Day 6 - Monday, January 18, 2021

Happy 68th Birthday “Turtle Power” 🎉 !


The morning temperature was 29° and clear sky’s. We began hiking at 8:44 am continuing from the Bear Mountain Bridge, north on Route 9D to Seven Lakes Drive*. 




William Brien Memorial Shelter. There were 4 campers at this shelter this morning. 





South side of West Mountain after our first climb of the day. 



Took a near fall... key word “near” and bent my trekking pole. It would have broken if I didn’t let go of it and jumped over it! Turtle Power thought he had a dinner coming... not even close 😉. 


Stopped for a break at about 10:30 am at the 4 mile mark. 



New York City skyline in the distance. 




Bear Mountain Bridge in the background. 



Bear Mountain to the left and Bear Mountain Bridge to the right in the background 5 miles away; that’s where we are going to today. Its Turtle Power’s birthday he picked the length of our hike*. 




Bear Mountain/Pershing Memorial Tower about 2 miles away - that’s our next objective .  




Birthday boy taking a break...





On the summit of Bear Mountain looking north at the Hudson River. 




Pershing Memorial Tower on top of Bear Mountain. 




Bear Mountain Bridge from on top of Bear Mountain. 




Bear Mountain Inn. 




Tunnel under Route 9W at Bear Mountain Inn - lowest point on the AT, elevation 177.







Bear Mountain Bridge crossing the Hudson River. Notice that little “drumlin” in the background, we came over that yesterday. 




Hudson River from the Bear Mountain Bridge looking north. 


We finished at 3:21 pm hiking 13.4 miles. Temperature was 41° and the skies were sunny. 


*Turtle Power has been our Chief Navigator and plans most hikes based on our travel times and locations of the parking and/or intersecting roads in relationship to their respective hiking distances. The AT crosses Seven Lakes Drive at two different locations. One crossing would have been a 7.5 mile hike (1401.8 NoBo) and the other a 13.4 mile hike (1394.6 NoBo) Jim thought we would do the shorter as it was his birthday. I guess he presumed Chris was baking him a cake so he wanted to get back a little earlier  than we usually do😉.


So we start our hike at Seven Lakes Drive and we’re about 3 hours into our hike when we come to another  “Seven Lakes  Drive” .... hmm. Turns out we went to the farther  (more southern) location so we hiked the longer section that what Jim intended.  So much for his birthday cake 😂😏


And to make matters even worse there was a parking ticket on my car when we got back to where it was parked on Seven Lakes Dr. I pleaded not guilty and mailed it back … I guess we’ll see how this all turns out 🤨. 


Till next time... Happy Hiking 🥾 


😋

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