A Bridge Too Far
November 15, 2009
It was lucky that we met at 9:30 am which was 15 minutes earlier than the other hikers at Fort Montgomery Visitors Center. We could find 8 parking spots. I had Ken, William, Audrey, Max, Harry Chen, Dawn, Sherry, Emily, Chung Kwong, Dodo, Helen, Susie, Rose, Esther, Joe, Eric, Suhneu, Harry Tse, Karen, Philip, Raymond, Clara and Moon. It was George’s first trip in 2009 because he found the number on the weigh was unacceptably high. Paul brought his family and arrived so late until everyone had already crossed the first bridge. There were 4 bridges in this area. I planned to bring the team to walk on 3.
I gave out pretty stamps before we started the trip at 10 am. The stamp was designed by Moon which was the night scene of Bear Mountain Bridge. We would have no chance to see this bridge in the evening. We crossed the first foot bridge next to the Visitors Center on which we were so closed to the water. The trail linked us to Fort Clinton Museum but we had no time to go in. We took a break for photo taking outside the Fort and walked across the Bear Mountain Bridge. This was a long bridge hanged over the downstream of Hudson River. A team of 29 hikers lined up at the bridge should have attracted eyes of the bypassed drivers. This was probably the first experience of all of us that we could stand and stay on this bridge. Good photographers took this chance to make shots to everything they could spot, it took us an hour to finish the first mile of this trip.
I pointed to the hill up there at the end of the bridge telling people that was our destination, Anthony’s Nose. People were frightened by the cliff before I told them the trail was not on this side. We walked along Route 9D for 5 minutes and got back to the trail of AT. I took a photo for Philip because we were now entering the Philipstown area. This 0.5 mile uphill was quite tough for new hikers especially for those wanted to hike all the way without taking a break. We climbed 600 feet within 0.5 mile was liked climbed up 50 floors. Suhneu was the first one reached the Blue Trail but it had exhausted all her energy reserved. She gave up the last hill after lunch and returned right away on her own. Susie won over Clara and Raymond in their race. Chung Kwong had to overcome his stomach problem which had lasted for a few days. Eric took care of Sherry carefully to give her a pleasant time in hiking. Both Esther and Karen felt it was a good test to their heart beat and leg muscles. The most amazing part was 6 years old Jeffrey could also make it by the help of parents and Auntie Rose.
We waited at the sign in box until everyone was here and proceed along Blue Trail. The Blue Trail was flat and led us to an open area which could oversee the Hudson River and Bear Mountain Bridge. This was Anthony’s Nose which was named when the sailor of an explored ship realized the shape of this mountain was looked like the nose of Captain Anthony. This was the most desirable lunch point for this route, so I had no hesitate to announce for 30 minutes lunch break. The sunshine was so rich that our photographers were busy between eating and photo taking. Rose served us some homemade food which composed of both sweetie and salty.
Mei’s family decided to turn back after lunch because little Jeffrey had been tired for the uphill trip. I led the others kept going further on Blue Trail until we reached the 3 miles checkpoint. After Harry Tse hiked down from the ridge, I led the group start hiking back along the same trail. This extra mile gave hikers another chance of climbing uphill to test their leg muscles. They never knew the downhill slope on slippery AT Trail later would be the biggest challenge of this trip. Karen claimed it was a painful experience of hiking on slippery surface. Most hikers hiked slowly on this downhill slope even with the help of hiking pole. We reached the Bear Mountain Bridge around 2 pm. I told the group we would walk back along the Route 9W Bridge after crossed Bear Mountain Bridge to add 1 more bridge on today’s trip. There were 4 bridges in this area. We had walked on 3 and left only the one untouched because it was the bridge only for CSX Train. We finished 6 miles and reached the Visitors Center by 2:45 pm.
