Bear Mountain Hike with Keep Rockland Beautiful!

This was such a wonderful day for me......

This was the release for the event-
"Keep Rockland Beautiful invites members and friends on a hike in support of Jordan Price and the Trek Against Trash. On March 17, 2008, Jordan Price and Carlie Roberts began an inspiring environmental awareness campaign in the name of Keep America Beautiful. Starting out on their trek along the 2,174 mile Appalachian Trail, they pledged to raise $150,000 and demonstrate how simple it is to clean up, reuse, and recycle along the way.

Today, Jordan continues the journey, with Carlie supporting him from home base. We will join Jordan for a hike from Perkins Tower on Bear Mountain down to the Bear Mountain Bridge, where we will gather to thank Jordan for his efforts. Along the way, there will be an opportunity to stop and pitch in on preparing a corridor of the Appalachian Trail that is being rebuilt by the NY/NJ Trail Conference. Hikers will also pass through the Trail side Zoo and Museums, where they will meet many of the areas wonderful inhabitants. This is a wonderful opportunity to get out and enjoy the beauty of our cherished public parks and to support Jordan Price in his efforts to inspire others to clean up and protect the environment, and to support Keep America Beautiful in its mission of uniting citizens, businesses and government to find solutions that advance its core issues of preventing litter,reducing waste and beautifying communities.

Jordan has been cleaning up litter, stenciling storm drains, planting trees, and promoting the three R’s with KAB affiliates such as Keep Rockland Beautiful all along his way. “We want to show that while not everyone is able to hike two thousand miles, or even one mile for that matter, being a responsible consumer in every day life is really quite simple!” It is fitting that we applaud Jordan’s efforts at the point where the Appalachian Trail crosses the magnificent Hudson River, for waste that litters our streets and trails often ends up washing into our precious waterways. Happy 85th Anniversary to the Appalachian Trail!"

Umm, wow! It is a little weird reading these sometimes because you think that people forget that you are out here doing the Trek. So it always brings a smile to my face to get to be a part of such a great opportunity.

Originally I was supposed to be walking through Bear Mountain NY this past weekend, BUT...I am an animal so... (totally kidding) I got a little bit ahead of schedule and my dear friend Rob from Keep America Beautiful picked me up along the trail to bring me back down to Bear Mountain for a hike with the Keep Rockland Beautiful folks.

This was a wonderful event that my friend Sonia from Keep Rockland Beautiful put together. We all met up at Perkins tower at the top of Bear Mountain and took a few photos of the gang. Rob introduced me to some of the volunteers that showed up to support the Trek Against Trash. What a great experience, we had about 14 people show up in all to hike down the two miles into the park. It was humid (as usual) but luckily our great friend Dave from Pepsi showed up with some Gatorade and snacks to keep us all hydrated. We all did our best to pick up any litter along the way and actually filled up two trash bags worth. We got to the state park at the bottom and walked over to the Zoo. Same as last time when I came through, it was tough to see all these beautiful animals in cages, but they all sustained injuries in the wild, so they are now in the zoo being rehabilitated.

Once we got through the Zoo, we got together for a little ceremony (video should be up in a couple days) for the Trek. They read a letter from the Palisades Interstate Park Commission aloud to me that was incredibly touching.... I almost got choked up.

It was a wonderful day, and I got to spend some time with some really incredible people. And my awesome friend Zoey from Kent CT showed up to show her support!

After the hike, we went over to one of Rob's friends' house where we picked raspberries, cooked out and just relaxed for the evening. Adam and Lara introduced me to Dutch Peanut Butter........ummm it's by far the most delicious thing I have EVER tasted. Yes.. go find it.

Well back to the trail!
Vermont in the Morning!!!