Day 121
Start: William Brien Shelter
End: Hemlock Springs Campground
Miles hiked: 13.6 trail miles
Miles on AT: 1411.5
Last night I was awakened in the middle of the night by a strange noise. Out of the haze of dreamland I could make out the rhythmic beat of drums in the distance. As the fog of sleep lifted I became even more confused. It sounded like there was a huge speaker not far away, playing one song for 10 or 15 seconds before abruptly switching to the next.
I looked at my phone. 12:30 am. Who was playing loud music in the middle of the woods at 12:30 am??? I immediately thought of comments I had read on FarOut describing a mentally ill man harassing hikers by playing music in the shelters in the early morning hours. The incident had happened a few miles back in a shelter, and while there were reports of him for 2022 and 2023, there were no reports yet for 2024. Still, my mind told me an axe murderer was after me.
Even though I was having a full-blown panic attack, I peeked out of my tent to see if I could see a headlamp, but there wasn’t one. Hmmm. Maybe the music was coming from somewhere down the mountain. After a long 15 minutes, the music finally stopped. It took me a minute to calm myself down enough to go back to sleep, but eventually I drifted back into dreamland.
Because of my disturbed sleep, I woke up later than usual the next morning. As I was leaving, hikers from the previous shelter arrived for a morning break. And as I was packing up my tent, I noticed that something had laid slimy eggs all over the floor of my tent and the groundsheet. This was going to be a day.
I took some time and took it easy. I hit the 1400 mile mark and stopped to consider the rest of the day. The famous Palisades Parkway road crossing was coming up and to make it safer for hikers a new detour had been created to avoid the road sprint. But according to FarOut’s comments the crossing wasn’t that bad so I took the old route.
When I got there, I had to laugh. This intersection was nothing compared to some of the risky intersections in the MD/VA area. The two directions of traffic were separated by a wide median, so you had to cross two lanes twice. Easy!
When I got to the other side, I started climbing and before I knew it, I was at the top. When I was a few hundred steps from the summit, two guys asked me if I was going to do the trail. They were so excited about my trip that they gave me a bag of Hi-Chews and a can of cold iced coffee. Just what I needed!
Sitting on top of the mountain, enjoying the view and my can of cold coffee, made my day so much better.
Full of energy, I ran down the mountain and up the next one. When I reached Bear Mountain, I met Limpkin, Night Pony and Kaleidoscope. Since it was the weekend, the place was swarming with tourists. That’s New York.
On the way down, I stopped at a lakeside restaurant to eat a burger. There were so many people outside having picnics and barbecues; it was sensory overload. But I got inside just in time to eat because while I was eating, it started to rain pretty hard. Staring out the window, I debated whether I should just stay at the hotel to avoid getting wet. A break would be nice, as would a hot shower and a soft bed. *sigh* My inner hardcore hiker wouldn’t freak me out like that.
When the rain let up, I went back outside, got an ice cream and headed to the zoo. Hey, if I wasn’t going to treat myself to a hotel room, I could at least treat myself to Häagen-Dazs. When I got there, the zoo was closed. Since the path goes right through the zoo, I had to take the blue sign and then cross the Hudson River.
Looking up at the sky, I could see more rain was coming. The sky rumbled and I saw lightning in the distance. Just as I reached the trailhead, the skies opened again. Maybe I should have gotten that room after all. I squeezed under the trail’s little information kiosk between a cooler of sodas and a guitar.
When the rain stopped, I set off again. I didn’t want to go far, just to the next campsite. Unfortunately, it was all uphill. I arrived at my campsite wet, a little grumpy and ready to sit down. There was another tent there already, so I put mine up in the empty spot, ate dinner and crawled in for the night.
Although a lot went wrong today, a lot went right too. Days on the trail are not black and white, good and bad. Sometimes it’s a little of both. Finding and appreciating the good in a day like today helps me keep going, even when I’m grumpy from being wet all day.
And this is day 121.
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