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One Two Three Moon Kwok Me
November 16, 2008

It was supposed a trip on Saturday but I postponed it to Sunday due to the unstable weather. I had 7 people signed up for Saturday and another group of 7 signed up after the switching into Sunday. The windy situation was not a favorite sign that scared away some hikers. It turned out only Moon and Kwok joined and set the lowest record of hikers of 2008.

We met at Silvermine Lake at 9:30am and greeted by super strong cold wind. As the group size was small, we could have a fast pace. We reached the Shelter in 30 minutes where we saw a big group of hikers were already playing at the Shelter. We wondered if they had stayed there overnight. Our group picture couldn’t be possible without them because I didn’t expect we would see many hikers under such weather situation. We continued on AT towards Palisades Parkway. The leaves were under our feet that made the trail very slippery. Only a few tough trees could hold their brown leaves on their branches for another week. Hiking in Fall season was more on doing exercise than sightseeing. It might be the reason that some hikers preferred to do exercise in a warmed gym or home basement during cold time. I hoped they wouldn’t hide for the whole winter or they would miss the beauty of winter hike on the snow.

We switched to Route 1779 which was our first visit in 2 years. Moon took a historical photo with the special trail mark. 1779 was a very flat trail which was suitable for beginners or family but not very highly used due to lack of nearby parking area. We crossed Palisades Parkway twice before and after turned into Red Cross Trail. The wind towards trunks was so strong that made noise. We had to be careful of possibly fallen branches. We saw a newly built foot bridge before hitting the Yellow Trail.

Since wind was so strong, we agreed to postpone the lunch break into after 1pm when we should have finished climbing the Letterrock Mountain and be back to the Shelter. The climb with empty stomach was tough. We reached back the Shelter at 1:15pm. Under such strong cold wind situation, we couldn’t have full lunch without the Shelter. We took another group picture by the help of another hiker and went down the last downhill mile from Yellow Trail.

It was only 2:15pm after the completion of the 8 miles trip. We met Frank’s hiking group at the parking lot.

When 99% of leaves were on the trail
November 9, 2008

What should we do when 99% of leaves were on the trail? Hiking pole, hiking boots and safety hiking technique were 3 keen elements that we should bring. The fallen leaves were dangerous because the trail was covered and we might step on the rolling stones. Hiking pole gave us 1 more point on the ground while moving legs, hiking boots protected our feet from twisting and hiking technique minimized the chance of getting hurt. I had 14 signed up for this trip to climb West Mountain but only 11 could finish the whole 7 miles course. Su Yi first brought her friend, Ken to join us.

We were 1 week late for watching colorful leaves. Most of the brown leaves were on the trail and left only bare branches on the trunks. The only green elements were those pine trees. We started from 1777 and turned into AT to climb steep slopes to reach West Mountain. We saw a tent set at a viewpoint and wondering if they could survive under such cold weather. The survivors came out from the tent while Feng was setting up the tripod of taking group picture. Mui was curious about how could they made it.

After we finished 1 mile, Ken fell and hurt his ankle. He felt guilty of not using his hiking boots now and he was not supposed to hop over a stone. The accident happened even he had borrowed my hiking pole. We needed all three elements worked together to prevent injury. As it was impossible for him to continue, Feng volunteered to bring back Su Yi and Ken so he could see the doctor right away. I instructed him the fastest route to go back and we continued our journey. I was lucky to have Feng in the team otherwise I had to bring the whole team down with the patient.

There were so many ups and downs on this section that had exhausted Ya Ya. I decided to keep the original course and took lunch at the Shelter. As there was a Korean hiking group who were cooking at the shelter, we had to eat outside. Luckily, we didn’t get a very freezing windy cold day.

We continued on Blue Trail after lunch and connected to 1777 to go downhill. The portion on 1777 was flat and mainly downhill. We had the last uphill slope on 1777W when it was about 1 mile from the parking lot. This last challenge had exhausted Guo’s family. When we were 5 minutes from the parking, we saw a deer taking dinner. It might be very hungry so didn’t run away as usual. We could take some closed up photos of it.

Gong Wen said this was the trip with most accurate mileage that he had ever joined me. I announced it would be a 7 miles trip and his pedometer showed 7.15 miles when we were back at the parking lot. I made a joke said the tiny extra mileage added up because he had went to hidden places for restrooms during the trip. We finished the trip by 3pm.

Don’t tie shoelaces during hiking
October 18, 2008

It was middle of October so I expected it would be good time to watch fall foliage at a high point. Harry suggested going Bear Mountain because it was a well-known hiking area and he never reached the summit. I had 30 people signed up and showed up on time at the parking lot. But, only 29 people could reach the summit today. Who was missing?

After the warming up exercise, I led the group started with 1777 and switched to AT with destination of Perkins Tower at Bear Mountain. I had Kuo’s group, Moon, Jacky and Jackie at the front. Ken, Joseph and Kwok stayed at the back as always. After crossing the Seven Lakes Drive and hiked 10 minutes, I found Harry was not in the team.

Ken said he saw him at the back but didn’t understand why he couldn’t catch us up. We waited 10 minutes and I walked back but couldn’t find him. There was no phone signal at that area so we lost contact with him. What I felt comfortable was I knew he carried a map so he was safe and might be able to catch us up later. I kept leading the group to climb up and asked Kwok to call him once his phone had signal at the high point. The views from the high points were so terrific that photographers and models were busy posting. Unluckily, Sandy got some bee bites when someone disturbed the bees on the trail. We reached the summit around noon where we found hundreds of people were there. It was because people could drive there.

The story of missing was clear after Kwok could talk to Harry on the phone. Harry was the last one on the team because of reading the map. After he tied up the loosed shoelaces, he found no more teammates at the front. The worst thing was he mixed up with two trips. He thought we were going Anthony Wayne which was last week’s schedule so he ran towards the other direction. This explained why he never caught us up and we couldn’t meet him at the Perkins Tower. As it was too late to ask him to climb the Bear Mountain, I told him to stay at his area and met us at the parking lot by 3pm.

We finished lunch accompanied with pretty views over Hudson River and colorful leaves. It took 15 minutes to get and count accurate number of hikers before the downhill trip. As the trail was full of hikers, I took extra care to avoid another missing people. We took Red Trail to go down in order to enjoy 1 more terrific viewpoint. There were hundreds of people at the Bear Mountain Recreation Area so that was another risk of missing people. I counted 3 times to ensure all 29 people were in the team. The last uphill slope on Yellow Trail gave enough challenge to those new hikers.

The timing was perfect when we went back to 1777 before 3pm. I saw Harry at the junction of 1777 and AT at 3:15pm. I cancelled a hiking trip of going Bear Mountain last month due to the rain and he couldn’t make it to the top today. I told Harry to forget about going to Bear Mountain this year as it was his fate.

Hiking and touring
October 12, 2008

More than 70 people signed up for this trip. The attractions might be either vegetarian lunch at Chuang Yen Monastery or fall foliage of Fahnestock State Park. It should not be the hiking because it was announced as an easy 4 miles level A trip. It turned out the additional 1.5 miles orienteering trip gave 40 hikers an unforgettable hiking experience.

Most drivers could make it at Chuang Yen Monastery before 10am except Kelly Kwan’s vehicle. As it was not necessary to wait for the whole group activity, the signed up procedure was done group by group when I could find them within Chuang Yen area. I had total 64 people showed up today. Coincidently, it was Guan Yin Day so we could witness how the worship went. I had my eyes and heart open upon the religious procedures. Life could be simple if we gave away the desires. It might be a good settlement if we could find the Buddha in our souls. We toured in Chuang Yen to see only minor fall foliage and finished lunch by 12:30pm. We gathered again in the parking lot and ready for the second part of the program—hiking or be more accurate, walking around Pelton Pond. The sad happenings in Chuang Yen were: Ruan’s shoes were mistakenly taken by someone after entering the main temple so he had no shoes to go hiking. Fong found his car was scratched by someone without any reason.

All 64 people completed the 2 miles Pelton Pond walk at nearby Fahnestock State Park and found it was unbalanced between good lunch and exercises. The fall foliage at the Pond was not so great. I had already prepared another 2 miles walk from the Pond to the Canopus Beach. I hope the leaves colors would be richer to please the photographers. We reached the beach after 30 minutes easy walk. I found most of the new people had no idea about what hiking supposed to do. As I didn’t want them to mix up the concepts of hiking and walking, I asked if anyone wanted to go for a real hiking which was 1.5 miles unmarked trail orienteering trip. I would bring them climbed up the mountain to have an overview to the entire Canopus Lake. To my surprised, more than 40 people joined that included some seniors. I couldn’t reject them as it was their wishes.

I led 50 people climbed up the steep slope next to the lake. According to the map, I knew we could reach AT by going along that direction. As there was no trail at all, it was time to practice orienteering skill and trusted the compass. The steep slopes exhausted a small group of hikers. I would like to thank Yat who was volunteered to bring them back at the midpoint.

We hit the AT as expected and hiked to the viewpoint which could see the entire lake from a high view with more colorful vegetations found around the lake. The climb was well paid. The last part was going down along a slope with all loose stones. We all came down safe and claimed it the most challenging trip ever.

On the walk back to the vehicles at Pelton Pond, I heard a ranger was there to interrupt our activity. I knew the beach was closed and the road was blocked but not knowing the beach area was also prohibited to enter. Luckily, no one got the summons but it would be my last visit to this beach for sure. We got back to our cars by 3pm.