Day 24 - Graymoor Pavilion

​Day 24 - Graymoor Pavilion #2

Starting location: 1777 parking lot 

Ending location: Graymoor Pavilion 

Mileage today: 11.2 miles 

Total Mileage: 165.7 miles

Today’s Photo

The story behind this photo ... 

Today we got up and going at around 5:45 am. Left for the trail around 7 and started hiking around 7:30 am. Beautiful morning. Cool and sunny. We started the day with a climb up Bear Mountain. We unfortunately didn’t see any bears but did see a deer. 

Bear mountain going up was pretty nice. Here was a stretch of 201 steps. Glad I had planed on it being leg day today! lol. 

Once we got on top of Bear Mountain, this is what all the trail should aspire to look like. This was prime Triple A graded trail. We were in heaven. We could look all around and not worry about tripping one bit! Heaven. It was like this all the way from the top to the bottom of the mountain. I couldn’t believe it. 

This was at the top of Bear Mountain. We got to go up and get 360 degree views. We could see NYC from here again. The boys were soWe then had to walk around this lake as a detour due to construction going on. It was a paved shaded road so I wasn’t complaining. Was able to snap this beautiful reflection of Bear Mountain in the lake. 

Also some turtles were out sunning themselves. 

Then I forgot that the AT actually hikes through a small free zoo! So we got to see beavers, owls, a falcon and some hawks. Unfortunately, the bear died last year so even in a zoo we haven’t gotten to see a bear yet. Unreal! lol. 

Then we got to hike across the mighty Hudson River.  It was pretty amazing too. Not as impressive bridge as the Brooklyn Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge though. 

That all happened in the first 6 miles of our hike. The last 6 miles were tough green tunne hiking over a couple mountains. Plus it got hot by then, so it was hard to stay motivated. I did bribe them with a drink at the Appalachian market at the end of our hike. The trail literally went through their parking lot. Talk about being customers to your doorstep! 

Again, we are staying at the pavilion. There are 9 of us hikers here tonight. Obviously  us three, plus 3 thru hikers (Tonto, BlueJay & Prophet). One section hiker and then 2 more rolled in after dark that we didn’t get to talk to. 

Well time for bed. 16.5 miler tomorrow with slack packs. So should be a fun day. 

Good night. 

Gandalf, Legolas & Bombadil.