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Knee, legs, feet and toes
August 18, 2007

Quite a lot of people were waiting for this 12 miles hike to test their hiking limits. I had Yim, Miu, Moon, Kelly, XinLi, Aliena, Joe and Jessica joined again after their last 10 miles challenge. I had Karen, Wing, Feng, Wallace, Michael V, Zhao Li and Hui Yang joined to test their first long and challenging hike with us. Welcome and good luck.

It was such a good and perfect day for hiking that we could expect no more from our mother nature. Only it was too windy that made our lunch and breaks time shorter than usual. To learn from the last 10 miles event, I had ordered everyone to prepare at least 2 liters of water and we began our hiking earlier. I still had a quite heavy backpack because I had replaced the watermelon with a lot of snacks for the group.

There were a lot of construction works on the Blue trail. The team moved smoothly to reach the first viewpoint to overlook Visitor Center at a distance. When Wallace was photo taking for Feng at a cliff edge, strong wind blew away Yim’s hat and went directly to Feng. Like a baseball player, Feng was just tall and smart enough to catch the hat and brought back to the pitcher. It was a good catch, and luckily a safe one. We continued proceed to Claudius Smith Den with the help of strong wind and finished 2.5 miles at the end of Blue trail in 1.5 hours. The climb on R-D Red trail was a tough one but everyone had enough energy to overcome the steep slopes. We reached the most terrific viewpoint on Parker Cabin Mountain and took the most valuable group picture without other people’s help. Feng tied 3 hiking poles together to make a tripod and put his expensive camera over there under such a strong windy day. No other people will know the exciting story behind that photo except those 16 persons on the spot.

After going downhill from Tom Jones Mountain to reach Route 106, we were still energetic enough to climb Black Rock Mountain to have the lunch at the trail junction of White Nurian trail. This last slope before lunch was quite tough that tired Wallace and Feng so they had to sleep flat on the rock to take a lap. Aliena hurt her old wound on her knee and Zhao Li had to massage her toes. We finished half way and likely most people used up more than 50% of their energy except Jessica. She hiked amazingly fast and strong today to surprise everyone. We went downhill to go back to Route 106 and climbed Carr Pond Mountain on White Bar trail. On the way, I led the group off trail to find a mysterious shelter. The shelter was lack of maintenance and likely would be removed from the spot and the map. To bring the group back to the trail, I demonstrated how to use compass and map to find the direction of destination. A few people showed interest to learn and were qualified to enter my leaders training camp. More hills were overcome before we reached the Yellow trail. There was a newly marked Orange trail to bring people going to Parker Cabin Hollow.

We still had 4 more miles to go. The 2 miles flat Yellow trail was a heaven for most of hikers as their energy had been exhausted 80%. The last 2 uphill slopes had defeated most of the tired hikers. I heard most people had problems on legs, feet and toes. Moon, Kelly, Yim and Wing had muscle pain on legs. Miu and Karen felt tired on their feet. Both Zhao Li and Hui Yang had to walk on bare feet for a while as their toes were pain because their shoes were too tight. Aliena was still struggling on her knee problem for last 2 miles. Jessica said her old wounded ankle was pain but she just ignored it and kept walking at the front. Compared with the girls, all guys said nothing, may be because they were too shame to express the weakness before girls. I could tell from their eyes, this was their most challenging trip that out of their expectation. We completed the trip after 1.5 miles on White Kakiat trail and 0.5 mile on Blue trail. A cold sweet watermelon was ready and served at 4:45pm at the end.

It was normal to have leg muscle tired as we had used them for 8 hours. Legs and feet care were very important in long trip. How to take care of them during the trip so we could come back in 2 perfect pieces (2 legs) was the value of hiking experience. We usually learned by mistake, just tried to lessen the hurt from making wrong decision.

Sweat on Anthony’s Nose
August 12, 2007

“I never sweat so badly in any of previous hiking trips.” said Jeffrey. It probably was the same feeling of all 38 hikers on this 5 miles Anthony’s Nose trail under such a 90+ degree hot, humid and windless day. We had totally 10 cars coming from the city or New Jersey. Since I had so many cars, it would be fine to do car shuttle liked last week. I decided to change the course to a line route so I could see the section of Blue trail that I never hiked before.

We spent extra 20 minutes for the car shuttle, it was just fine for the late comers to catch the group. First 2/3 mile uphill slope on AT was a great struck to those not prepared. Needless to say, all hikers were sweating a lot after hiking up this slope. Those who had more hiking experience had no problem to complete it with or even without a break. Joe called me about 2 hikers at the back were going to quit when I had waited 15 minutes at the Blue trail. We just hiked 45 minutes, so I tried to persuade them not to give up. Finally, I saw them coming and finished the most difficult part of the day. Good job, Joe. Helen said she was not feeling good because of sleepless of last night.

The whole group met again at the most magnificent view point of the trail, Anthony’s Nose overseeing the Bear Mountain Bridge, Bear Mountain Inn, Bear Mountain Recreational Area and Hudson River. To stay longer at this spot, we decided to take early lunch and enjoyed the sweet and cold water melon. I knew until then it was a yellow water melon that surprised everyone and me indeed.

We continued the trip by going a lot of up and down hills even they were not as steep as the one in the morning. There were viewpoints on our right side but the sunny and windless weather made the hikers no mood to stay long. We were all just saying unbelievable when we found Zhao Lee hiked with bare feet to practice feet message. She falsified all my foot-care theories. All of us were like taking sauna with sweat coming out not only on the nose. We reached the temptation of a midway parking lot which made someone struggling to keep or to quit. Finally, 2 senior hikers decided to wait for picked up over there instead of holding the group too long. We climbed on another slope to reach a viewpoint where tea leaf eggs from Jessica were served. The last mile of the trip was not too bad just trail condition so rough that might have scared some new hikers. Mrs. Liu was injured at this last section because of tiresome.

We all sat on the green lawn waiting for the drivers to bring back their cars. There was an information center at the endpoint and a formal restroom was opened to public. That probably was the best treat of today because 90% of our outdoor activity came with only nature restrooms.

Fire Tower and Church
August 4, 2007

It was such a beautiful day and pretty areas that all 30 hikers should have enjoyed the trip very much. This was the first time that I practiced car shuttle. Some hikers were just wondering how came all drivers went away after dropping the passengers. It was because the trip was not a circle that came back to the same parking place. We had to prepare enough cars at the end point so some drivers could go back and pick up their cars at the start point.

I was lucky to have Joe who could help me pick up hikers from Manhattan so I could handle those met at Queens. After spending extra 20 minutes on car shuttle, all cars which were late had reached the trailhead. We were ready to climb Jackie Jones Mountain at 10:15am. We entered the gate on Route 106 and hiked uphill. There was a vast field of blueberry and a few raspberry trees on the trail side. Moon, Kelly and some pioneers hikers were early birds to pick up a lot of good ones. Hikers were happy to see a tower after 30 minutes exercise but I told them it was only the signal transmission tower of Verizon that we could never climb up there. There was another fire tower next to it that we could climb up the stairs and had a nice view over the area.

Most of our hikers were exciting to climb the fire tower and spotted the pretty Lake Welch Beach from a distance. The function of fire tower was fading out as space technology advanced. It was not necessary now to send a ranger here to watch by eyes because satellite or helicopter might be better to take care of the large mountainous area. We reached the Big Hill Shelter in another mile and decided to take early lunch there. We cut watermelon after lunch and kids helped buried the skin under a tree. They had fun and learned recycling theory on the field.

We continued the trip on Long Path approaching the St. John’s Church. Jeffrey mentioned he might have been there so we expected high to see a typical high ceiling church even with soda machine. It turned out it was only a typical small town church which still had Sunday services at noon for local residents. The church outside was still in good condition and the cemetery next to it was huge. Hikers saw civilized restrooms at that area but disappointed when I found they were locked and being guarded by a snake. They all could hold the necessity for 2 more miles.

The trail on Long Path was quite wide and clear of stones, so all hikers enjoyed the shades and talked freely. Someone said it was the best trail he ever hiked. I agreed because no fear of ankle twisted when hiking in this trail. We reached the end point, Lake Skannatati at 3pm. Chen’s family really wanted to go water when they saw other people were enjoying there. They decided to stay longer at the lake after we finished the car shuttle and giving out the stamps. The stamp today was specially designed because the fire tower was vertical object.