11 down to 9, 6 up to 7
August 26, 2007
“It is a trail recommend for those who wants to test their leg muscles” stated on the website. It turned out only 11 people signed up for this event. As weather forecast predicted a humid day would be, I decided to start the trip earlier. Moon could not make it on time at Manhattan because of subway delayed. Yuen called for personal in the morning so it further downsized the group. Before Karen and Martin arrived at 9am, I was wondering would the 20 lbs water melon be too big for only 7 participants. 9 hikers came to test their leg muscles to climb West Mountain and the Timp.
We started climbing the uphill slope after seeing the small nature swimming pool. The Blue trail brought us up to the Red trail in 1.25 miles after 800 feet elevation gain. Both Martin and I sweated like waterfalls. We took a long break at the junction since Wendy needed more time to overcome the slope.
We reached the most terrific viewpoints of the day after another uphill slope. We saw Bear Mtn Bridge, Perkins Tower and Hudson River down there with very greenish vegetation covered hills in the middle. The photographers could not stop taking photos and our lady hikers enjoyed the view so much that they could not wait to call their friend who had missed this trip.
We reached The Timp (about 1,100 feet) after climbing 2 more slopes. The wind was not too strong even at the mountain so it made our lunch time more relax. It was the right time to serve water melon. Amazingly, 20 pounds of cold sweet water melon were not really enough to fill up all hikers’ stomachs because we all needed water to cool off. Feng’s first designed penta-pot was failed so he rebuilt a quad-pot to complete the first group picture. We found another good view so he had to invent a 4-bags-pot to take another group picture. He was so creative that he should change his profession from computer into interior design. After lunch break, I decided to change the route so we could hike on marked trail instead of unmarked trail. I had a tough team today that I knew none of them was going to complaint about the change. This change upgraded the trip into 7 miles with an additional slope to climb.
We took a break at the West Mountain Shelter where Wendy lied down on the big rock to recharge. She said she really want to take a lap here if the whole group agreed. Karen and Martin were running out of water since they didn’t prepare for such an exhausting trip. Jessica shared her water with them. We climbed to the last viewpoint on S-BM and then followed by 1.5 miles of downhill slope until we reached 1777 trail. We came across a big lying trunk when showed balance beam should not be limited to women only in the Olympic Games because Feng could walk on it better than Miu, Wendy and Jessica.
The last mile in Doodletown was a historical walk. We saw many settlement remains of Doodletown by the help of notices and signs. There were about 300 population in this town before 1945 and was abandoned after 1965 because Harriman Park bought many of the Doodletown homes. The Doodletown Reservoir should be a good place to view foliage at fall season, we all agreed that we would be back soon.
