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The lucky number is 8
March 22, 2008

I presumed there would be snow and ice on the mountain so a 5 miles course was set. It turned out winter left early with no snow remains. I decided to change the course to the other side of the mountain and made it a 8 miles trip. We had 17 hikers met at Tiorati Circle to join this event. It was Masa’s first trip and Moon’s 11th trip of this year. We had Chung Kwong, Emily and Ken just recovered from illness and insisted to finish the whole trip. It was nothing better than nature healing, I thought.

The parking lot was quite full today because of perfect weather. Even it was a little windy but not too cold. We saw at least three big hiking groups at the parking lot all started from the Blue trail. It was interesting that we separated after finished the 0. 3 mile Blue trail and then went to 3 different directions. No two teams had the same course and I didn’t see them again during the rest of the day. Our team continued on R-D towards William Brien Shelter. After a little up and down on Fingerboard Mountain, we crossed Seven Lake Drive and climbed the first big slope of 200 feet. We reached a junction of few trails in 3 miles. I tried to locate an unmarked trail so we could go down and climb up a challenging slope before hitting the shelter. Since the trailhead was not clear, Ray and I decided to lead the group along the valley by just followed the compass. There were stone trail marks at the beginning but the route disappeared after half mile. I could see some pale faces during this adventure section. After a mile of hiking in the wood and breaking through the bushes, we hit back the Yellow Trail. The 0.5 mile on climbing 200 feet on Yellow trail had created a great challenge to those who had hidden from hiking during winter.

We met a Korean hiking group at the William Brien Shelter. It was nice that they let us share their camp fire to warm the hands up after the 30 minutes lunch. Ya Ya served us her homemade cake and I distributed the oranges for the group. Ray found a well not far from the shelter which showed that here could be a camping site with water supply.

The parking lot was still 3.5 miles from us and our return trail continued on AT. The first 1.5 miles had a little up and down so as to warm us up after lunch break. The next whole mile of climbing 300 feet was the biggest challenge of today. I served them with rest of my oranges while we took a break at the table stone. When we were taking the last break at the junction of AT and R-D, Ray suggested to hike with more adventure on a direct route by cutting across the slope. Sarah, Sean, Ya Ya and Gong Wen followed. I brought the group back to the parking lot along hiking trail which was about 10 minutes later than the exploration team. We finished 8 miles before 3:30pm.

I know someone can hike 26 miles in 9 hours and someone can hike 63 miles non stop in 40 hours. They are not super humans but sure long term training is the key factor. How many miles can an ordinary person finish under normal hiking condition? I will say 8 is the lucky number. 8 miles can be the ceiling mileage for those need only gentle exercise. 8 miles is also just the bottom mileage for those who want to be trained to take the above extraordinary challenges

On the top of the roof
March 16, 2008

If you would like to experience how the Kung Fu experts walking on the roof, there was a place you could try on the Stockbridge Mountain shelter. Moon was the first one who stood on the top of the roof without breaking anything, including hers and its.

We had a group of 15 today met at Silvermine Lake Picnic Area with 4 cars. The new hiker was Daniel, teenager son of Danny Wu. We had Ya Ya, Gong Wen, Yat and Eric resumed hiking after taking a break for months. It was the monthly trip of Janet and Esther and coincidently they hiked at the same area last month. Silvermine Lake was the only place with restrooms open during winter. I designed a simple 5 miles route by climbing Yellow Trail and came back along Fire Road after visiting Lake Nawabanta. There was no more snow or ice on the trail that made the trip too easy for this professional hiking group. Therefore, we added a challenging 2 miles off trail at the end by climbing the 250 feet elevated ski trail.

After cutting through the BBQ and Picnic Area and crossing the Seven Lakes Drive, we were next to the Lake Nawabanta. The pine trees were still there and the lake was so quiet. We met a group of campers who had just finished their backpacking overnight at the shelter. They each carried a huge backpack that was their survival kits against the extremely freezing cold night hours. As the drizzle continued, some of our hikers had to put on their raincoats. Some of us just took this chance to test their Core-tex jackets. Moon pointed out the pretty scene of when small raindrops all hanging on the needle pine leaves.

The trip on Yellow trail was the only upslope in the morning. It was no problem at all for anyone if there was no ice on the trail. We saw the Stockbridge Mountain shelter in 2 miles. It was their first visit to this special shelter. The shelter was built with big rock at the back to lean on so we could even walk on the roof from the back. We had a few hikers experienced the feeling of being cats on the roof. The sky was gray but still attracted a lot of photo shots. We kept moving on downhill Long Path and met a Korean hiking group of about 15 hikers. We saw a woman hiking with umbrella. The last mile on Fire Road was easy and pretty. We found the 1 mile long Fire Road was all covered by a layer of green carpet, vegetation. It was a good trail for family of any ages. We took lunch at the pine trees forest next to the Lake with the nature music performed by a few wild geese. Danny served us homemade boiled eggs while Yat, Dodo and Eric shared their favorite hot drinks with others.

After taking the warm water restroom break at Silvermine Lake, we decided to add a bonus trip of 2 miles by climbing the 250 feet ski trail. Moon brought the group to reach the top without stops. All hikers could make it without heart attack even someone felt breathing challenge and someone felt legs shaking at the end. They all got a prize of orange from me. We all felt good and said it was worth climbing. The view over the parking lot was also terrific.

I intended to go down by 2 unmarked trails and then Yellow Trail but failed to locate the unmarked trail after trial for 20 minutes. As we saw the Lake in a distance, we decided to go straight down to it to test our leg muscles. We hit back the Yellow trail which was along the Silvermine Lake and back to the cars in a mile before 3pm. We did finally 7 miles in total with the climax at the end. The blue sky came to greet us for our success at this moment.

Earth, water, fire and air (wind)
March 9, 2008

According to Empedocles, the Greek Philosopher, earth, water, fire and air are four basic elements that build the universe. We saw these four elements all around on the mountain today. We had 10 people in the group with Xin being the first time hiker. I had Moon, Gary, Siwen, Dodo and Chung Kwong in my car while Warren picked up Jennifer, Helen and Xin from Flushing. We saw no snow remains on the highway which seemed to us winter might be almost reached its last phase.

We were greeted by cold strong wind when getting off from car. The strong wind was so freezing cold that I had to put on the hiking boots inside the car. We moved away quickly from the open area to the mountain. We started from the Red trail to climb a slope which almost defeated Xin. The high points on this portion were pretty when overlooking the 4 lakes in a line. While we were thinking the trip was too easy because there was no more snow on the trail. We saw only lots of mud and earth which liked we were hiking in regular seasons. Here we met the biggest challenge, water.

Since snow had melted that caused excess of water flew down along the valleys. The small streams all in a sudden transformed into rough running water. The water level was high and a thin sheet of slippery ice on the rocks made the crossing risky. Even the other magnificent seven had crossed and waited, Moon, Xin and I tried to go upstream to find a narrower spot to cross the river. After we successfully crossed the river and started walked back to meet the group, we found four of them crossed back the river and followed us at the back. Therefore, they had to cross the river one more time and we chased those three who had been likely waiting for us at Times Square.

Since the trail condition was so good, most hikers requested to add a bonus mile. As Gary found his leg was not fully recovered, he decided to go for original plan and wait for us at the shelter with Siwen while the others would hike extra mile on Lichen and White Bar. The scenery at Lichen was pretty but also accompanied by strong wind. When we almost reached the shelter at 12:30, I saw smoke came out from the chimney of shelter. I thought it must be Gary who set up a fire for us. Finally, we could hardly find Gary and Siwen in the shelter because there were a Korean hiking group, an American group and CMC hiking group at the spot. The fire was set up by the American group as they planned to stay overnight at the shelter. As more than 15 people were crowded there, our group could only find a hidden spot outside the shelter. Luckily, the wind was not too strong at this direction. We could enjoy 30 minutes lunch without rush. Moon served us her homemade food.

The afternoon portion was basically flat and down slope along Long Path. Gary found his leg was pain again so it was perfect for him to go slowly with 1 unbendable leg. Jennifer said it was so lucky to have sunshine today and suggested for another bonus mile. Therefore, we once again split the group and eight people hiked to the end of Yellow trail and went back by Red trail. We finished before 3:15pm and hiked totally 7 miles at last.

Products testing
March 2, 2008

Based on the ice skating experience 2 weeks ago, most hikers were more prepared for the snow or icy trail condition. We have 10 hikers today with 5 different kinds of external stabilizers. It made today more liked a products comparison trip. There were 3 hikers without any stabilizers. Mother Nature helped because the weather and trail condition was perfect today that they could enjoy the trip without any anti-slippery device.

Here were the products comparison groups: Moon and I used the simplest model which with only small coiled wire; Helen used an improved model than mine which with a belt at the front; Dodo used the model which claimed was the heaviest of all; Danny used the one with pins and a safe cap at the front; Sean and Karen used the one with chains at the bottom liked how we put onto the car wheels in winter. We had Yim came back to the hiking family since July last year. She was one of them who didn’t prepare stabilizers, no blame on her. Chung Kwong and Jennifer were the other two who liked to hike with their leg muscles and hiking techniques. They probably would know the best buy one after today’s products testing.

We started at the Visitors Center of Seven Lakes Drive at 9:45am. To prepare for the icy trail condition, I planned the trip with more uphill climbing in the morning and return from flat terrain. We went by White, Black and Yellow trail to reach Pine Meadow Lake and came back by White and Yellow trails. There were pretty scenic views in the morning with good snow condition. The snow was crispy but not slippery. We took a lot of pictures for the special nature features. We found shinny crystal water frozen at the streams, snow buns together at the valley looked like sand dunes, the surface of some snow buns melted with cracks looked like the top of tradition Chinese pineapple buns. The high points that overlooked the area with extensive snow coverage were so pretty especially under blue sky and sunshine. We stepped into a spot with snow accumulation of 2 feet which was so fun to see half length of legs disappeared. We moved slowly because of photo taking. We reached the lake by 12:30 after finished 3 miles. As ice started melting, the half frozen Pine Meadow Lake with both blue and white color was so pretty. The full lunch at the lakeside with light wind was so enjoyable.

I intended to bring the group back through Yellow trail but failed to locate the trail even after sending Moon to climb up a small hill. Luckily, there were pretty river scenes along White trail that hikers were happy to spend time on photo taking. Still, the trails were so easy that we were at the parking lot at 3pm.

Here was the products evaluation report: the championship went to Sean and Karen whose product showed reliable and durable. The rotten apple went to mine because it was not firm enough and the plastic was so weak that it was already broken when I put it onto my shoe.