NY-NJ AT solo section hike #2 – day 1

Miles: 15.9

I started my hike at 10:15am from the Appalachian Mart. A friend very graciously dropped me off so I didn’t have to take the train. I hiked to NY 9D and then across the Bear Mountain Bridge.

I walked through the museum and past the lowest point on the AT. All of the animals in the zoo portion of the museum had been injured and rehabilitated but would be unable to survive in the wild.  

I climbed Bear Mountain with over 1100 feet of elevation gained. 

Later that day, I got a good view of Bear Mountain in the distance. 

The camera didn’t capture it adequately but there was a place where I could just barely see NYC on the skyline (center of photo). 

It was an amazingly beautiful day. 

After climbing Black Mountain, I finally arrived at the shelter.

At this point, there’s one older section hiker in his 70’s sharing the shelter with me, with two guys in their 30’s camping out nearby. I’m not alone which is nice; the older guy “Kimo” is very talkative. 

My feet are in decent condition, with one or two blisters. The black flies are out in droves today. I’ve ended up with them in my eyes and mouth. Hopefully, the colder evening air will keep them away. I do have a pretty bad headache at the moment but I’ve taken some meds and made sure to hydrate. Hopefully,  it will go away soon.

Tomorrow will have quite a decent amount of climbing but it’s set to be sunny and nice so it should be a good day.