Before Andrew came home he said he wanted to hike when he did come home. I thought we would hike Friday or Saturday after thanksgiving. On Friday we played an early morning round of Disc Golf and was home by 10 am. Then I went to work and ended up in Port Chester. Outside on the back patio Bryan said he wanted to hike Beacon. The next day at 10am I texted Andrew "Awaken shit why do we can shit." At 10:30 am Sleeps in shit with Horizen Pimps." and at 10:46 am I texted him "Apples and oranges." At 12:43 pm Andrew texted me that he was "Coming to your home." By 1 pm we were driving on the Taconic. Route 9 at the base of Breakneck Ridge is endlessly lined with cars. The Beacon trailhead lot is full too but an empty spot or two is easy to find. Andrew has something called a cheeba chew which breaks apart like softer tootsie roll. Split it three ways. People file out of the woods as a couple and a dog follows me up the metal staircase and Andrew and Al are just behind them. I let them pass at the top of the stairs and we are just behind them when they stay on the north Beacon trail. We fork left off the white trail on the yellow trail and Andrew and I crack our first beers. Ahead in the leaves I find a heavy metal lamp shade that my head fits inside. I put that on my head. Then we look at the Cherokee that ran off the trail a long time ago. The junk and the service road-sized paths into the woods emerged from a neighboring property. The trail kinks to the left and into some more untouched looking woods. We stopped and had a baby carrot. The leaves were noisy. We crossed a stream, walked through mud.
So when I'm walking up to this woman the beer is soaking my pockets. She's looking at my pockets and I ask how she's doing. And the beer spills all in my pockets. So I keep walking and the dogs are running around. Anyway I'm freaking out when this dog doesn't stop following us. Then the dog pounces at something and chases after it and we never see it again. It was a boxer.
"If we keep going you will like it more."
"Does this loop around?"
On South Beacon in the dark. The lights of the river town below shined bright in the dark valley. 9 total miles. Andrew and Alison were hungry. I had a sandwich on a bagel. I let them have a bite. They bought chicken parms at the appalachian gas station. Did not see them the next day. They flew back to Colorado.
