Day 5 - Sunday January 17, 2021

The morning temperature was 32° with an expected high near 40° and the forecast is to be partly sunny all day.  Today we are hiking from Dennytown Road to the east side of the Bear Mountain Bridge, north on Route 9D  totaling 11.3 miles.  Tomorrow’s hike will take us across the Hudson River. 

All the snow in the woods is gone and there is almost no ice on the trail which makes hiking much easier. The lakes and ponds are still frozen. Extended forecast for the next week looks good as no snow is being called for but we know that can change. The highest  elevation on the trail for this same time period is under 1400 foot which will help minimize any potential of snowfall.  

We began  hiking at 9:05 am and starting right off with a rather good incline of 800 feet in elevation over .3 mi... you do the math 😂. 

Half way up the first incline...

There are a lot of day hikers on the trail today… I think some come in early to watch the sunrise. 

Hudson River from the AT. Will have better pics when crossing the bridge tomorrow. 

Jim pees a lot... 🤔

I’m looking rather GQish in my new trail sneakers and hiking pants. Shoes feel great-very happy with them!

Stopped for lunch at 12:13 pm at about the 6 mile mark. 

Lunch break is over...  

We just came off that... about 300 ft vertical drop in elevation. 

Official USGS AT Trail plaque.  

At 1:20 pm Jim aka Turtle Power* went down to a three point stance to his knee - equals one drink for me**.... but at 2:09 pm Turtle Power falls for the first time owing me a dinner **

I couldn’t get my camera out quick enough as he was already getting up but he did a complete summer-salt onto his back rolling over to his knees 😂. No blood no foul, and he didn’t get hurt 🤕. 

Above plaque was on this rock at the old inoculation station. Perhaps it’s going to be used as a Covid vaccine center? 

Finished hiking at 2:46 pm. The high for the day was 40°.

*Jim aka Beer Snob changed his trail name to Turtle Power ?? I don’t know how many times you are allowed to change your trail name but it was recommended he use that as his trail name by his daughter so it’s okay by me. I haven’t got a trail name yet but I’m considering a couple. The funny thing is, if you meet other thru hikers and they ask you what  your trail name is and you do not have one... they can give you one. 🙄

**To make hiking more fun we thought we would keep track of our slips and falls along the way. But everything has its price... if you slip and fall to one hand or one knee, you owe the other person a drink of their choice. If you fall to your knees, both hands or completely fall to the ground as Turtle Power did, you owe the other person a dinner.  Ahh the games we play... 🥱

Till next time... Happy Hiking 🥾 

😋