nature-you.org Blog

130 participants in BBQ
10/28/2007

Nature You was mainly managed by Michael, the trip leader and Jessica, the hostess. It was usually under control with the help of other on-site volunteers, to name some: Moon, Kelly, Joseph Tong, Joe Lee, Miu, Feng Chen, Yim, Dodo, Aliena, Yat and Jeffrey. What if there were 130 participants? How many helpers we needed? On the 10/28 BBQ and hiking event, it showed Nature You was an adorable 10-month baby that all of us were patience and gave out parental love. I had someone helped from first minute to the end. I had someone helped without hesitation when I gave him an assignment. I had listened no one complaining even we found no restrooms in that picnic area. I had seen happy faces and warm smiles even under such a windy cold day. Nature You was going to grow stronger with such a strong backbone that had already built up. I am proud of you. We should rename the club as: Nature and You Club.

I had to reject a few late registrations on Friday because I found I had already hit the number of 130 with 25 cars and two 14-seats vans. Jessica had to prepare food for 130 and I had to bring more than 100 people to hike. It would be a big party and huge team. We had to buy some equipments because of the huge turned out. Most people arrived at Kanuwauke Picnic Area until 10am because some cars were late. The disastrous and unpredictable element on that day was the closure of restrooms in that picnic area. For those they had to use restrooms, the closest one was on Silvermine Lake area which was 7 miles away. Luckily, I had the vans drivers co-operated and gave a few extra rides for those had urgency.

I knew I should start the hiking as some of them had waited for an hour and the time would not be enough if we had to come back before 1pm. I led the first team of 64 people with Moon to the Yellow trail after climbing the unmarked portion. Since there was a second team after their restroom trip, I went back to the picnic area after left the team to Moon, Yat and Gary. With the help of walki talki, I would know where the team was. I brought back a few hikers and met the second team closed to the auto road. Xin Li volunteered to lead a small team of 4 women to catch up the main team and I led a team of 10 beginners hikers for a shorter route. My team was doing fine and reached Bowling Rocks at 12 noon. To my surprised, Xin Li had never caught up the main team. I knew I might have to start the mountain rescue today. Moon, Yat and Gary did a great job to lead 64 people with reasonable breaks and chances for photo taking. At the same time, the situation at the Picnic Area was under controlled with the helps from Jim Chen and his friend, Yan, Danielle, Linda, Mr. W. H. Yang, Jessica Lin, Bob Ruan, James Lee, Rosa and her friend.

On the trip going back, I met Xin Li’s team at the Yellow trail knowing she had made the wrong turn so they had hiked at the other part of the mountain. I passed my team to Xin Li and ran along Route 106 to the R-D trail to greet the main team. This was my way to support those great ad hoc leaders. I was so happy to see Moon and all other hikers coming along R-D trail. I couldn’t have handled 80 hikers without them. They should have enjoyed some great views on the trail with colorful fall foliages. I counted the number to make sure no one was lost before they passed me and entered the last 1.5 miles on Route 106. The weather was perfect with less wind and enough sunshine. This was a perfect trip that suitable for all hikers and photographers.

We were a little bit late to go back to the picnic area but we still had enough food for everyone. Jessica and more great chefs, like Sean, Karen Zhu, Ann, Emily, Ken, Fannie, Danielle, Gary Deng and Joe Lee had worked non-stop to cook, fry and clean up the area. We had salads, chicken wings, hams, pineapples, hotdog with sausage, miso soup, fruits, tofu, pickles, fish cakes and marsh murrow. Ann was the only one brought her homemade red bean cake and pumpkin pie to share. No one interested on icy drinks because it was really too cold on that day. I knew it was time for game and raffle so we didn’t need to stay too long before the sun was totally blocked by clouds.

The designated game for today was Bingo. With the help of Jim’s friend, we stood in the center of more than 100 people were liked performing artists. After the exciting moment for more than 30 minutes, 17 prizes were given away. It was then followed by another 20 minutes of raffle drawing to draw 30 winners for the small souvenirs. It was too cold and situation of no restrooms call for 5-6 hours were really tough for some families. It was understood that why most family cars left immediately after the raffle and getting the Hiking Passports and stamps. I still had a few great volunteers who could help to clean up the site and loaded up the equipment and leftovers back to the vehicles. What had learned today were: we should not have BBQ event after Columbus Day because when the restrooms might be closed and I would rather had more BBQ events during the whole year schedule than only 1 or 2 but with more than 100 people.

We are happy that Nature You Club has growth and well welcome by more and more participants. It is going to become an outdoor social club that cannot be handled by only Jessica and I. We need more leaders, more volunteers, more professional supports, more financial supports and more brains to make it a club for all nature lovers liked you.

Mountain Safety
10/21/2007

It was not an easy trip for beginners for this 7 miles West Mountain event. Due to the attraction of fall foliage to those who never saw coloring leaves in the mountain, it was unexpectedly I had 43 people signed up for this Level D tough hiking event. I could not convince those new hikers it was not a trip for them because they didn’t understand the difference between Level A and Level D. I decided to accept them because I had prepared an emergency route for those who would give up. It turned out, the story was not so easy and simple.

We met at Route 9 parking lot before 9:30am by 12 cars. It took quite long to have everyone signed up. It was so noise at the parking lot and had been late to start so I could only made a very brief briefing, without even counting the number of people. I had told everyone we would go by Blue trail and came back by R-D trail but not sure how many of them would remember. We climbed 15 minutes to reach the split point of Blue and Red trail which had already burned up some new hikers. The team which consisted of hikers of Level A to Level D made the team separated into segments. It resulted two small teams went into the wrong trail and lost contact with the main team. When I spotted I lost someone in the middle, the first team was smart enough to call mobile phone and turned back to the Blue trail. They caught up the main team in about 30 minutes. I knew the number was not right when I counted but still not sure who were missing. When Helen pointed out we didn’t see Joe Lee, Ling Yu and Eric, I thought I had lost 3 people. When Kelly Guo mentioned she had seen someone further down on that wrong trail, I knew I had to pay for my biggest failure in hiking leading ever. I told the team to proceed because they had been waiting for an hour and I went back to that trail to look for them. I would bring them back to the Blue from Trail 1777 which would likely be in another hour.

After hiking downhill back for about 1 mile, I saw Joe Lee, Ling Yu and Eric and 2 more, Joe Ding and Yvette were hiking up on the Blue trail. Shame of myself, I didn’t even know I had lost 5. It was because I had totally forgotten about Ya Ya and Gong Wen and counted 2 less from the beginning. This team had hiked 2 more miles and was missing for more than an hour because it was led by reckless leaders who refused to turn back even knowing they were on the wrong trail. Luckily, I had Joe Lee and Yvette who finally could persuade the team to turn back and I could meet them not far from the main team. Surprisingly, not everyone had the common sense of what to do when they went into the wrong trail. This piece of guideline would be found shortly in the website of Nature You.

All teammates were found and we took lunch at the junction of 1777 and Blue trail. People shared food and where I served them grapes and Jessica’s red bean cake which she learned from Ann. Because of the incidents, we wouldn’t have enough time to cover the entire 8 miles course. Joseph Tong and I agreed to cut short a tough mile and turned back along R-D as soon as possible. In fact, there were still great viewpoints in front of us and the last part of downhill R-D on stone debris would be challenging enough for those new hikers. Since I had cut short the course, I didn’t even ask if anyone wanted to take the easiest way downhill along 1777.

I paid extra precaution to lead the team to ensure no one would go off trail again because it would be more danger if it happened after the darkness came. Joe Lee fell and broke his nose on a flat trail likely because his mind was still being occupied by the hour of lost in the unmarked trail. Luckily, we had Dr. Hsu and medical petitioner, Zhao Li in the team that could take care of the patient.

We took the group picture at the Bald Mountain where we could have Bear Mountain Bridge at the background. We had a missing person on the photo because Feng Chan had missed the turn into this view point. He ran back but the group picture had just been finished. Due to mixture of levels, I let Moon led the fast team under my strict supervision while Jessica accompanied the beginners team at the back. The trip continued on R-D was mainly flat and downhill. We had two more patients: Danielle twisted her ankle and Dr. Hsu’s knees were pain at the downhill portion. All these had reflected that the first aid kid in my backpack was not good enough for serious wounds.

The terrific viewpoint at the point of last mile refreshed everyone especially for those who intended to watch fall foliage today. The slopes were colorful with enough vegetation and the view was wide opened. The sharp rock debris had pushed Zhao Li to put back her shoes instead of hiking under bare feet. With the help by Miu Lan and Xin Li to re-arrange the carpool at the endpoint, I let the fast hikers went home instead of waiting too long at the parking lot. The last hiker reached the parking lot at 6pm before the dusk came. I learned a big lesson today that the guidelines of mountain safety for beginners at briefing should not be neglected no matter how rush I was. I was kind of over-confidence.