Field notes: Hook Mountain, early

Up at 5:40, on the ridge by 6:20. The Hudson does a thing just after sunrise where the Westchester side is still gray but the water is already gold, and for about ten minutes the river looks like it is lit from below. Passed two runners, one dog, and a man with a tripod who clearly knew something I did not, because he was packing up as I arrived. Notes for the site: the trailhead parking fills by 8:30 on Saturdays and nobody tells you this anywhere. The kind of detail that never makes a tourism page and is exactly what a neighbor would say. That is the bar for every listing we write: would a neighbor bother to mention it? If not, cut it. Down by 7:30. Bagel earned.