nature-you.org Blog

Kids hike and kids swim
May 18, 2008

The weather was perfectly good on Saturday but it would turn bad on Sunday afternoon after 1 pm according to weather forecast. I had 22 signed up with 5 kids joined this second Kids Hike of this year. Since the spotlights were on kids so the program was only 4 miles, I hoped if I could have 3 hours of good weather to give the kids and all parents a safe and pleasant trip.

Only 17 people could show up because of various reasons. Our focusing 3 kids were Travis and Tricia from Wang’s family and Eileen from He’s family. Ken and Emily brought Paula. Jacky brought Rosa, Fiona, Wing Cheong and Helen’s family. Wang’s family and Danny drove by themselves. I had Dodo and Moon in my car. We met at Silvermine Lake Picnic Area by 9:30 am. While all hikers were watching the pretty lake views, our co-leaders, Moon and Dodo had been on the trip because they had to tie the color ribbons on those spots for the treasure hunting game. I explained the game to the young hikers and they were exciting to start without hesitation.

We started on Yellow trail to reach William Brien Shelter in 1.5 miles. The pace was fast because the kids would like to be the first one to find the ribbons. It was not too easy because our co-leaders tied them on relatively hidden places. When Moon called me from walki talki that their mission completed, I felt safe that we wouldn’t hike too fast. The last 0.5 mile was really tough for new hikers because of steep uphill slope. Dodo and Moon applauded at the endpoint to greet everybody. We took a long break at the shelter where I presented the prizes for all game winners.

The sky turned a little bit cloudy so it was time to turn back. We hiked downhill for 0.5 mile and went into the flat unmarked trail that we explored 2 weeks ago. As I would like to bring the group to the pine forest of Lake Nawahunta for lunch, it was the easiest route link to that direction. Kids enjoyed the safe and flat unmarked trail and they could run here. We reached Seven Lakes Drive in 1 mile. We walked along the road and first viewed the pretty Lake Nawahunta from this angle. The water was so clear and nearby hills was so green. The reflection on the lake was so clear that it gave us a lot of greenish photos. Our photographers, Dodo and Danny took very good shots here. Here we also saw a family of ducks with 5 ducklings. I organized kids hike today and they had kids swim in the lake. What a co-incidence!

We took lunch under the pine trees next to the lake. When Jacky was warming up the noodles, I started enjoying Moon’s colorful salad. He picked up so fast and could destroy the 2 packs of noodles faster than me. Rosa shared us oranges. Little Eileen asked if it was time to cut the watermelon so I pulled out the 15 pounds watermelon from my backpack. It was a little bit cold today but still fine to enjoy the cold and sweet watermelon in the mountain.

Kids are running around after lunch but the clouds accumulated fast so we didn’t have too much time to play around the lake. We went back to the parking lot in 15 minutes and finished the whole trip at 1 pm. We were lucky to have 3 hours of good weather. Be accurate, 3.5 hours because rain started at 1:30 pm sharp.

A hiking that could watch biking race
May 11, 2008

It was planned as 8 miles level C trip so attracted 24 people signed up. Even the trail was not too steep but I announced it would be a fast pace trip because I would like to finish early so people could celebrate Mother’s Day. I thought my request was not too much because most of them were experienced hikers except Bai and Mao. A compliment to all mothers in Mother’s Day, I announced of waive of activity fee for all ever mothers.

8 cars brought all hikers arrived Lake Askoti by 9:30am which was early enough that we could pick the best parking spots. I had Sean brought Jennifer, Helen and Ling, Sam brought David, Bai and Mao, Warren brought Wing Cheong and Hua, Miu brought Sunny, Feng brought Esther, Janet and Gary, I brought Moon, Eric, Dodo and Masa, Danny and Kevin just brought himself individually. It was a perfect day for hiking with enough sunshine for photo taking.

The course today was TMI Red, Red Cross, Beech Blue and Long Path. The special feature today was we had to cross auto road for 7 times to complete the circle. Because of this special feature, we met and applauded the huge biking group 3 times during the trip. The steep slope on TMI Red right after start might have scared someone but they found later it was already 50% of today’s challenge. We shifted to Red Cross in 0.5 mile and enjoyed 3 miles relatively wet and flat trail. We first met the biking group at Seven Lakes Drive when we heard car horning at the back. We then found a cluster of about 70 colorful bikers was leading by a command vehicle. We cheered for them. They had no response because no one could slow down. We reached Tiorati Brook Road at 2.5 miles when we saw the biking group again. We cheered them again and they had no response again because the race was really closed.

We finished 3 miles Red Cross and shifted to Beech Blue. The trail was downhill until we hit Tiorati Brook Road again in a mile. We met the biking group again. We cheered again and we received a few responses from them. Likely, the race was almost over so some of them could have a moment to thank us. The trail ascended steeply for 2 miles which was more challenging for experienced hikers. Everyone just tried not to take break and went non-stop. This gave a little hard time to the new hikers. We took lunch at a slope where we could find enough stones to sit. Moon treated me healthy lunch and I gave all teammates the tangerines from my backpack. Eric shared us hot Malaysian coffee and David shared the roast beef. Jennifer served us homemade water chestnut sweet cake and Hua served all mothers special chocolate while the non-mothers could pick a candy.

Two more miles to go but the new hikers could not get used to fast pace. Feng was nice to stay at the back. We crossed Route 106 and switched to Long Path which was the last mile of our trip. We crossed Route 106 again and reached Seven Lakes Drive in a mile. As it was early and the parking lot was just 50 feet away, most of us spent a long time at the bank of Lake Askoti. We saw young fisherman caught a small fish. Most girls took pretty photos in front of the beautiful lake. The whole group finished the 8 miles trip at 3pm.

There was difference in hiking speed and we didn’t go to any mountain top today so we didn’t have a chance to take group pictures. I planned to do it at the parking lot but surprisingly the parking lot was so full that we couldn’t find any wide open space. This was the only time we didn’t have any group pictures while we had Feng, Dodo and Sean in the team. We all thank Moon who designed and gave us such a pretty and memorable hiking stamps on this Mother’s Day.

What level was this trip?
May 4, 2008

I knew I had to change the hiking route because we found some animal bones remains on the Long Path two weeks ago. The trip would be upgraded from 5 miles level A into 7 miles level B. I had more than 20 people signed up but a few decided to quit due to unstable weather. Finally, only 15 lucky ones could enjoy full day of sunshine and saw the special feature of Hippo Rock. I had Ng’s family with 67 years old grandma, 10 years old Emily and 4 years old Aaron. It was Cheng Fang and Wing Cheung’s first trip with Nature You this year and all others were old hiking friends.

We started at 9:45 along Yellow trail. Aaron met me last year and he was kind of remembered me. He asked for me to hold his hand and told me a lot of his experience of foreign trips. He learned how to read trail marks last year so proud to tell me he found the next trail mark on the tree. When I had to go to the front to lead the team, he shouted, “Michael, wait for me” and tried to catch up. We hiked a mile and turned into the unmarked trail because it was the short cut that could link us to AT. The unmarked trail was so wide and flat that was very suitable for family of all ages. We crossed Seven Lakes Drive and climbed Fingerboard Mountain. It was only a normal steep upslope for most of us but not easy at all for those new hikers.

The trip continued by another short unmarked trail to link us from AT with Long Path so we could see the Hippo Rock in 2 miles. We took lunch at an open and windy area in order to get rid of the annoying flies. Danny and Dodo tried to eat lunch with the mosquito nets but finally gave up. Moon served me healthy and colorful salad and I distributed the oranges for the group. Masa took a lap after lunch no fear of being moved away by the flies. Chung Kwong found he lost his brand new mosquito net after lunch. Danny showed us the great job of his wife who had prepared him delicious lunch.

Moon led the group at the front as I had to accompany Aaron at the back to cheer him up. We stopped at Hippo Rock which we all agreed the name was well given. I decided to lead the group to climb a little hill to the Stockbridge Shelter. As his family members were already tired, Kwok decided to give up this bonus and went downhill along Yellow trail. Since the shelter was occupied by a small Korean hiking group, we turned back to Yellow trail after stayed for just a few minutes. Danny appreciated the 0.5 mile bonus very much.

We met Ng’s family at the stream of Lake Nawahunta when I found Aaron was already sleeping on his father’s back. I helped Kwok carried his backpack so released the workload of grandma. We crossed the Seven Lakes Drive and went through the picnic area before getting to the cars at 3pm. This 7 miles route was likely only level B for most of us but probably a level F trip for 4 years old. I was proud of Aaron who had handled almost 6 miles on his legs.

Golf club and soft shoes
April 27, 2008

We had 24 hikers to experience the difficulty of rock climbing along the cliff at Pingyp Mtn. in this 7 miles level C trip. It could be treated as a qualified test of the even bigger challenge of Breakneck Ridge in June. It was first time in Nature You to plan a trip back and forth with the same trail. This made the trip even more difficult because we would have to walk all slopes twice, both uphill and downhill.

We had first time participants Kevin, Hua, Lily Liu and Lily Zhang. Kevin used a retired golf club instead of hiking pole and Lily Zhang wore a pair of soft and broken shoes even without socks. The golf club had helped a lot during the trip while the soft shoes had created a big trouble to Lily. I always followed the golden rules of using hiking boots and socks in protection of our feet. Lily had her own theory which in return she had very painful time during the trip. I had Emily, Jessica & Ken group, Sam & David group, Jennifer & Helen group, Esther & Janet group, 62nd Street group (Moon, Dodo, Masa and Chung Kwong), Sean, Helen Chang & Karen group, and Gong Wen and Danny came individually from upstate areas. We welcome Feng Chen, our ultimate cameraman back after his busy winter skiing schedule.

We started at 9:45am planned to hike 3 miles on Yellow trail to climb some high points of Pingyp Mtn. and came back from the same trail. We saw a giant stone called Irish Potato in 30 minutes, and then went down slope passing the Upper Pound Swamp. The descending kept going from 1,100 feet into 400 feet until we hit a road. We crossed Palisades Parkway and climbed up slope to Pingyp Mtn. with altitude changed from 400 feet back to 1,000 feet. This was the steepest portion and some rock climbing techniques were necessary. As the trail lay on gaps between rocks, we had to plan which were safe positions for each steps and hands were necessary to hold balance or pull ourselves up. The movement was slow also because we had so many exciting hikers and photographers. It was their most challenging trip ever.

We took lunch at a terrific viewpoint where we could overlook the highway and nearby towns. The wind was not too strong so disgusting flies attacked while we were sitting and eating. Moon served me salad and I served the group grapes. The trail descended again for 300 feet until we reached a fire furnace. I decided to climb up the 200 feet The Pines before turning back to make this a 7 miles trip. Lily insisted to follow the team even her feet had hurt and pained since last mile. Her shoes were too soft so the steps on rocky trail hurt. Her shoes were loose and she had no socks as buffer. As a result, the feet were moving within the shoes so the toes were rubbing with the shoes until the skins opened.

On the way back, we reversed the up and down slopes so made it even more difficult than the course in the morning. We climbed down Pingyp Mtn. with extra care by using 6 landing points (hands, feet and buttocks) hiking technique. When the front team was waiting at Palisades Parkway, Kevin practiced golf technique with his golf club (without golf ball). This probably puzzled a lot of bypassing drivers about how came the golf course was so closed to highway. Moon and Dodo took very pretty pictures with little flowers on the lawn.

The up slope after Palisades Parkway was not easy for most of us because we had been exhausted after the morning rock climbing. It looked like a never ended slope in front of us. Feng had to accompany two Lilies at the back. The annoying flies were also serious at this spot so I pulled out the horrified head net. When Moon saw me walked with my head being covered into a net, she thought it was a cold face killer or walking robot. We rested at Irish Potato for the new hikers but the flies were crazy here. I sent the group back to the cars while I waited since I had the net. We finished the trip by 4:30pm with a few really exhausted hikers.