nature-you.org Blog

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
10/20/2007

We had a beautiful day in a beautiful place and people with beautiful minds on this hiking event. Generally, fall colorful foliage would reach New York City around the last 2 weeks of October. A friend, Patrick from a church group asked if I could lead a hiking trip for them. It turned out he could recruit 22 people and I invited 11 people those who could not sign up for Nature-You’s last hiking event due to car limitation. We had 34 lucky people that could witness probably the best fall foliage views of this year. 90% of them were first time hikers with Nature You. It was the highest percentage ever.

The heavy rain didn’t stop until 2am that had probably shaken someone’s motive to come out. Luckily, the ground was dry in 5 hours so no one quitted in the morning. The sky after rain was all cleared. The weather was so beautiful with comfortably breeze had made the trip so enjoyable. All cars were amazingly punctual met at the Kanawauke Picnic Area around 9:30am. We all exclaimed the views were already terrific during the driving route passing through the lakes of Harriman Park. No one knew the best ones were waiting for us at the mountain top.

We walked along flat Route 106 to warm up our legs and cameras. The colorful vegetations at the lakesides had attracted all our new hikers’ eyes. We had a professional painter who had brought papers and brushes intended to transfer the sceneries onto his artwork. We entered the unmarked trail hiked up a long slope which had made some senior hikers tired. After a break at the junction of Yellow trail, we proceed to Bowling Rock. The wide opened view of Bowling Rock wide-opened the eyes of our new hikers. There were colorful vegetations at far away slopes and reddish or yellowish trees in front of our eyes. There were occasional streams due to heavy rain last night. Most of us experienced the feeling of feet wash with cold water.

The speed was slow due to pretty scenery. We lunched at Bald Rocks Shelter at noon where I served grapes and Jessica’s red bean cakes. Artist Cheng did not have enough time to finish the picture before we moved on at 1pm. The hike on R-D Red was even slower because here we encountered the best views of the trip. Though the trail was on some bare rocks but there were enough colorful vegetation on the side valleys. At one spot, we saw a chain of trees with different colors standing there like safeguards with some evergreen trees at the back. What a beautiful place and good color contrast it was.

We passed a lot of viewpoints along R-D which brought us to Times Square after I served them another big box of grapes and took the group picture. Mrs. Lu felt legs and knees pains after these few hours so she could move very slowly. We had Gary who helped to escort her with Jessica and Mr. Lu. Ada had helped message her legs. Louis encouraged her during the trip.

I decided to divide the team and brought the Church’s group back first to release the pressure on the slow hiker. We walked along Yellow and went back to the auto road after descending the unmarked trail. Karen helped me to give out the Passports and stamps when they got back to the parking lot while I hiked back to the Yellow trail to wait for the second team. We all understood we could find beautiful minds in the church so their separation wouldn’t hurt their reputation. I knew they all would pray for us. I got Patrick’s call at night to confirm with this.

We all accompanied Mrs. Lu to walk slowly on Yellow trail. Here we learned Mr. Lu was a famous film maker and producer before retired. At one spot while we were taking a break, Artist Cheng wrote a 4 lines poem on colorful leaves for Joe. Joe and I hiked fast to go back to the parking so Joe could drive Jessica’s car to pick up Mrs. Lu at the auto road. This would save her from 30 minutes of pain. Later on, I knew Joe was late to work because of assisting the group. I found 34 beautiful minds in this trip with very good team spirit.

Ages from 3 to 87 at Claudia Smith Den
October 14, 2007

When people signed up for this trip, they might have thought that it would be a sightseeing trip of fall foliage. Even I had emphasis to them about the steep slope on a few spots, nobody took it serious. I estimated it should be okay if no participants had legs or feet problem because we went back on an easy flat trail. Once they pushed themselves a little to overcome those 3 rocky sections, the rewards would be great because they would have beautiful views over the area with colorful vegetation on the hill sides. I had 55 signed up and finally 48 participated into this 4 miles Level B hiking event. More than 20 of them were first time with Nature You. There were two hikers, Mr. Tsou and Judy who told me they would go back Boston home at the same evening after the hiking.

Most vehicles arrived late due to FDR closed for a biking event. We had to switch to West Side Highway to leave the city. We met at Johnstontown Circle around 10am where I met Mr. Tsou, a 87 years old hiker and Aaron, a 3 years old hiker. Mr. Tsou used a stick to walk that made me worried if he would have problem climbing those rocky sections. Kwok’s 3 years old son would be fine since he would get a ride on his father’s back when he got tired.

We started on Blue Trail by passing through a construction site. There was a big project of putting new gas pipe under the fire route. We had to watch the blue ribbon instead of trail marks on some spots. The encounter with Almost Perpendicular likely scared someone but everyone enjoyed the panoramic viewpoint afterwards. The leaves colors were not so rich at this spot but sunshine bath and light breeze comforted all hikers. Both Mr. Tsou and Aaron were still energetic on the trail. We took a long break at that spot.

We continued the trip by went through the Elbow Brush, a very narrow passage through big stones. Mr. Rong, another 80 years old took a lot of pictures for new friends and the nature. We met an American hiking team here and found out Mr. Tsou still the most senior hiker of two teams. Some beginner hikers walked slowly because probably they never climbed up long stairs. We reached Claudia Smith Den around 12:30pm where we decided to take lunch at this very beautiful high rising exposure platform. Strong wind welcomed us by giving us cold hugs. I thought it might be too cold for someone to sit under strong wind after lunch. In order to avoid hypothermia, I served the first box of grapes and then kept going on the trail after taking a group picture.

The mile on TMI red trail was not difficult compared with the morning section. Little Aaron had taken his nap time on his father’s back after lunch. Some seniors or new hikers were tired. It left a big gap between the front and rear team. I gave Dodo a walki talki so she would help me led the front while I could stay in the middle to fill up the gap. As always, I had Jessica who will stayed at the back to be the sweeper. Additionally, we had Joe who accompanied Mr. Tsou during the entire afternoon. I served the group another 2 boxes of grapes to recharge the energy when we reached White Bar Trail. Due to the situation of the seniors, I decided to cancel the 5 minutes walk to visit the Dutch Doctor Shelter. We had only 1.5 miles wide flat trail to go which was the easiest portion of the trip back to the vehicles. Until now, I got comfort of mind that nobody would likely get into any trouble if he took it easy. Old friends and new friends walked in groups and enjoyed the sceneries of nature.

Very likely, all 48 hikers were happy with today’s pace, place and program. Those who had finished easily would enjoy the great views at the high points; those who never hiked so tough before could tell their friends how great they had done; those who never hiked would know the difference between hiking and walking.

1 event with 3 leaders, options of 5 or 7 miles
October 13, 2007

It was an experimental hiking plan to put 2 trips into 1 event and giving 2 options to participants on the spot. Since the hiking abilities of participants could be difference, what should be the most comfortable pace to fit different levels? Or, it might turn out nobody was happy. Today, after 3 miles of strengthened hike, they had a choice to pick a longer route of completing 7 miles or a shorter route of only 5 miles. This model worked only if I got reliable leaders to lead the split groups. And, I did.

We had 29 people signed up for this trip. Some hikers were old friends and I knew they could hike long distance and more of them were relatively new or friends first met. I expected more than half of them would stay with 5 miles as their first chapter. We met at parking lot on Route 106 around 9:30am. It was smooth that all vehicles came without problem. After a short briefing, we started on White Bar trail. There were up slopes and down slopes on this section before the break at the first viewpoint. Surprisingly, a young hiker, Maggie was frightened of going downhill probably because her shoes were slippery on loosing rocks. Her friends had to help by holding her hand. Jessica served her cherry tomatoes which had been seasoned by plum powder. Everyone surprised with the special powder and asked where to buy. Our pace was comfortably slow also because of good coloring nature. Alan, our professional photographer had found enough objects for his camera to shoot. He was also generous to share his experience and theory of photo taking with new friends at the back.

At one mile point after crossing a bridge, we met a new Orange trail. We took a break there where some ladies could go for restroom. Varies colors on individual trees gave enough chance for us to take the closed up shots. At one spot, Li Hsin’s father had to climb and sit on a huge stone in order to get the lake into his photo background. We finished two miles after completed the Yellow trail where we reached the prettiest viewpoints of this trip at Parker Cabin Mtn. The colorful vegetations on the hill side were so pretty. Some brushes were so reddish that attract most hikers to go into the picture. Here we met an American hiking team and a friend, Bob who I knew in last trip with Ray & Sarah. We took lunch at Tom Jones Mtn closed to the shelter where we had nice view over the area. At a spot before the lunch, Ann kicked an exposed root and fell because of watching the colorful leaves on the trees above. She had a small opening on her lip.

The weather was so perfect today that I thought those stayed home should feel regretted. The blue sky, the breeze and pretty sceneries made the hiking so enjoyable. We did have quite a lot of up hills and down hills in the morning, so only 7 hikers were ready to take the long route. After instructing Jessica how to lead 22 hikers by herself and where to turn back from Nurian White Trail, I ran to chase the 7 miles team that led by Moon. We would go further deep on R-D and turned back until we hit the Yellow Trail. The views on this part of Black Rock Mtn were also pretty. My team walked fast in order to catch the other team. It turned out the 5 miles team spent time on photo taking so we met them right at the junction of Nurian and White Bar. Two teams united so we took the chance to take a reunion picture by Alan. The last half mile was so easy and relaxed. We concluded the trip by seeing our cars at the parking lot by 3:30pm. I felt nobody wanted to leave because it was such a beautiful outing day and pleasant time together.

With the help of sub-team leaders, Jessica and Moon, we could make this trip be a happy trip for everyone. Those beginner hikers should feel have achieved a lot by climbing some hills and finished 5 miles. Those more experienced hikers should feel enough exercise by going two more miles in fast pace. This dual-head trip had proved it was possible to accommodate friends of different hiking levels in 1 trip.

R-D 12 miles, signature hike of NYC
October 6, 2007

12 people signed up for the first 12 miles R-D trail starting from Route 9W to Tiorati Picnic Area. We had to climb Dunderberg Mountain, Bald Mtn, The Timp, Black Mtn, Leterrock Mountain, and Goshen Mtn. Because of the ups and downs of those six mountains, total ascending and descending height were 2,600 feet and 1,600 feet respectively. According to Nalsmith’s Law (1 hour can hike flat 2.5 miles, ascends 1,500 feet adds 1 hour and descends 1,500 feet adds 0.5 hours), it supposed to take 7.5 hours to finish this trip without counting breaks and lunch time. We started quite late because we had to prepare shuttle. Jessica, Jeffrey, Helen, George and Aliena started at 9am. After I drove Moon, Sunny, Chen Feng, Wallace, Mike V, and Yat from trail end to the trailhead, we started at 9:45am.

We climbed 900 feet all the way to the first hill of Dunderbery Mountain which was the toughest part of today. The stony trail and hiked without a warming up flat trail had given us a good testing of leg muscles and breathing mechanism. We could not see anything at the first viewpoint because it was quiet foggy and humid on that day. This increased the difficulty to the hikers. We caught up the early team at the 2 miles point where we had the reunion party to share my first box of grapes. Jeffrey had overdosed his water at this early section that lied the reason of his quit at 7 miles point.

We proceed to climb another 200 feet to cover the Dunderberg Mountain and another 100 feet to Bald Mtn, where we reached the best viewpoint of the day. We took our first group picture here. We climbed 100 feet to reach another viewpoint and took lunch at the 1777 trail junction. Moon fell here before the lunch point and hurt her leg and waist. Jeffrey found the best stone with even a tree at the back to lean on to enjoy his lunch. Here I pulled out the second box of grapes to share. We finished only 3.5 miles so far at noon.

We knew we had to increase the speed after lunch. R-D by-passed The Timp but still climbed 400 feet to reach another viewpoint. We took our second group picture here. Moon and George were fast hikers so they were ready to go again when the other people were just reaching there. Jeffrey joked that why they were so afraid of him. Moon was almost screaming at this spot because she encountered a poisonous snake at the brush which was only 5 steps away from her. They stared at each other for more than 2 minutes and Moon won the battle.

We reached the 7 miles point at 3pm where Jeffrey was the first one running out of gas and water so he decided to stop there and waited for us at Palisades Parkway bookstore. Jessica and Yat also found problems on legs and feet so followed Jeffrey’s route. They donated all their water reserves and hiking poles to the group to support the teammates. Helen was questioned and rejected by me to join the Breakneck trip last week because she was new in Nature You. She had an unmovable mission today to complete the whole trip in order to prove that she was qualified for tough trips. Therefore, she didn’t quit even she felt very tired. It was Sunny’s second hiking in her life on today’s trip. She did great and enjoyed the exercise even she said it was never so tired. Mike V and Wallace had to sit on everything they could find during the break. Aliena didn’t get knee pain during this trip so she kept onto the trip.

We still had to climb 2 more up hills before reached the William Brien Shelter in 2.5 miles. I took out the third box of grapes for the group before reached the Shelter after those difficult slopes. It undoubtedly was the toughest trip to Aliena, Wallace, Sunny, Mike V and Moon. Chen Feng saw another snake at that spot but too late to inform George, the snake catcher. Probably only Chen Feng and George would have mood to play with snakes while others had to take time to rest.

We took a long break at the Shelter and finished the last 2 easy miles to reach the Seven Lakes Drive. The final 0.5 mile was on the auto road because it would be upgraded to 13 miles if we follow R-D to Fingerboard Mountain. It was 6pm when we reached the trail end parking lot. I drove Yat’s van to pick up my van and Wallace was nice to help driving it back to the Bookstore to return to the owner. It took us totally 9 hours to finish this 12 miles which was already quite a fast pace because we spent a lot of time to take pictures. This 12 miles R-D trail could be the signature trip of Nature You which could test the hiking level of our hikers. I was doing the feasibility study during the trip of how to actualize the dream of R-D 22 miles full course in 1 day. The must-bring equipment is a good headlight, I am sure.

Hiking, celebrating and apple picking
September 30, 2007

The program was not so rich until I got the request from Diana who would like to secretly set up a surprise birthday party for her husband. I knew Kwok Ng 10 years ago so I didn’t hesitate to plan on it. With the input of Jessica, we finalized the order of the 3 events: hiking, birthday party and apple picking. Since I had about 70 people signed up, in order to minimize the impact to the public, I chose Johnstontown Circle instead of Visitor Center to be the party place. I decided to change the trail from 5 miles Pine Meadow Lake into 4 miles Dutch Doctor Shelter that would also save time for the celebration. Apple picking likely was a magnet to attract people to join so I had a 70 people team. It was the first time we rented a 14 seats van to provide transportation. If people didn’t mind about paying more, it should be the best solution on the problem of shortage of drivers.

Quite a few inexperienced drivers were late to reach Johnstontown Circle. We had waited too long and wind too cold to stay so I decided to start the program. Luckily, I had Kelly Guo helped me to be the sweeper so Jessica could stay at the trail end to prepare for the party. The team hiked on almost flat White Bar trail until we reached the Dutch Doctor Shelter in 1.5 miles. We took early lunch at the Shelter until the late comers caught up and where I gave away the stamps. The grapes were super sweet and other teammates were also happy to share food. There was a group of Korean hikers who had set up a camp fire over there which attracted our young hikers to play with.

As time is running tight, I decided to lead the team went back on the same trail to start the second event. Jessica had 2 hours of quiet time so should have finished the decoration and preparation. Because of Kwok’s 5 years old son had been tired, Kwok’s family stayed at the back which gave us a perfect setting of all others were greeting the birthday boy at the finish line. Kwok opened his mouth wide with smiling face. Surprised!! Such a coincidence, there was another birthday girl on the same day.

We cut 3 cakes and served drinks for all participants. Rangers interrupted that we were not supposed to have a party on the lawn. He also reminded us to move away the cars if we had parked outside the Circle. We wrapped up the party quickly and moved on to the next event, apple picking.

The drive to the orchard was unexpectedly long because of police activity and popularity of the orchard. The cars lines to enter the orchard were long and the orchard was full of apple pickers. It had taken us more than an hour to drive 18 miles. Since we had more than 10 cars and the orchard was very big, it was impossible to see the whole group again. I knew someone left quiet early and most cars left before 4pm. I guessed most people enjoyed the time there even someone told me they were more interested on pear picking.

Besides and behind the Breakneck Ridge
September 29, 2007

Breakneck Ridge, what a horrible name. My experience of leading hiking trips told me it is not a usual hiking trip but with adventure element because some rock climbing technique required. Also, the loose stony trail and entire mile of upslope climbing are not easy for beginners. I had seen a young woman’s lips turned black and face turned pale after climbing 10 minutes on the trail. In addition that, in order to make this trip super challenging, we would climb up Bull Hill after descending from Breakneck. Because of this reason, I rejected a few new hikers and accepted only 12 sign ups. We had 3 cars on that day so car shuttle was not a problem.

It was a shame that the alarm clock was wrongly set the night before that made me overslept. Luckily, Chen Feng could substitute and picked up those “orphans” at Manhattan for me. We had 2 new faces of NYC, Sunny and Kwan Mui; long trips fans: Moon, Kelly, Miu, Xin Li, Chen Feng, Jessica and Mike V. It was Danny’s second trip with NYC and Joe Lee’s toughest trip so far. We began the hiking at 10:15am.

It took us an hour to climb to the first viewpoint which was only 0.3 mile. The reason was two folds: trail was not easy and scenery was beautiful. All photographers were busy taking photos. There were so many hikers on the trail including a group of teenagers. It was disappointed that the huge American flag was gone and replaced by a paper sized one. We took the group picture at this spot with the help of Chen Feng’s magic tripod and his speedy 10 seconds running down from the small hill.

The trail was marked on a huge rock which was the biggest challenging spot of the day. All guys and most of lady hikers could climb up except Miu and Kelly who needed a helping hand or leg. Joe had extensive experience on rock climbing in Taiwan so he took this chance to instruct the young hikers. Nicer viewpoints came as we climbed higher on Breakneck Ridge. We took lunch at a viewpoint at 12:30 after finished only 1.5 miles.

The descending trail from Breakneck was fast. We reached the abandoned church and settlements in 0.5 mile. The trail then turned east and climbed up the 1,000 feet Bull Hill. It was my first time climbed up this mountain. The views from Bull Hill overlooking Hudson River and Storm King State Park were great. It looked like was a popular trail because we met a lot of hikers coming up from Cold Spring. It might be a substitute trail for those afraid of the Breakneck Ridge. As the trail descending, we went to a viewpoint that could include entire Cold Spring town. We could even see people playing football in the field.

There was a big hole on the Bull Hill which looked like an impact strike of meteor from outer space. The truth was mining. The granite rocks were dug out here when they built Brooklyn Bridge in 1870. We had a closed look at the mine hole. It was as huge as Shea Stadium. After the final 0.5 mile downhill, we reached the parking lot at Little Stony Point at 3:30pm. We had a strong team today. I conclude it is time to plan for long trip to the west coast or outside New York State. Our hiking potential cannot be tested if we stay only within Harriman State Park.

Miracles on Moon Watching
September 22, 2007

In order to combine hiking and moon watching activities, my agenda was a tough hiking at 1pm for 4 miles and then hiked 1 mile easy to nearby hill top to wait for the moon raising. Since we had to watch the moon until dark, we were going to prepare simple dinner for all participants at the mountain. The tough hike scared 20 people (from a few families) away so they would join only moon watching. We had another 20 hikers who would take the challenge of finishing 4 miles up and down West Mountain within 4 hours. We had new friends liked Yao Rong, Vivian and Helen. We had relatively new hikers liked Kelly Kwan, Lu, Yat, Magy and Sum Yee.

Miracle started at 1pm. This was the time we supposed started hiking when it was raining heavily. Luckily, we were still in our cars because of bad traffic condition. The rain stopped with miracle when we were ready to hike at 2pm. The rain had cooled off the high temperature of the mountain given us more favorite weather to hike. The foggy mountain was liked fairyland. It was beautiful.

The sky was still cloudy during the day. We climbed up from Yellow trail to West Mountain. The unexpected little Vivian did fantastic great to hike on the stony trail. We took a short break at the shelter but the far view over Hudson River was blocked by dense fog. We met a group of boy scouts whom were going to stay overnight at the backyard of the shelter. We were questioning where they could find water in this area unless they carried it up in their huge backpacks.

We continued the trip by hiking on the Blue trail. The West Mountain ridge gave away a lot of great viewpoints over the area. On a section of trail, yellow leaves were covering the trail and hanging on the branches of both sides. We seemed entered into a golden corridor. Joe was busy taking notes for his trip article. Blue trail merged with AT in quarter mile. Miracle came again at this moment that we had a clearer sky and the viewpoints on AT were terrific. Last mile on AT were mostly downhill. We needed to be hurry because there were other 20 people waiting at the other spot since 4pm. It was almost 5pm now, our trip was pushed back because of late started.

Chris, Kwok, Feng, Wallace and Lalita’s families were waiting at the parking area of Torrey Memorial when we reached there by 5pm. We rushed to take out all dinner stuff and proceed to our moon watching spot. It was a short 1 mile hike with some slopes to climb. It would not be so easy when we went back the same trail with only flash light and moonlight tonight.

We knew where to be set as the kitchen and assigned a restroom area as we had scouted the place a few days ago. Ray and Sarah were there for an hour and finished a lap before we moved in. The view of sunset was great so all photographers were busy catching the last moment of the sun before it went behind mountains. Jessica started her cooking assignment with the help of Pei Pei, Chris, Karen, Aliena and Kelly. Kelly Kwan and Michael decorated the area with lanterns to make the arena more related with Moon Festival. Jeffrey started his career of tea supplier for everyone with his tiny mini teapot. Feng set up a tent so the kids had a place to challenge the record of “how many people can be fit into that small tent?” Since the cooking utensils were not functioned well, the dinner were served in segments. It had more than an hour difference for the last person to get his dinner. The rice noodle with homemade BBQ pork, egg and meat slice were delicious. We were also served with peanuts, strawberry and moon cakes. The moon was not perfectly round. Miracle kicked in to give us quite a long moment of clear sky so we could practice moon watching. Not even 1 drop of rain was recorded during the whole event.

When all food was finished and all faces were cooled by strong wind after 3 hours, it was time for departure at 9:15pm. We packed the stuff quick and started the night journey. Parents were worried about their kids since it was totally dark at the mountain. A long line of flash light probably would be showed if someone flew over us. The move was slow since the downhill slope was not easy without clear vision. Moon led the fast group while I led the bigger group at the back. We reached the parking lot around 9:45pm. It was the first moon watching trip of Nature-You which I thought it would attract an even bigger signed up next time.