May 31 Wm. Brien Shelter, NY to Hemlock Springs Campsite, NY 11.1 miles

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What a crew at the shelter last night, 10 tents in all. One family group was a bit loud until about 8:30. The scouts were quiet until morning. We slept soundly except when a branch or small tree broke somewhere in the forest waking us both up.

The scouts banged a big pot about 6AM rousing the entire area. We tumbled out of the tent by 6:30. All was well with where I had hung our food, it was unmolested. Breakfast was made while we watched everyone pack up and head for the road and home. Before we had finished all we had to do, the shelter area was vacant except for us. Silence is beautiful.

8AM found us climbing up a small hill and heading north. Today is one month on the trail this year. We both felt good walking up the trail. It was nice and warm, about 65 degrees so even CC was not layered up. She did have her long pants on though. We dropped 400' to the Palisades Parkway, then up 570' to West Mountain. We encountered many day hikers out enjoying the fine weather and flowers in bloom. We then dropped 590' to Perkins Drive and then started climbing 570' up Bear Mountain. We had to do some shoulder of the road walking up the mountain. This was interesting being Sunday and beautiful weather everyone it seemed was headed for the summit. There were motorcycle groups with bikes by the dozen. A Mustang car club went by with about 20 cars. Bicyclists peddled their legs off clogging up the motored traffic. We alone hoofed it up. Once on top we stopped for lunch with the rest of the herd. Must have been over 100 people up there. We got a picture of the New York City skyline again, this one better than the rest I believe. The others you could only see a few buildings, this one you saw most of the city.

After lunch we dropped 1,181' down into Bear Mountain Park. Again loads of day hikers trying to get to the top to enjoy the view. The park was more packed than the top of the mountain was. Picnics, football games, fishing, boating and grilling food. CC did real good until a lady next to the walkway lifted the top off her hibachi. The smell of those burgers and chicken was too much for her to resist. We had to find the concession stand! A burger, an order of chicken fingers and french fries to share with two ice cold Pepsi's we were ready to go again. A few people asked questions about our packs and our walk as we were the only ones with big packs. All were impressed with our walking prowess!

Soon enough it was time to hit the trail for today’s final leg. 565' up to the campsite. We had to pass through the Bear Mountain Zoo. In front of the bear exhibit we passed the lowest elevation of the AT, 124'. CC had me get a picture of the bears, these are the only ones she wants to encounter on her long walk. We have now done both with the highest point being Clingmans Dome, NC. The elevation was over 6,000', but I don't have the exact number right now. Lowest point in Bear Mountain Zoo. One more thing to check off the list of things to do. We crossed over the Hudson River on Bear Mountain Bridge. We found it odd there are suicide help phone numbers and emergency phones for those who might be thinking of jumping. I guess that is cheaper than netting or fencing.

Climbing up South Mountain there was a brief afternoon shower. Things weren't uncomfortable enough so why not up the humidity. We only made 11.1 miles today, however we did climb 1,751' and descend 2,171' for a total of 3,922' gain and loss for the day. We now have to go up and over perpendicular ridges, vs. up to the top and run the length of the ridges.

31 days out, 30 days walking, 381.4 miles covered in an average of 12.7 miles per day. Using CC's average of 2,022 steps per mile she has taken 771,191 steps along the trail. I would estimate maybe another 7,000 - 8,000 steps going to and from things not on the trail. Not bad for a couple over 50.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

For Photos and Video: http://odandccslongwalk.shutterfly.com/

OD and CC have been marking their path with a GPS using SPOT Satellite Messenger and can be tracked at the following link. It keeps track of their last 7 days: http://tinyurl.com/o2g53z

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