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Know B4U Go

I should ask more questions. 

For example, yesterday I received a text from Drew around 10 a.m. He asked if I wanted to head upstate to Bear Mountain for a hike. I agreed, and Drew and Marc picked me up an hour later. The drive out of the city and into the Hudson River Valley was beautiful. At some point, the windows came down and you know, it was just nice. We parked the car, crossed the highway, and headed out on that hike. We did not, at any point, discuss this hike. 

I snapped a few pictures early on. I was in the moment, but about 45 minutes in, I was thinking WTF? I must have said it outloud because it was at this point, with Marc in the lead, that he said we were climbing up 1,000 feet and it would probably take about 4 hours until we were back at the bottom. 

Uh? Four hours? 1,000 feet? See in my mind, I thought we'd take a walk in the woods. There would be a lake. We'd swim. We'd get some lunch. 

Not exactly.

It turns out there are trails up this mountain that have been marked on trees. We went up a blue trail, and down a red trail. For future reference, the blue trail is a steep [insert your favorite expletive]. 

We made it to the top, and the view was impressive. And I have to say the first person I thought of was Charlotte Tatum, my elementary school music teacher. For a Baptist preacher's wife, she could tear up a piano. Seriously. She more than tickled the ivories and pounded the heck out of the pedal. We always sang This Land Is Your Land.

"This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island..."

 

 You get the picture.

What goes up must come down. 1,000 feet up. 1,000 feet down.

We made it. We passed some other hikers - and they were intense. They had all of the right gear. Backpacks. Boots. Walking sticks. I had a water bottle.

And when I could hear the sound of the cars passing on the highway, I knew we were going to make it.

We drove about 20 minutes to Cold Spring, NY. Beautiful little town right on the bank of the Hudson and right across from Westpoint. We had a delicious meal. We drove part of the way home with the windows down. The sun was setting, and we'd catch glimpses of the river, bridges and boats. It was just summer. The way it should be. I'm glad I was invited.

Now about next time. I need to ask the right questions. And I probably need to go along, but maybe I don't need to go to the top. I could probably do some research. Like - just how nice is that lodge down there? Or let's rent a boat for the day. Or maybe go kayaking.

Clearly, this post is longer than most. The reason is simple: my legs are too damn sore to do anything else.



 

Rockaway

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