Google's directions took me along a riverfront bike path, across the Hudson, and up into the hills toward Poughkeepsie. I was happy to learn that my knees had recovered enough to deal with the hilly roads. I encountered some wild turkeys and a giant spider during a snack, after which some powerful winds blew in and dropped the temperature low enough that I dug out some warmth layers I hadn't used since near the continental divide.
Later in the day, I found the bike path that Google had promised me and started looking for a camping spot somewhere along it. The amount of foot traffic made it difficult to find something secluded, so I stopped at a restaurant to eat, get some water, and let the pedestrians go home. It wasn't a fancy place, but the looks I got from the hostess made it clear that neither I nor my scraggly beard were welcome, so I just ate my own food in the cold. Hopefully my existence made somebody uncomfortable.
The bike path appeared to continue into a more populated area, so I returned the way I came and snuck off into a less-tamed portion of the woods, far enough off the path that I figured I wouldn't be visible, though that was hard to judge in the dark. I crawled into my bivy with all my clothes on and tried to sleep, but had trouble due to a mixture of noisy, invisible animals crunching through the brush and anxiety about perhaps being too close to the path. I never saw what was making noise, but I figure it was just some deer. Something smaller definitely came to check me out at one point, approximately possum-sized but more energetic. It wasn't worth unsealing my cocoon of warmth to find out what it was, especially since that'd just give it a chance to maul my face if it happened to actually be a threat. Playing dead is pretty easy when you're already in a body bag.
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