AT Day 34 West Mountain to Graymoore Spiritual Center

Miles: ~14
Total: 395
Sights: Bear Mountain, Bear Mountain Inn and Zoo, Fort Montgomery



Today we broke camp quick and were on the trail by 7:30 – we stopped for coffee about 45 minutes in. I think this is more efficient, although hiking without coffee in us is a little tough. We have a 19 miler tomorrow so maybe we’ll do this again for time’s sake.
We made our way to Bear Mountain – a pretty famous place in NY. Maintainers recently spruced up the trail over the past few years so it was really a gorgeous hike. We checked out the observation tower and enjoyed a ginger ale and some Pringles while we took in the mountaintop vistas.
From Bear Mountain top we made our way down and checked out the Inn. It was built in the 20’s or 30’s and had been closed for the last 8 years, but luckily they just reopened. Shannon asked the lady at the front desk to see a room and she obliged! It looked great (she showed us a suite). Kind of a modern/rustic combo look – it worked well given the setting and the look of the building.
We then had to jump off trail to pick up our food in Fort Montgomery. The lady at the Post Office was super sweet and recommended the pizza/everything restaurant across the street. The restaurant, named “Foodies”, looked sort of like a dive from the outside, but it was really stylish in there and the food was really top rate (pizza, sushi, and Mediterranean).
After spending too much on lunch, we backtracked and picked up the trail in a very interesting spot: the Bear Mountain Zoo. Here we saw flora and fauna that can be seen in the area – alive and dead! Sort of depressing in both instances. They had an exhibit of stuffed birds from the New York area. The lowest spot on the entire AT was actually in the zoo, in front of the bear cage (our first bear sighting on the AT).


Tonight we are at a Christian Retreat Center – LOTS of hikers here. We are in what is known as a “bubble” I guess, when a bunch of us end up at the same time at once. It can be strange if you’ve been with just a few people for many miles to encounter such a sight.