Nothing gets me up faster than a town day. I was up and on trail shortly after 6am. The hike today was a lot of fun actually. I had three mountain climbs: Black Mountain, West Mountain and Bear Mountain. I have to give a huge thank you to the trail angels out there who are putting water jugs on trail by road crossings. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have had much water for last night or today until I finally got to a water source after crossing the Palisades Interstate Parkway. There’s a massive reroute the ATC wants us to take so we don’t cross the dangerous interstate crossing. It adds 1.24 miles to the day with no views and no noted water sources. No thank you! It was just fine crossing the interstate. You only need to watch one direction on each side and you could see for a quarter mile to see if anyone was coming. Anyway, going that route gave me a nice water source and amazing views. I also passed the 1,400 mile mark! Bear mountain was very beautiful and being a Sunday, there were a lot of people up there. The coolest person I met was Jean, the Haitian Cowboy. Ever meet someone and instantly feel amazing positive energy just emanating from them? That was this guy. We had a great chat and it was nice meeting him. Just his fun energy was enough to power me over Bear Mountain, which I needed to get away from all the people! So many people up there! Then I got down to the picnic area and was overwhelmed with people. I felt strange walking amongst all those large families cooking on grills and blasting music while I’m hiking by with my backpack and stomach grumbling. I finally made it to the trailside zoo and finally saw black bears. They might have been in the zoo but they count! LOL! Jason was able to pick me up and we headed to a hotel in Queens. After getting all cleaned up (shower & laundry) we’re now headed into Manhattan. I’ll zero tomorrow, see our friend Brandy and eat & drink until my heart (and stomach) is content.