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From the viewpoint of Laisee 
June 23, 2007

There were 33 people in the group, some were tall (Bob) and big (Kit) while 3 were small (Alex, Chris and Karen). I was the shortest, no doubt. We reached Johnstontown Circle at 10am when we couldn’t start until 10:45am because of 1 car got lost. Alex, Chris and Sharon took turn to hold me. I couldn’t free running until we took break at the first viewpoint. When Michael tied me on a branch, I escaped from the necklace. We took a long break here because it was such a tough climbing and we had to wait for the late starting group to catch up.

The specialties of today’s group were: 7 people were co-workers of a law firm and Chan’s family could take their yearly family photo with nature light this year. Chia Mei brought her friend, May Wang who was a visitor from San Diego. Ray brought his hiking buddy, Bob who was a trip leader of AMC. Jenny brought her friend Kim, Li Hsin brought his father and nephew and Jessica brought her friends, Jason and me.

We passed Elbow Brush in a mile. Most people went through it as a rehearsal before the test of Lemon Squeezer next week. I didn’t go because Jessica led me by the high way instead of the official trail. When I hiked with big group, I would help the leader to count the hikers to ensure no one was missing. I would run between the front and back non-stop, this was fun especially when I scared someone by running passed her leg. I used to hike 150% of the official mileage.

We took lunch at the Claudius Smith Den which with pretty views over the tree tops. I saw people taking different kinds of food and so did I. I got many treats from people and I was also welcome by Moon and Kelly. I would ask Jessica if she could bring me to Brooklyn to visit them some day. Jessica served people tea eggs and Michael cut his green heavy balloon from his backpack once again. I saw everyone took a few pieces so its taste should be not bad. Michael and Joe dug a hole to bury the green skins because it would optimize the degradation process.

The trip after lunch was fast paced because someone had commitment after the hiking. It was fine because the trail was basically flat. We visited Dutch Doctor Shelter to take the last break and reached parking lot at 2:45pm. I was so happy to see Jason in the car again. He didn’t feel well so he returned back to the car early.

I had a question to NYC: could I get an individual Hiking Passport and today’s stamp?

Hike with father
June 17, 2007

Happy Father’s Day, or I supposed it was father’s happy day. It was an event of one day outing with family, healthy exercise in a beautiful country side and met new friends. We had 40 participants who came from more than 20 families. We had Wang’s family, Chan’s family and Zhao’s family which were led by father. We had couples who celebrated father’s day with wife liked Jean & Albert, Sandy & Joe, Chris & Pei Pei and Eddie & Sophia. Most of the group, we enjoyed this Father’s Day hiking with friends.

Our group was early but not the earliest to reach the Ramapo Mountain State Park at 9:15am as some other hikers had finished the hike. The snake moved slowly by climbing the first slope to hit the lake. The weather was nice and the lake view worth sweating exercise. We had no trace of any Mountain Laurel but replaced by clusters of water lily. We spent a long recovery time at this spot before the route walked around the Ramapo Lake.
The lake trail was flat and wide. There was a mansion by the lake with a private pier which was surely a dream house of many of us. How about swimming in the morning, fishing in the afternoon, boating at the evening, viewing sunrise and sunset two times a day and star watching at night? If it was once happened in your dream, you knew now it was real (for someone).

We stopped at the junction of lake trail and mountain trail. I told everyone that I heard about someone saw a bear last week at this point. We all searched around to see if any luck today. The toughest climb started that made some of us tired and sweated again. The crawl over the fence created many funny photos of today. The quick pass over that abandoned castle made everyone felt exciting if we came again at night. We found a giant mushroom on the trail further down. Wendy was smart to suggest putting a scale to show the size so she put her hand into our photos.

The move was smooth so we were early launched at the designated lunch point. Jessica served us tea eggs which was the reason of XinLi and Kelly’s participation today. Jean shared her sticky rice wrapping and Michael cut his 25 pounds watermelon. Amy and Eva enjoyed running around and touching water lily in the lake while someone enjoyed the feet water-cooling by taking off their shoes and socks. There were swimmers at the lake that Joe Lee said he would do the same thing if he brought shorts. During the lunch hour, I spot a harmony picture of Zhao’s family which was father and son sitting at the lake. Chan’s father was busy as he was the only man and camera man to take care of 4 women. Wang’s father enjoyed the moment when looking at how his daughter had fun with her new friend.

The journey continued with just flat but rocky trail. Luckily, the lake view and flowers at the lake were pretty that drove away the boring of mechanic walk. Actually, the easy walk also created chance and time for family talk. We got back to the first lake view spot around 1:30pm. After taking a few group pictures, we headed back and finished 6 miles activity when reached parking lot before 2pm.

To celebrate Father’s Day, Jessica had prepared chocolate topped strawberry at the end. Everyone was surprised about this last treat and all strawberry were gone in 3 minutes. I never saw my hikers welcome chocolate so crazy because I supposed most of them came out for calories burning.

Perfect time, perfect place, perfect group
June 9, 2007

It was the perfect time of the year that the weather was perfect on that day. It was cloudy which was good so we didn’t have to apply suntan lotion. The wind was stronger in the morning but perfect in the afternoon. Most important was the launching time of the pioneer team around 9am which was just perfect to catch the last BBQ grill.

Hessian Lake at Bear Mountain State Park was a perfect place for group BBQ. It was extremely suitable for family because there were variety of activities that appropriate for different interests and ages. The elderly could go for an easy lake walk, teenagers could go for boat rental, hiking or trailside museums and children could go for swimming pool, merry go round, zoo or playground. There were enough open spaces for group game or sports. Our pioneer team did a great job to find the perfect spot to accommodate 74 people.

We had a perfect group of 74 participants each sharing one common element: cheerful. I saw relax, co-operate, laughs, enjoyment, helpful, considerate and achievement during the entire event. There were formation of different teams on that day: pioneers team (7 members), chefs team (10 members), hiking team (53 members), badminton team (10 members), boating team (12 members), nap taking team (2 members), volleyball team (4 members), hula hoop team (7 members), hula hoop watching team (61 members), freebie team (4 members), swimming team (5 members), electronic game team (2 members) and drivers team (17 members). Moon had the biggest family (7) with the oldest and youngest participants, Fannie’s group was the biggest (8), one of David’s group members came from Connecticut, Tom came with canes, Chris’ group came from Long Island and Sarah’s brother was a visitor from Hong Kong.

We had 53 participants joined the hiking to Bear Mtn. It was only a 3 miles round trip which was a Level A activity if we had 4 hours to spend. Too bad, since I intended to finish it in 2 hours, it was quite a tough hike for new hikers and those didn’t prepare for the steep rock climbing. People started dropping out after finished the lakeshore section. As the trail went up slope on the big flat rock and stepped stone, the team size shrank gradually left only about 20 people completed the trip. When the young Jenny, Wendy’s daughter and Han Yang stood at the viewpoint, we all proud of their persistence. The viewpoint overlooked the Hudson River had compensated the strengthened leg muscle exercise. Unfortunately, David’s friend hurt her foot on the way going back which I hoped she would be fine soon.
We had 61 participants (Moon, Maggie and Tom’s family couldn’t stay to the end) enjoying the hula loop game. We had 4 contestants in the game with 57 cheer members. The contestants easily passed the 2 minutes qualified round. The second round was a competition on walking hula hoop that was still easy for them. The third round was swinging of 2 different sized hula hoops which finally determining Jackie was the championship. All audience enjoyed the keen competition and felt happy for such a good time of entertainment.

Seven Hills, seven challengers
June 3, 2007

I had never walked through Seven Hills Trail from end to end but definitely had covered the whole trail in separate hikes. In my memory, there were a lot of steep ups and downs and covered at least seven hills, that was the reason why the trail was named. Last year, I remembered I led a seasonal hiker to climb the first 5 hills and she almost fainted and heart attacked after the 2nd hill. Thus, I graded this 7 miles hike a Level D.

I had 12 participants today but only 11 will challenge 7 hills. Jessica’s foot still hurt so could only take the last 2 hills after meeting us at Pine Meadow Trail. I had Fong, ZhiGuang and Yim from whom I was confidence to have no problem to finish the trip. But, how about Karen, Kelly, Moon, Simon, Yvonne, Miu and ChungYuen those were hiking not so often or new Level D hikers? Would there be any heart attack cases happened that I had to take the short cut trail?

We started from Visitors Center at 10am after finished the car shuttle arrangement. First mile was a warm-up section so everybody walked comfortably fast. The trail was so green with huge areas of high rising trees. We got enough shades from them. After meeting a group of Korean hikers, we started climbing the first hill, Ramapo Torne. Everyone was exciting to see the 360 degree wide-open pretty views over Sloatsburg area from Ramapo Torne. It was a Grade A viewpoint. We went down slope and up again to reach Torne View. This was probably the toughest part of the day. Karen felt tired and ChungYuen needed massage to relax the muscle. Moon found no extra energy to carry the camera so I became the camera man. In fact, this was only Moon and Kelly’s second hike after their first Level A attempt. Kelly joined because she thought it was a Level B event. What a beautiful mistake that brought herself a big challenge.

The trip continued by going down and up again on third and fourth hill. We needed to use hands sometimes because of the rocky trail condition. ChungYuen questioned why the girls could walk so fast in the front while he could never catch them up. As time approaching 1pm, the lunch scheduled with Jessica, we didn’t take break too long even we had pretty viewpoints. After climbing the fifth hill and a long portion of downhill with hungry stomach, we met Jessica on time at Pine Meadow Trail. Today’s special serving from Jessica was salty ToFu and cherry.

Lunch at the heavy traffic trails junction point made us like a traffic lamp posts. Someone asked me for direction to the Lake because she was confused by this Red, White and Blue trail merging point. We climbed Diamond Mtn which was not easy for new hikers after sitting for so long. Simon fell to the back of the team so enjoyed more talking with Jessica and Miu said she forgot she had carried a hiking pole in her backpack at the moment she wanted to use one. Yvonne always walked with smile on her face, likely she felt another big achievement after the last tough hike in Hong Kong 10 years ago.

As clouds accumulated up there, we had to move on with faster pace. The trail went back to green color again on the last mile. We downhill slope after climbing the seventh hill showed us welcome arms for the successful attempt for everyone. All seven new Level D challengers finished the Seven Hills full course in 5 hours. We were additionally rewarded with a cold watermelon at the trail end.