NY AT Day 5 (4/24/25)

Right next to the Brien Shelter was a huge pile of rocks, or more accurately a huge pile of boulders. I had looked at it a few times, thinking that I was glad that I didn't have to climb it. That was dumb of me. I should have known that the AT always goes over the tallest thing it can find, and this was no exception.

I was the first one up in the morning, some time before Badger and Beta. Thankfully, they were a good distance away from the shelter, so I wasn't worried about disturbing them. As usual, it took me forever to get going in the morning, and so Badger and Beta were out of camp a good amount of time before I was. Once I finally got packed up and moving, I was grateful that I only had to go ten miles instead of fifteen. I paused on top of the huge rock pile to take one last picture of the area around the shelter before I moved on.

There were some pretty morning views, and I stopped for occasional pictures. After a while, I caught up with Badger and Beta and we began to play leapfrog. I could tell that we were so closely matched in speed that the leapfrog game would continue throughout the day, and it did.

Truthfully, I wasn't 100 percent on this day. There was no real reason for it, except for the fact that I had hiked for four straight days, including a hard day on the previous day, and I was getting tired. Even flat terrain seemed like a grind at times.

The Appalachian Trail used to cross the Palisades Parkway. It's a pretty high speed road, so you would just have to pray and run and hope you made it across safely. Eventually, the trail authorities realized that was a bad idea, so they re-routed the trail. Now the trail follows two trails called the 1777 trail and the 1779 trail. As you might guess from the years, these are old Revolutionary War trails that have been maintained by the State of New York. The 1777 trail was a British army trail, and the 1779 trail was a Continental army trail.

The hiking was pretty easy on these trails. I was listening to an audiobook, and that helped me pass the time faster anyway. I think that a good audiobook or podcast series is invaluable for long-distance hiking. Anything that can help keep your mind off the hiking and get you absorbed into another world helps a lot.

I found another tight rock squeeze, but it definitely wasn't the Lemon Squeezer, and I was able to get through without taking my pack off.

Eventually, I made my way into the big climb of the day, Bear Mountain, which was part of Bear Mountain State Park. I have to give credit to New York. I have climbed many mountains in my time hiking, and I have never climbed a mountain that had more trail work done to it than Bear Mountain. The entire mountain had been supplemented with stairs wherever it got even mildly steep. This made for simple climbing, and I am not sure if I have ever had an easier time climbing up a similar grade.

Once the bulk of the climbing was over, I caught up to Badger and Beta. Badger joked and said, "What took you so long?," implying that I should have been able to pass them earlier. I laughed it off, and Badger was nice enough to take a picture for me on one of the overlook benches the park installed at a viewpoint.

The trails on top of the mountain were wonderful, having only a slight upgrade while being covered in a surface that made hiking easy and comfortable. My feet really appreciated it. I made good time, pulling a bit ahead of Badger and Beta.

Finally, I came to the summit of Bear Mountain, which was marked by a tower. The tower is the Perkins Memorial Tower, named after the man who championed the Palisades Park System and the Bear Mountain State Park. It reminded me a little bit of the story of Percival Baxter in my native Maine.

I climbed the tower and looked around. There was a lot of cool history inside, and I wasn't sorry that I took the time. I wasn't even sorry that I climbed all the stairs! The stone of the tower kept it a little colder inside, too, which was a welcome relief from the warm day.

Badger and Beta caught up to me at the tower. I offered them food because I was getting off trail, but they said that they were well-supplied and heading into town that day themselves. I bid them farewell as I headed down the mountain.

As I got near the parking lot, my phone decided to play the Irish folk song, "Summer Roads." Something about it hit me just right, and I thought it was the perfect ending to my hiking adventure. I made sure to clean up the last little bit of trail that I needed to complete the Bear Mountain Inn, and with that the New York AT was finished.

I now have New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts finished. Vermont and New Hampshire won't be hard to finish either, and I am holding off finishing Maine (Katahdin) until the end. New Jersey is definitely next, but I am not sure what to do after that. My only available hiking times are usually April and the summer. The south is too far to travel from Maine during a week vacation, and I don't want to hike in the south during the summer. I am not sure what to do about that dilemma. The dilemma is made even harder by the fact that after I finish New Jersey, the next section is northeastern Pennsylvania, usually considered the worst part of the entire trail. I guess I am going to eventually have to come up with a plan, but for now I am not going to worry about it too much. After all, you can't take flight until you spread your wings.