nature-you.org Blog

A trip with 8 hiking leaders
April 20, 2008

We had 28 names on the official signed up list but 42 people hiked and totally 50 people joined this event. There were 14 people helping during the trip and another 8 people were here just for preparing BBQ food. The main characters were 20 kids and supporting characters were 8 hiking leaders from Nature You and 4 leaders from the girls scout team.

All 8 hiking leaders reached Silvermine Lake Picnic Area by 8:15am in order to put up the color ribbons. We finished 3 miles and came back by 9:30am to greet the participants. With the help of sending drivers a driving map, all vehicles were here on time. It was a trip organized for a girls scout team with 20 kids. A ranger came to tell us that all BBQ were prohibited at the picnic area because of the recent mountain fires in the park. We were shock because it was our only lunch for 50 people. Luckily, the humidity of today was high so they finally cancelled the ban.

In order to get more educational elements and fun during the trip, 20 kids were divided into 4 teams and there was a treasure hunting game on the trail. I had prepared each kid a colorful photo cute sheet to find the treasures. Emily and Ken led Vivian, Stephanie, Teresa, Rachel and Jewel. Dodo and Chung Kwong were leaders of Camille, Isabel, Rachel, Emily and Ashley. Moon and I led Yeliz, Audrey, Angela, Doreen and Olivia. Jessica and Eric were leaders of Brittany, Annie, Sharon, Cynthia and Alexander. Each team had to design an Olympic torch so they could start separately at a 5 minutes interval. This gave privacy times for both the leaders to teach hiking knowledge and for the kids to look for the color ribbons. The game was laid on the 1.5 miles Yellow trail from the lake to the shelter.

All teams proceeded well with the help of all leaders and supporting parents. Some girls were more exciting so they hiked fast. There were also smaller kids who felt not easy to walk on mud and stones. Annoying flies in that area was the worst element of today. I saw the joyful achievement faces when they found the color ribbons that hid behind the rocks or hanged on the branches. Most girls enjoyed the challenge. The trail was flat at the beginning along the lake but turned into steeper and rough uphill slope before the shelter. It was liked climbing a 25 floors building so it was difficult for all city people even the adults. We all reached the shelter and took the snacks break at this mid point. I did the prize presentation here before we headed back to the picnic area for lunch. There were prizes for ribbon game, hiking quiz, best torch designed and best participants of each team. All kids also received a compass from the girls scout fund so we taught them how to use this incredible tool on the site.

We went back along the same Yellow trail with easy pace as some kids might have felt hungry and tired. The only incident happened on this section was a kid ran and fell because of the slippery leaves on the trail. The injury was minor and she was fine after comfort from her mother. Her cried woke up everyone about how to hike smart. We enjoyed BBQ food at 1pm and the kids enjoyed the heating up of marsh morrows that I prepared. I gave out free Hiking Passport and stamps to all kids and hiking leaders as I considered this was a community services activity. All hiking leaders also received a souvenir from the girls scout management. The kids hoped my leaders would be back for another hiking trip and actually I hoped the kids would join our next kids hiking activity next month. There were lots of funs in nature as stated in the book of Richard Louv’s “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder”.

A ping pong to a basketball
April 13, 2008

According to Wikipedia, “A pond is a body of water smaller than a lake but there is no clear distinction between a pond and a lake.” This trip would visit both Green Pond and Island Pond. Even they were both named ponds but their sizes difference was big.

We had totally 19 hikers with 5 new friends in this trip. Aileen brought her husband, John and Winnie brought her friends, Cindy and Haley. We had only-Sunday hikers Jennifer and Warren and Brooklyn hikers Moon, Dodo, Chung Kwong and Eric. Emily and Jessica were in Ken’s car and David was in Sam’s SUV. Manhattan sent Masa and Danny represented upstate region. We first met at the gas station at 8:30am and supposed to meet again at the trail head by 9:30am.

Warren forgot the driving direction so he drove extra 50 miles to reach the trailhead. David left his camera on the roof of the car so he had to walk extra 1 mile back to get it. When our new hikers were tired at the end, whole group took extra time on waiting.  It was my pleasure to have a team of patient hikers who were so considerate.

We started first mile at 10:30am from flat Red Trails and climbed up Green Pond Mtn. after taking pictures with the small waterfall. The White Nurian Trail brought us to the Valley of Boulders where we saw some giant boulders on the side. David was so helpful to carry the bag for Haley and Eric and Chung Kwong accompanied with the new hikers at the back. After climbed up the viewpoint, we shifted to Yellow Trail in order to visit the first pond of today. Green Pond was so small that not even bigger than a standard size swimming pool. The surrounding vegetations were rich made this a quiet place with hope. We returned to White Trail until we hit the R-D Red Trail where half of the team remembered we were here last week. Since it had been 12:30pm and the shelter was too far, I called for lunch break at this point.

The clouds accumulated as if we might have to cut short our lunch time. We were lucky to have strong wind that the clouds moved away fast and rich sunshine kicked in. Each one enjoyed their food and we continued our trip after taking group pictures. The first group reached the Bald Rock Shelter in 20 minutes. Here I had enough time to peer off 10 oranges before the second group came. We took another group picture closed to the trail head of Lichen Trail. After finished the half mile Lichen Trail, we hit the AS-B Red Trail which would bring us to the famous Lemon Squeezer. No one was stuck in the narrow trail. Winnie was just too tired to uplift herself from the gap. Danny and Winnie made special posts over the gap. After we did a rock climbing exercise, we hiked last 1.5 miles on AT. We passed the second pond of today, Island Pond. It was a huge pond which likely bigger than one or two of the Seven Lakes family of Harriman Park. The name really could not tell the size of the body of water. The size difference between these two ponds was liked a ping pong to a basketball.

The last half mile of down hill trail was not easy for those with tired legs. The last hiker touched the end point by 4:45pm. It was a great achievement for those who had finished 6 miles in their first hiking trip.

Old members visit new places
April 5, 2008

We had 15 hikers today with no new member. Some of them had hiked with me for more than 30 trips since last year and I had hiked in Harriman Park since 1996, amazingly the trip today was a new place and new route for us. In order to hike on the new Orange Trail, we had to put Gong Wen’s car at the end point and all hikers were brought to the trailhead of Victory Blue Trail at 10am. This was the first time I used this parking lot in last 10 years. It was the first time I hiked on this section of Victory Blue Trail.

It was a designated 7 miles level C event so we had strong hikers including: Sunny, Moon, Dodo, Chung Kwong and Sean. We had Miu, Kelly, Helen and Jeffrey returned after the winter break. Mary and Janet were quite new but young. There would be no problem for Ya Ya when Gong Wen was around. After a short section on Blue Trail, we climbed to Parker Cabin Mtn. along R-D Red Trail. The wind was quite strong but the views were wide opened. We reached a place where a line of trees were “injury” by applying white cross tape. All hikers were surprised except me because I knew we were at the trailhead of White Cross. It was my first hike on White Cross Trail. The huge swamp area with long stem grasses was pretty. As this area was so remote, I guessed some grasses might be older than any of us in the team.

We would not finish the entire White Cross Trail otherwise it would add 2 more miles to the trip. We connected back to Victory Blue Trail and reached Lake Skenonto. Sunny and Gong Wen would probably recall this lake because they had played on this frozen lake in January. The flies were annoying at this spot so we had to postpone the lunch point to Tom Jones Shelter which was still 2 more miles away. The trip continued by Victory Blue which again a new hiking section for me. We entered a pine tree forest which was the only green land in the mountain by now. I guessed I had found the beach at Lake Sebago which was not far from the pine tree forest. This would probably be the destination of a trip in summer. When we were taking a break at the junction of Victory Blue and R-D Red, everyone realized we had been here this morning. We climbed 100 feet to reach the shelter where we met a Korean hiking group. We found their kids running around which showed reason why we usually met Korean hiking group in our trips. The weather was perfect now with enough sunshine. Nobody wanted to stay inside the shelter. Helen insisted that she had come this shelter last year with the group but I told her that was another shelter at West Mountain. She gave up.

We took full hour of lunch which surprised Jeffrey because he didn’t expect we could be so relax. We hiked down to Route 106 and climbed Black Rock Mtn. Mary and Ya Ya felt tired at this point. The trip continued on White Nurian and White Bar Trail. Gong Wen brought Ya Ya back to the car along Route 106. We went up the Car Pond Mtn. and took a break at the viewpoint where I served them oranges. We hit the Orange Trail in a quarter mile which again was a brand new trail for us. The wide trail was basically flat that was perfect for family of all ages. There was a stream along the trail which should be a good place for the children to play around during summer time.

It was becoming noisier at the last hundred feet of the trip. I first thought the wind was strong and found out it was the traffic on Interstate 87. We met our teammates at the car at 4pm.

Back up leaders and emergency plan
March 30, 2008

I was exciting for I had prepared a treasure hunting game for the group to play. I prepared game sheet, camera and … As a result, I forgot about the car key! After I explained to the group about the game and when it was ready to start, I found my car key was locked inside the car. I didn’t worry too much. I presumed a piece of wire, a park ranger or a park police could help or my friend could come to drop me the spare key. It turned out, we didn’t have the skill to open the car door with the wire, park ranger could not help, park police had no instrument and there was no phone signal at Silvermine Lake.

It was Mary’s first hike with Nature You and we had 13 hikers today. They had been getting cold after 30 minutes when I was waiting for the police to come back. I had to switch on the emergency plan. The tempting 300 feet ski slope which supposed to be the bonus trip at the end of the day had to be served now. I assigned Moon to lead the group to climb the slope. They enjoyed the climb and came back in 20 minutes. As I still had to stay with the car, luckily I had 2 backup leaders on site. Moon and Chung Kwong were assigned to bring the group starting hiking and playing the hunting game. I explained to them the route planned and promised I would catch them back later. With their experiences of hiking and help of walki talki, I was not going to lose the team in the mountain.

While they started the fun of playing the hunting game, I tried to run to the top of slope to get better phone reception. Too bad, the reception was still too weak to call. Two park police cars came back in another 15 minutes and tried to open the door for me with only wires. After trying for another 15 minutes, he did it. I rushed to the trail and caught the group during their lunch at noon at the shelter. Dodo was so helpful to take pictures of check points for me and the group even rebuilt the stone trail mark. We finished only 2 miles before lunch and had 5 more miles to go.

Next 3 miles continued on AT which was the same route as last week. Chung Kwong, Helen, Masa, Ken, Emily and Moon felt hiking easier than last week. We met a CMC hiking group on the way where Chi, Sandy, George and Mr. Chan were training on their annual 26 miles project. I served the group oranges again at the same table rock after the long uphill climbing. We connected to Long Path after a short section on an unmarked trail and started hiking on these 2 miles of new found land approaching the Hippo Rock.

There were a few up and down slopes on this section but the women hikers were hiking liked machines. Even our new hiker, Mary could follow the pace of Jennifer and others. Warren was the only representative from the men’s side who could stay at the front. It turned out, the photographers group liked David, Chung Kwong and Simon didn’t miss the special feature of Hippo Rock and the fast group had missed the junction of Yellow trail. Ken had to accompany Emily so he enjoyed the private time at the back.

We hiked downhill along Yellow trail and saw the pretty pine tree forest next to the quiet Lake Nawabanta. We took the last break at the lake and at the stone line along Seven Lakes Drive. Photo taking director, Dodo guided us to post the group picture. At the spot of just 3 minutes away from parking, we saw few tall giant trees standing in front of us. We appreciated this pretty scenery by making noise. We finished 7 miles by 4:30pm.

This was my first car key problem and luckily that didn’t destroy the hiking plan. A good leader is someone who can handle and will learn from emergency situation. A good trip is a trip should have a co-leader involved while planning.