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Campgaw, come more
January 26, 2008

It was historically the first ski trip of Nature You. Since most of all 19 people signed up were beginners, I decided to go Campgaw which was closer and trails comparatively easier. 19 people did show up but only 11 people officially joined this event. It was because those two families came by their own cars and basically they skied and played separately. We could not meet together even at the lunch break. That was the nature of ski trip– more individualized activity.

I had Amanda, Janet, Elaine, Esther, Claudia and Terrence in my van and Sean picked up Steven, Jafei and Linda from Flushing. When we saw Campgaw from a distance, everyone was exciting to see the white wide downhill trails. There was only 1 ski trail in this area with a steeper upper part and lower part was quite flat. All the beginners hesitated to join because the trail looked scary. Amanda and I lined up first so be the first group joined the 10 o’clock lesson. Our private instructor Mike was good. We knew the difference between pizza and French fries in skiing. We learned basic skills and started practicing at the training slope. Janet, Elaine, Esther, Claudia and Terrence were in the 11 o’clock lesson when Amanda and I decided to try to ski on the lower flat slope of the ski trail. We had problem of getting off the lift at the beginning when we took the lift together. We handled it better later when we decided to take lift individually.

After a few trials, looked like Amanda could handle the snow plow very effectively as she didn’t fall down even once on her first downhill ski experience. Sean was the only one trying on snowboard. He said, “Not easy when compare with skiing!” I met most of the other participants at the lunch break at the cafeteria. To my surprised, nobody except Linda tried on the ski lift. They all stayed only at the training ground and went upslope by the moving belt. Linda was mistakenly taken to the top of the mountain and felt helpless when seeing the steep slope. Finally, someone helped her coming down after she fell down a couple of time. Someone said, “The most tired part of the body in skiing is not the feet but the heart because my heart beat was double when skiing downhill in high speed!!”

We went out to play again for last 2 hours after lunch. Amanda improved a lot after a few more trials. She could control the turn a little bit. Linda stayed in her theoretical mode and needed more practice. Sean was getting perfection in his first snowboard experience. The other people were still happy with the easy gentle slope at the training ground.

Campgaw is really an ideal place for ski beginners. It is closed to the City which only 20 miles from the GWB. It is not necessary to go to a ski place with double diamond if we will have no chance to go up to it. We didn’t even go to the top of the mountain in this trip so we still have rooms to improve in our next visit. Campgaw, we will have to come more.

Seven Hills Plus
January 19, 2008

20 hikers showed up punctually at Visitor Center of Seven Lakes Drive by 9:30am to take the challenging 9 miles Seven Hills Plus event. There were 7 hills on Seven Hills Trail which was not easy even in normal trail condition. When adding the winter factors liked snow, ice and cold wind, it was going to be the most difficult trip for those hikers whose hiking histories were short. It turned out we found hiking potential was boundless if you had confidence and prepared. Even I extended the trip to 10 miles, all 20 hikers finished the event with joyfulness and fulfillment. We would feel tired for sure but that was what we wanted from exercise and outdoors.

The ice on trail was crispy which was not too bad because it was not slippery. The honeycomb effect on the ice showed it rained last night. First mile on Blue trail was a warmed up section with gentle slopes. When we reached the elbow turn where the Orange trail began, the climbing of first hill started. We took the first break at the merging point of Orange trail after a tough uphill. The team proceeded great and no one was left behind. The third mile probably the most difficult part of the trail since there was ice on the bare rocks. We had to look for a safer side trail or sit down to maintain the balance. Everyone thanked to the hiking pole which was so important to ensure the safety on icy trail except Ray who still trusted only on his strong legs and judgment. On a certain spot, Sarah and Ray showed us when to use their winter hiking companions—stabilizers. It was an additional device put on the bottom of the shoes to increase the friction against icy surface. We did have someone, liked Gary, Kelly, Aliena and I fell down but luckily we were all flexible enough to prevent from serious injury.

At the spot of fourth hill, we were in such a pretty viewpoint that most people took pictures no matter how cold it was there. There were pine trees on the rocks which David said it was quite similar to Huang Shan of China. Most people were hungry after 3 hours of hiking on the snow so we took lunch at a low attitude spot next to Pine Meadow Brook. Gary took out beer from his portable refrigerator (huge and 40 pounds backpack) to share and Eric shared his Malaysian hot coffee. Sunny served us her homemade pig tongue which had scared few hiking friends away.

Because there were three more hills to go so we had to wrap up. The fifth one was a tough one after the cooling off. At the junction of T-MI, I served pears for everyone to give them feeling of sweet but also announced there would be no short cut and whole team finished Seven Hills Trail to the end and hiked back through Stony Brook Yellow Trail. We would add 10 miles in our hiking record. I saw only eyes with high morale.

After finished 7 miles and 7 hills on Seven Hills Trail, we hiked 1 mile on unmarked trail which brought us into a lakeside picnic area. It was a nice place probably I would come again for the next BBQ event of Nature You. We took group picture in front of the Lake Sebago with the post liked Middle Ages knights (without horses). We connected to Yellow Trail for last 2 miles along the Stony Brook. The trail was completely flat but also more slippery because it was colder at the evening that froze the snow. After we finished the last half mile on Pine Meadow Red Trail, it indicated we could keep this unforgettable winter hiking experience in our memory forever. We were back to the parking lot by 4:15pm. I had a great team today who never complained, very cooperative and had positive attitude towards outdoor activity. We gained exercise, good memories, friendship, partnership, achievement and good time in one day, what could be done better? In addition, there was a bonus. We could put a note on “My Targets List” of the Hiking Passport because we had finished Seven Hills Trail and Stony Brook Trail full course. That was why this trip was called Seven Hills Plus.

Ice Cave without ice
January 13, 2008

We had a group of 35 people joined this trip intended to see the ice cave of Harriman. When we met at the trailhead at Tiorati Circle, we all realized it was unlikely that we could see any ice in today’s trip. The weather had been so warmed for weeks so we could just consider this a regular hiking trip. In order to give my friends a level B trip under such good weather, I announced we would take a longer route to increase to 6 miles. We had first time Nature You hikers: Tina, Sam and Lucy.

We started from the new Blue trail at the Picnic Area to connect to R-D Red trail. There was a gigantic water tank at the junction before climbing the first slope. Moon and Andy led the group at a fast pace, George Fung likely didn’t warm up enough so he felt impossible to catch up the pace of the group. I tried to encourage him to keep going until reached the Fingerboard shelter. Only a small group of faithful hikers followed me to the shelter while most of the other hikers skipped and kept walking. George decided to turn back after the break.

We reached the junction of Bottle Cap trail in 2 miles. Bottle Cap was a very special trail in which there were no color trail marks but white bottle caps. I found soda caps and Snapple caps were on the trees to indicate the route. There were a few steep slopes and the biggest challenge was looking for best way to cross the stream. We could see different personalities of people from what route they chose, on stones or jumped over water. To make this trip even more challenging, I announced we would add a fraction of mile to try Lemon Squeezer.

Lemon Squeezer was the 20 inches passage between two giant rocks. People with big backpack or body size would be stuck there and needed pushing or pulling. We all passed without being squeezed. Some fearless hikers challenged the rock climbing section before our lunch break. We found a nature shelter because it was too windy at the mountain top. It was more recommended to bring hot or warm lunch at winter hiking. You would feel the big difference between hot noodle soup and cold sandwiches.

We took group picture at the shelter of Long Path in 1.5 miles where I served the grapefruit to the group. One more mile on Long Path would bring us back to the Arden Valley Road. This section was quite flat. As I could see no single trace of snow on the hill in this area, I decided to go back to cars without taking any attempt to visit the Ice Cave. Since there was already another trip scheduled in February, those who had no chance to see Ice Cave today would have to come again. Last half mile on main road brought us back to the parking lot at 3:30pm. We had a gift presentation at the parking lot for those who achieved more than 10 or 20 stamps in 2007. Moon, Kelly, Ken, Emily, Dodo and Miu were awarded. There were a few more frequent hikers would get the gifts in coming trips.

Ice skating at Lake Skenonto
January 5, 2008

Most of the 22 hikers today were old friends except Marianna and David Dong. It was good because I knew how good they could hike. We started from R-D at Tuxedo Park Train Station at 10am when we were just behind another group of American hikers. The uphill slope to the viewpoint gave us a good time of doing exercise. There was still snow on the slope but very minimum on the trail. I led the team hiking in a relax pace in order to keep a distance from the front team. We reached the little pond in 1.5 miles to take the first break. The little icy waterfall had attracted a lot of photo shots. Since our destination was Lake Skenonto, I brought the group switch to Victory Blue trail heading to the Lake. The Victory trail was basically flat and wide with that we found funny feature over there. Water puddles were frozen with brown leaves inside which looked very similar to huge cups of jelly with fruit bunch. We walked on them carefully with hiking pole.

We took lunch at Lake Skenonto which was completely frozen with thick ice cap. The lakeview was so pretty. Someone threw stones but Kung Wen and Kwan Mui threw themselves down to test the thickness of the ice. They walked on the “lake”. Actually, this was the only chance we could reach the small island in the middle without getting wet but no one interested to explore that island. Too bad, they could only skate with hiking boots today. Should I suggest ice-skaters brought their equipment in my next trip to a lake? There was another group of Asian hikers taking lunch not far from us. It was supposed a winter hike when I planned this trip so 6 miles on snowy and icy trail would be as difficult as level C 8 miles. To our surprised, 90% of the trail was cleaned after warm weather for a few days. After taking full lunch at the lake, in order to keep the promise of giving everyone a trip of level C, I suggested changing the course to add 2 more up hills and increased to 7 miles. All hikers were happy with the upgrade.

We hiked on Yellow Triangle trail heading north to Parker Cabin Mtn. After encountered the American hiking team which came from opposite direction, we had to climb steep slope to connect to R-D. It was difficult for new hikers and hiking with full stomach made it more difficult. We waited at the hill top until all teammates completed the challenge. The downhill trail on R-D was easy with a few great viewpoints. We spent time there to play with the doggy, Happy. When we went back to the little pond, I served them the treats to re-charge before the last up hills. As it had been already quite late, Gary decided to bring Siwen and Marianna directly back to the cars from R-D trail. I led the group continued on Blue Disc trail climbing up 2 more icy slopes. It was the most challenging part of today. Since the clouds accumulated fast, I had to cut short the breaks and photo taking minutes. We stayed at Claudia Smith Den viewpoints only for a few minutes and climbed down TMI trail to merge back to R-D. Gary’s team was just 5 minutes ahead of us when we reached the cars at 4pm.

New Year, new record
January 1, 2008

When most people were waiting for the coming of 2008, 7 Nature-You hikers were busy preparing for tomorrow’s 15 miles challenge. Since there were 11 hills on the 15 miles snow covered trail, I ordered we should start as early as we could. Our menu today was from Tuxedo Train Station to Harriman Train Station, not on rail but on trail. We will hike 9 miles on R-D, then turned back along AT for 4 miles and last 2 miles on Blue Sapphire trail. We had only 2 vans so just minimum to set up shuttle plan. I picked up 2 Brooklyners (Moon and Eric) at 5:30am while Feng Chen picked up George, Jennifer and Gary from Flushing and Lexington Ave. We finished shuttle and started the first step of this New Year new record hike at 8am.

It was a cloudy day and rained as forecasted at 9am. There was still enough snow on the trail that made us very difficult to hike fast. The worst was icy condition on those bare rocks which were traps for inexperienced or careless hikers. We hiked under the rain but with high morale. We gave up raincoats because we preferred to hike non-stop to keep ourselves warm. The snow on the slopes and branches were pretty. We hiked 2 miles per hour in average which was not slow but might not be able to finish the whole course before dusk. Gary switched the turbo on with 2 hiking poles because he was hard determined to hit the target today. We couldn’t see him any more after 10am except his messages on the snow to comfort us he was fine on the trail. At the time without Gary, Moon and George usually hiked as snow breakers and Eric and Feng served as wipers.

After crossing Route 106 in 4 miles, we had conquered 4 hills. We even didn’t waste time to go Tom Jones Mtn shelter but tackled Black Rock Mtn. We reached Bald Rocks shelter at 6 miles point at 11am and decided to take a break. We met a small Korean hiking group and they were setting up fire. We decided to stay longer in the warm shelter and took early lunch without being exposed under the rain. Most of us felt cold in a few minutes because we were all wet. George made a mistake to pick the wrong pants which led rain flew into his shoes. I unzipped the wind breaker intended to dry up the sweater. Both of us were freezing cold during this moment of rest. I needed to borrow hand warmer powder pack from Eric. We rushed to go back to the trail after lunch. George hiked fast in order to warm up the cold feet and unfortunately made a wrong step on an icy rock. He fell and hurt seriously on his knee. I volunteered to bring him to a short cut trail after we reached Times Square. What an iron man! He insisted to keep going even we knew each step was a pain on his knee.

The sun came out after 12 noon. All six of us finished 9 miles on R-D around 2pm. We turned to AT as planned. Here Moon and Jennifer hiked so fast because Feng and Eric had to accompany George. The wound was getting worse, so George agreed to take short cut trail. Feng went with George on Long Path while Eric and I had to chase the women hikers. We caught them at Lemon Squeezer and saw the beautiful Island Pond. After putting a sign for Feng and George to show them the short cut trail to Arden Valley Road, we continued the last mile on AT.

As day light was running out and we were all tired after 8 hours on the trail, we reached Route 17 before 4pm but decided to walk last 2 miles on the road instead of going to trail in dusk. We were the first group to finish 15 miles to go back the car by 5pm. Feng ran back 15 minutes later and drove us on Route 17 to pick up George. The only one now missing was Gary who probably was still struggling in Blue Sapphire trail. Finally, we saw him with headlight in another 5 minutes. Welcome back, Gary.

This was a new record of Nature-You to have the longest 15 miles and most difficult Level D hiking. The snow and rain condition made the trip like hiking 18 miles and Level E. New Year day was a special day so it was memorable to do something crazy and special to break our records.

Winter view of Shore Trail
December 29, 2007

What made this trip so special? It was the last trip of Nature-You in 2007 and first of my winter trip on Shore Trail. I hiked at least 10 times on this trail but only in May or September. There were big difference in views and trail condition in different seasons. We had 28 participants joined this trip which included 4 new friends. Jacky and Zhang’s family were the last group to collect 2007 Hiking Passport.

We met at the gas station of Palisades Parkway at 9:30 and reached the boat basin on time. We found the historical Blackledge Kearny House and the restrooms of picnic area were all closed in winter. Too bad. After a short briefing at the trailhead, we started hiking 2 miles along the White trail. There were no more snow remains on the trail but wet fallen leaves made the trail slippery. Here I saw the biggest waterfall I never encountered before at this trail during summer. The rain in last 24 hours provided enough water to supply the fall. The trail along Hudson River shore gave us pretty views at water level. Dense fog was all over Hudson River in the morning. We saw mysterious Hudson Yonkers and heard siren blew from ships.

Since there was no other trail on this section, I stayed at the back to chat with Sean and Chung Kwong. To my surprised, all front group stopped there to wait for me to come up. The reason was they encountered a flooded trail that there seemed no way to cross. They needed my executive decision to go or to retreat. I went up stream carefully knowing the flooded area was not too large so decided to keep going. The whole group climbed up the slippery slopes or stepped into the bushes in order to find a piece of dry land. Tom Chou felt insecure since his leg was not 100% recovered after the surgery. To play safe, he turned back and waited for us at the parking lot.

When the team kept going for a while, I saw all people in the front behaved strange on something at the side of trail. Some women walked fast to pass the spot and some men inspected the subject very carefully. Wow, it was a dead deer with serious animal bites. Likely, it died here and became the dim sum of wild animals in the region. Luckily, it was in winter time so we didn’t smelt stinky.

At the junction of the Blue/White trail which supposed the point of going back, I decided to add 0.5 mile to visit and take lunch at Giant Stairs. There were giant rocks and enough stairs for all teammates to enjoy full lunch while facing Hudson River. The weather was so good that no one realized we were now in late late December. After a panel discussion on relationship chaired by Tom Dou, we walked back to that junction. It was time to go hiking finally as we had to climb up 500 feet in 0.3 mile. Actually, we all enjoyed this section even someone felt really tired. Jacky said this section worth him driving here instead of just walking blocks in Manhattan. We took group picture at the Women Federation Castle and had clear views over Hudson River under enough sunshine. The Blue trail going back was basically flat and wet. We crossed an artificial bridge to go closer to the cliff in midway.

We were attracted by the huge Park Police Headquarter mansion. It was also time for restroom call after almost 5 hours. We went down the slope back to the cars by Orange trail.

Rain, wind, snow—No fear
December 23, 2007

Snow storm blew away the trip last week. I heard someone said her legs were rusting because she had no hiking for 15 days. What a pity. Rain kicked in after midnight as forecasted. Eric and Dodo called to confirm about the trip at 6:30am. I decided to go at least for a few miles if weather kept going so rough. We had 9 fearless hikers (Moon, Sunny, Dodo, Eric, Yat, Chung Kwong, Gary, Jeffrey and I) experienced a wet hiking trip. There were slippery ice-snow-mixed trail and non-stop pouring rain from 10am to 7pm. Strong wind tortured us frequently to force us keep moving. It was the most difficult trip ever because under such unfavorable situations.

Rain was heavy when we were at the parking lot in the morning. Everyone put on the raincoat and nobody knows we couldn’t put it off until 5pm. Our hiking plan was an 8 miles one-way but I didn’t prepare one car at the endpoint because I thought we would have to turn back in 3 to 4 miles. We started on icy White trail climbing up Wildcat Mtn. We knew the importance of a hiking pole when tackled the icy slope. Hiking on snowy trail required extra cautious and energy because the steps were not steady. Gary got two poles so he could hike in higher gear. We finished 2 miles on White trail in 2 hours reached a historical Southfields Furnace. Rain didn’t stop for a minute and we had no choice but took lunch under the rain. Gary tested the high-tech self warmed lunch box while most of others had prepared hot instant noodles. Rain kept dropping into her noodle cup so Sunny had to take more minutes to finish the soup. Moon, Chung Kwong and Jeffrey were more used to healthy food– bread and fruits.

We continued on Red trail and then Yellow trail to climb Indian Hill. The viewpoints were pretty since it was wide opened and all hillsides were white. Moon served as an ice breaker as she hiked at the front. Gary took turned to help. Strong wind tore apart Sunny’s Mickey Mouse raincoat to create a deep V at the front. She probably needed a belt if she wanted to keep the raincoat for further use. We met a giant tree on the trail where everyone gave it a hug. We reached Blue trail and climbed the upslope to hit AT by 2pm.

Dodo, Jeffrey, Chung Kwong and Yat decided to take the AT down to Route 17 to cut short the trip and the other 5 would keep finished the 8 miles route. Both teams would likely have to walk along Route 17 to go back to the parking lot if we couldn’t hitch-hike a ride. Hopefully, the faster team could drive and pick up the slower team on the road. It turned out, the AT trail was not easy though. It was steep and icy so they moved very slowly. It took them more than an hour to finish 0.3 mile. There were about 3 miles on the Route 17.

We had problem to locate the Blue Sapphire trail at the beginning and found out the map was outdated. The Blue trail was basically flat but full of puddles and overflow water. We had to examine the best way to cross over the water. We finished last 3 miles at 3:30pm to see the big parking lot of Harriman Train Station and decided to walk back 6 miles along Route 17 because it was too cold to wait for pick up. Very strong wind blew against us made us at the edge of hypothermia. The resuce team came when we were 1 mile away from the destination.

We were at Dunkin Donut by 5:30pm where we could take off all wet clothes and socks. A hot drink under a roof gave us a feeling so warm and good. This trip was the biggest challenge for most of us to “play” under rough Mother Nature.