (mile 1404) for a total of 9 miles. I am so anxious to continue to chip away at trail miles that I wasn’t originally on board to only gain 6 more trail miles, but Anthony’s nose was worth it.
“Not having the best situation, but seeing the best in your situation is the key to happiness.” -Marie Forleo
November 24-
Today was tough for me. I had anticipated that because of the longer mileage (15.6 miles) we had in front of us. I tried to go to sleep as early as possible last night, but didn’t end up sleeping well. We began at 1777 parking and followed the trail back to the AT and made our first climb of the morning, roughly 600 feet. We got to a sign where we were detoured to avoid crossing the Palisades Parkway in Harriman State Park, so we followed the detour southbound- which is now the official AT trail, gladly missing playing human Frogger. Along the ridge of West Mountain we had almost a mile where we could view Bear Mountain several times, and see where we had come from the day before. There was still some snow on the ground, but several people heading northbound told us that they had come from where there was a lot of snow. We continued to chat pleasantly on the first descent of the day, but then came the second climb of the day, roughly 500 feet of a steep ascent to the top of Black Mountain. I said something to Ken about how I get a rush of serotonin whenever we summit after a tougher climb, and how it hits about the same time the wind comes whipping into our faces, unblocked by any trees. Ken’s response? “There is no serotonin left in my body by this point.” We walked along the ridge for a while, but after about 7 miles, smaller fluctuations of a few hundred feet felt tough. Ken’s shoes need to be replaced, they’re not so much water proof and his feet were wet and heavy. It was cold, there was more snow the further south we got, and more people too. We had boulder scrambling and technical climbing toward the end when we were exhausted. At mile 1390.1 we had “2 lumps then a climb up”to get to the slow descent back to the car (roughly 2 miles). We slowly made our way back to the car, humbled as always by our time on the Appalachian Trail, but happy to have pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones.
If you’ve read this far, I thank you. Putting myself out there isn’t always easy to do, but I hope that it might be worth something, to someone, at some point. I hope your 2025 is full of adventure, love, manageable challenges and nature.
-Liz