Today, I completed the New York section of the AT. As a whole, NY has been my favorite state so far. It offered some new technical difficulty of rock climbs, and was surprisingly beautiful. We went through something called the "lemon squeezer"

Just after this, we had a rock climb that we had to actually take off our packs and hand up before climbing. 
Near mountain was also a great part of NY. A good portion of it has been groomed with steps, making it a little easier. From the top, you can see NYC. That was really neat! I have never been to NYC, and would love to come back someday to explore without my backpack. 
After descending bear mountain, the AT goes through a zoo. I thought the zoo was a little sad. I'm used to seeing wildlife in their natural habitat, and seeing them in cages was very different. After the zoo, the trail crosses the Hudson river via the Bear Mountain Bridge. It was windy, so my picture turned out a little crooked. 

By the end of that day, we were all pretty worn out. Pickup and I were both suffering from some heat exhaustion. We have hiked in several heat advisory days where they warn not to do physical activities outdoors. This was one of those days. Even the low of the night was over 80°, so I still felt under par the next morning. We all decided to take it easy the next day and only hiked 4 miles. We stayed at a monestary that allows hikers to camp. There was a cold shower there too. I jumped in wearing my clothes. Easy way to cool down, shower, and do laundry all at once! A storm came through later that afternoon, which brought in some more hikers. It was the largest group of thru hikers I have seen for a while. 

It was also Pickup's last day on trail, so we had a little celebration thanks to his mom and aunt who brought food and drinks for all of us. 

Starting to fall asleep, so I will tell you all about my Christmas in July soon. I'm beat!
Cheers!!