We went up to the park after we got all our gear together. Cori loves seeing the Palisades as we crossed the George Washington Bridge. We stopped in Nyack at a vegan restaurant that we really enjoyed. Cori found it on Yelp. It was amazing. Cori is trying to be vegan without saying she's vegan. We walked around the town, and we played "wouldn't it be cool to live here".
We drove along the river, took the local route, and ended up at the spot where we park to hike in. One time Cliff and I were going to hike in, and a cop came over and said we couldn't park where we parked, so I park where the officer told us to. That seems like a long time ago.
The first time I took Cori to this shelter, we hiked in the dark, and the shelter was filled. We ended up in a nice place that we really enjoyed, with the tent. That time we carried in all the water so my pack was so heavy. This time I brought my water purifier. But Cori read the directions after and you're supposed to change the filter every year. I think it's 10+ years old and I haven't changed the filter. Opse. Hopefully we don't get giardia.
The second time we went, we went to Storm King Art Center, an outdoor sculpture gallery, and then went to a bar to get a beer. In the bar the 4 of us decided to hike in without equipment and see how we could do. We built a fire and it was cold but it wasn't such a big deal because it was summer. Poor Cori didn't sleep much and was glad when we got out of there. I learned that she'd felt terrible in the morning and wanted to just get out.
So this was the third time, on Wednesday, and the first time Cori went in while the sun was up. For some reason I thought it would be longer, but it wasn't too bad, 2 hours hike in. We ran into the only people we saw, a couple hiking just as we were climbing to the shelter. We got to the shelter and nobody was there, so we got the shelter. It's built into the side of the mountain/hill, with a platform and two fire places. There were some logs.
Cori cooked yummy vegan meals. We got firewood and built a fire in the right fireplace. After a day of that, we decided to try the other one because the smoke and soot swooshed around inside because of the wind. I wasn't cold when I was hiking, but when we were just hanging out it got colder, and the fire helped and was something fun to focus on. The wind was pretty strong. It's windy out back in the city when we're back.
We get phone reception there and I called the boys to say good night like I always do at 830pm. I turned off my phone except for that and taking photos.
We slept OK. It takes some adjustment to the noises and I got up a couple times because I thought I heard someone walking. The second night Cori put our bags together. She can't really remember why she didn't like that the last time she tried that, but this time she liked it. My hips are sore from sleeping on the ground. We had little mats to cushion the ground, but still my hips hurt. The fire burned out the first night. We were both tempted to get up and put wood on the fire, but didn't get out of the cosy and warm sleeping bags.
We pumped water at the stream. Last time I went to a little pond and it was greenish. Running water is always better.
Thursday we just hung out. Cori is reading The China Study. I'm reading Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross. We walked around and examined the caver shelter and found a new place. We found a big log and a light log that had a kind of handle. We put that big log into the fire, and it lasted till the morning. We'd decided to just pack up and go, but when there was an ember. Even though it had rained in the night we quickly put twigs we found inside the shelter over the ember, built a little fire, and made some coffee before we left.
It took 2 hours to hike in and 1.5 to hike out. We stopped and ate our twentieth peanut-butter
We stopped at a diner I'd always driven past saying, "we should eat there sometime." The reviews on Yelp were not so good, but I had a farmer's vegetables omlette and Cori had a grapefruit, tomato, home fries and toast (and thus stayed vegan).
I walked to the library and my legs felt really strong. I feel sort of serene. The exercise and being in nature are setting me up good to begin work on Monday. I really hope Cori liked the birthday present of going backpacking. She says she did. I had camping consciousness while back in the city for a little while, but it wore off.
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