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4 hours for 4 miles
September 21, 2008

The Jackie Jones Mountain Fire Tower trip was a made up trip for the previous cancellation. I supposed it wasn’t a difficult trip at all for most of us that was proved wrong. We had to spend 4 hours for this 4 miles trip.

I had 22 signed up on my list but the group size expanded as Tom brought additional 15 people in the morning. I saw 2 senior citizens who were 70+ at the gas station whom were brought here without signed up. I didn’t think it would be any problem even they were seniors because the trip was short. So, we had a group of about 35 people met at Route 106 at 10am.

We went uphill along the auto road and then switched into Yellow trail after the warmed up exercises. I led the group under comfortable pace for majority but then made the young hikers too boring. George, Siwen and Aiko were always in the front. The uphill slope and a few high steps required some leg muscles which was really hard for those seniors. Moon volunteered to stay at the back to watch them. We reached the Fire Tower in a mile. Almost everyone climbed the stairs to enjoy the 360 degree view of overlooking the area. We saw the white sand beach at Lake Welch. There was a Chi Gong master in the team, so he volunteered to teach the group about how to circulate the Chi of ourselves. We waited for almost 20 minutes then I knew until now that the health conditions of the seniors were not strong enough for hiking.

Our designated lunch point was Big Hill shelter which was 1 mile away. There was uphill on bare rock before hitting the shelter. Some hikers started eating while taking a long break and waiting for the slow team. We took lunch at the shelter with enough sunshine and rocks to sit. I carried an 8 pound only watermelon because I expected only 20 people in the group. I apologized for the treat too small. It turned out a miracle was happened because all hikers said enjoyed the cold and sweet watermelon enough even only with small pieces. They thanked me for the hard work of carrying such a heavy weighs for the group.

I dared not to increase the mileage when knowing the seniors were suffering from the up and downhill slopes. I led the group to turn back on Yellow trail and connected to Long Path to go back. I gave the leading role to Harry and stayed at the back to accompany the seniors with Moon. As they were getting more tired, anything might happen that needed me to be there. The big group stayed at the junction of Long Path and Old Turnpike for another 30 minutes to wait for the slow team. It was the portion without trail mark so I must be here to lead. After passed this uphill section and brought the team back to Yellow trail, I let the fast hikers run for the rest of the trip. I stayed at the back to ensure nobody was left behind. It took us 4 hours to complete this 4 miles trip which was a true experience of a level A trip with senior hikers. I was lucky that they could persist on the entire trip and completed without any injury problem. Also, the other teammates were patience enough on waiting. I would like to show my appreciation on their consideration and cooperativeness.

Moon Flower at Moon Festival
September 13, 2008

It was supposed a full moon night but the moon would be hidden behind clouds according to weather forecast. That would be no meaning to wait in the rural area without the main character so I cancelled the Moon Watching trip. In order to compensate for creating the emptiness of some hiking friends, I announced with very short notice that we would have a 6 miles moderate hike and celebrate Moon Festival with the absence of the moon. It was my mistake that forgot about George Fung’s email but happy of seeing Danny at the gas station. It turned out, 13 hikers could make it at the trailhead by 9:30am. The others included Ken, Emily, Esther, Janet, Dodo, Karen, Moon, Joseph, Christina, Yat and Mr. Sun.

Today’s menu was 2 times at Parker Cabin Mtn and took lunch at Lake Skenonati. The immediate uphill slope might have defeated Christina but should be no problem with the presence of Joseph. We saw a fireplace at the junction of R-D and Victory trail. We reached Parker Cabin Mtn in a mile where we switched into White Cross. The trail marks that looked like bandages were so outstanding on the tree trunks. The trip was not too difficult so we reached the designated lunch point at noon. Mr. Sun was exciting to see the pretty and quiet lake so ran down to the shore to take pictures. With the presence of Ken’s good skill and equipment, we had the best group picture ever at the spot. The scenery and smiles was prefect. I served them watermelon and knew until now watermelon skins would float on the water.

There was another group of hikers approached the lunch area, we wrapped up and back to the remaining 2.5 miles trail. We walked extra 3 minutes as I had missed the turn into Yellow trail. We climbed back to Parker Cabin Mtn which was quite a hard job for those had full stomachs. We took a full rest at the high point and enjoyed the rest trip in a very relax pace. The last 0.5 mile all the way downhill trail which was the same trail we climbed up in the morning might have taught the new hikers that long up and long down slopes were the same in difficulty. We used more leg muscles power for uphill and more joints power for downhill. There was an article said climbing uphill could clean blood fat while downhill could drop blood sugar. That was the different function between hiking at mountain and walking at park.

We touched the cars at 3pm. Hikers were surprised when I brought out the moon cakes and drinks to celebrate Moon Festival. An additional surprise was when Moon took out 2 sheets of stamps. She prepared stamps for today’s trip which was a picture of Moon Flower. The name of the flower was related to today’s theme. Since she had also designed a stamp for moon watching activity, I decided to give out also the full moon stamps as the bonus.

Eagles, tortoise and deer
September 7, 2008

The list of participants changed hourly until 2 hours before the trip. Liu and Qin tried so hard to find us at Palisades Parkway gas station. We finally had 14 hikers today to enter the wild animal kingdom of Bear Mountain State Park.

The trip started at 10am from trailhead of R-D at Route 9W. The 15 pound watermelon was heavier than I expected on this uphill slope. I knew I had to cut down the weigh of my backpack before the cramp hurt my legs. We had the first of three watermelon breaks at 10:30. This removed 8 pounds from my backpack and I could survive at the first viewpoint of R-D. We saw a cluster of eagles at the hill top. Some of them were in the sky that made Moon afraid of being their prey. Some of them were resting on the branches and sun bathing their wings. We took much closed up pictures of them.

After serving them another quarter of watermelon, we picked up the pace in order to reach the designated lunch point which was still 2 miles away. As Moon and I were leading the group, she saw a tortoise in the middle of the trail. The pattern and color on its shell was special. I saw its sharp claws and sharp teeth knowing it could bite something tight when angry. Feng was crazy seeing this creature and dare to hold it up. We didn’t disturb it too much and let it go after this unexpected photo taking event.

We took lunch at the Bald Mtn which we could oversee the whole area with Bear Mtn Bridge in a distance. We took group picture after lunch. We still have half way to go so we didn’t stay too long. I picked the wrong direction after lunch and fortunately turned back in just 10 minutes. We saw a deer at a shaded valley. Since their children were taking lunch, no wonder why the deer mother didn’t go away even we went closed to her. I experienced the Kenya’s open forest trip where animals and visitors could have closed encountered.

Moon felt pain on her knee so the team had to be segmented. I served the group the last quarter watermelon and told them to go by their comfortable pace. Feng led a team went downhill fast and Harry went with Liu and Qin. I accompanied Moon at the back. Since the trail marks were not cleared, Harry’s team went into an unmarked trail and finally reached Route 9W by Red Trail 1777. They had to walk an extra mile to hit back to the car. The last team reached the car by 4pm. A few hikers could not wait for the pretty stamp which was designed by Moon.