August 6 Mile 1407

Got up, not too early, as is the habit when staying at a motel, and ate their free breakfast. Drove back to the top of Bear Mtn, and climbed the tower, nice views and a beautiful stone structure that had multiple photos of the early days of the Park. Here my Sweety got a chance to hike a bit with us. And what a great spot to hike! It was downhill for 2 miles, and the trail, because it was in the park, was one of the nicest groomed pea gravel trails we have seen! A real delight. Views of the wide Hudson River abounded. When we got to the bottom we hiked near the original Bear Mtn Inn, that is currently closed for renovations and past various eating venues for the state park-soft drinks, food, whatever you wanted. Then, one of the coolest and most unusual venues on the trail-the AT takes you right through the Trailside Zoo! A real state run zoo, so we took our time, observing the animals and reached the lowest point on the entire trail-the Bear Den-about 145 feet in elevation. Then out of the Zoo, across the Hudson River, up a highway and back into the woods. As we hiked, my older son, got his trail name. thrown out in humor-Grand Master of the Universe-or GMOTU (pronounced Gee-moo-too) So he was christened for the rest of the hike and forever. Tough hiking day from here-boulders, rocks, ups and downs-all streams dry (luckily we had our own water) and then a great lunch from my Sweety at a dirt road, that I am amazed she could find. in fact, she was amazing finding us each day at road crossings, meals, etc. And we had no trail map for her, and the I-phone apps were of limited value. She was a real Lewis and Clark-actually, better, as she never got lost.
Today we hiked around and through numerous old massive rock walls, like the ones I have mentioned since VA. I don't know who built them, or when, but they are impressive and incredibly long. Stacked up 3-4 feet high-I cannot imagine the worker hours to assemble them.
At the end of the hiking day, we decided to camp at a state camping area known as Dennytown Road-a huge open flat space near the trail. Plenty of room for all of us on this Friday night, my oldest Brother's birthday, by the way! Happy Birthday!!
Near us camping, but far enough away, was a huge noisy camping party. They screamed, yelled and carried on until 1:30 AM! I was too tired to notice, but it was annoying for awhile. They even shot off fireworks!
As evening fell, we had excellent weather, we got food from our food bags and made dinner and built a big fire. A very nice camping night, the kind you hope for.