Five Bridge Challenge

Some hikers like to take on additional challenges while hiking the AT. We usually steer away from these challenges because hiking the 2,175 miles is a big enough task in our opinion. Some examples of challenges in which we have not participated are the "Four State Challenge" (hiking the last part of VA, all of WV, all of MD, and starting PA all in one day), the "Connecticut Challenge" (hiking all 52 miles of CT in one day), and the "Six Pack Challenge" (involves packing out beer from town and consuming one beer per mile.) These adventures are just not for us.

However, we accidentally completed a "Five Bridge Challenge" when leaving Bear Mountain State Park the other day. We had hiked our tails off to get to the trailside museum and zoo before it closed. (The AT blazes go right through the zoo's paved roads. Hikers who make it to the gates after the 4:30pm closing time must walk around the park on a busy town road.) Luckily, we made it to the gates at 4:23 after many miles of hot, humid hiking. Phew!

Even though we were kindly asked to "walk quickly" through the zoo since the other gates would soon be locked, we did get to see a bobcat, coyote, and statue of Walt Whitman. We also overheard a family asking an employee who those people are ("those" people being us) and exclaiming "What?!" when the employee said, "Those are thru-hikers walking from Georgia to Maine. Many of them come through the park this time of year." We would have enjoyed chatting with this family, but we obeyed the original request to move quickly through the park.

Upon exiting, we were at the toll booth of the beautiful Bear Mountain Bridge during rush hour traffic. We were thrilled to walk the bridge, take LOADS of photos, say hello to the people stuck in traffic with their windows down and greeting us, etc. I guess we were simply too excited about the bridge to take out the guidebook and check if we needed to walk into Fort Montgomery, NY, to buy food via 9W before the bridge or 9D after the bridge. Of course, we just crossed the bridge and admired the Hudson River below and THEN took out the guidebook. (Bridge crossing #1)

Woops! We can only reach Fort Montgomery from 9W, so back we went. (Bridge crossing #2.) This time we even saw the aftermath of a fender bender during rush hour. Everyone was okay, and the officials were already on the scene. (By the way, the AT is USUALLY a wilderness experience, but not ALWAYS.)

We then walked the .9 miles into Fort Montgomery crossing the 9W bridge. (Bridge crossing #3) Of course, it poured buckets on us because that's what happened pretty much every afternoon in NY. Still, we made it to a deli/convenience store, re-supplied, and hit the road again. We crossed the 9W bridge again on the way back to the trail. (Bridge crossing #4) This time, we saw a nice rainbow over the soon-to-be-crossed-again Bear Mountain Bridge.

When we got to the Bear Mountain Bridge, we walked across it (bridge crossing #5) at a much more peaceful time of the evening. People were out on their boats, and the sunset turned out to be great.

After that, we hiked the 1 mile straight up to Hemlock Springs campsite with Paloma, Ghetto, Crazy Bear, and Carpenter. We shared our self created, though accidental, "Five Bridge Challenge" story. Carpenter later planned the logistics for his "Connecticut Challenge." That's much too ambitious for us!

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Happy Trails!