nature-you.org Blog

Steps on powdered new snow
December 20, 2008

The number of participants downsized to 4 due to shortage of drivers. There was only 1 car with 3 passengers: Moon, Rose and Eric. I planned to change the course to Pine Meadow Lake because I was afraid that my car couldn’t climb up the slope of the parking lot if it was too icy. After checking the condition, I decided to carry out the original plan because I thought it would be quieter and prettier snow views of open areas or slopes in Conklin Mountain.

We didn’t spend time on warming up exercises and approached to the trailhead of Seven Hills Blue Trail at 10 am. My plan was a 5 miles hiking from Blue, then Yellow, Red and back to Blue Trail. Moon put on the stabilizers in case the trail was icy. None of us had full winter hiking gear. Due to lacking of gaiters, we all had problem of snow went inside the shoes because of 8 inches snow accumulation on the trail. I had no problem as I had worn 3 pairs of socks but I knew those girls’ feet were wet after a few hours. Each step on the powdered soft snow was liked climbing stairs. It made us tired and also slowed down the speed. In addition to spend time on photo taking, we finished only 2 miles when taking lunch by noon. I picked a pretty and open spot where Yellow Trail met 3 ski trails. We saw 2 skiers who were ready to do cross country skiing. They moved so smooth and fast compared with us, hikers without snowshoes. We shared lunch and hot drinks under such a snowy day. Luckily, the wind was not strong on that day or we wouldn’t be able to finish full lunch without a shelter.

We walked a short distance on ski trail and found T-MI Red trail. The 2/3 mile on Red Trail was so exciting. Since the snow had covered not only the trail but also those holes between rocks, we had to be very careful to put down each step. We reached the ski trail by 1:30pm which was pretty so Rose set up her tripod to shoot the group pictures. Likely because I was homesick, I assumed we had finished the Red Trail so I brought them turned right into a ski trail. This probably the biggest mistake I had made in last 2 years of being a hiking leader. We spent 30 minutes on that ski trail without any clue of hitting Blue Trail. Moon reminded me to read the map again. When I was ready to take out the compass to check the direction, I knew where we were because I was surprised to see the Yellow Trail.

We actually had another 2/3 mile on T-MI Red trail before turning right into a ski trail. I had picked the wrong trail and brought back the team to the point where we took lunch. Moon joked we could pick up those things that we had forgot after the lunch.
It was 2 pm and we had 2 more miles to go if we went on the same trail as this morning. It took us 2 hours in the morning and now Rose and Moon were tired. We might still stay in the mountain by 4 pm which should be very cold, dark and slippery. It was not joking and we wouldn’t be happy to face this challenge from Mother Nature. I encouraged the teammates to try their best to speed up the pace. I disqualified myself of being a leader by bringing my teammates into such a difficult situation. I had thought about a few emergency plans in my mind in case if any teammates had used up all their energies.

I was lucky I had a young group of hikers whose potential were unlimited. We hiked non-stop on Yellow Trail and finished 1.5 miles within 1 hour. When we reached the Blue Trail by 3 pm, I knew we didn’t need any emergency plans. We enjoyed last 0.5 mile on Blue Trail and went back to the car by 3:30 pm. I had made them hiked 7 miles on snow today which was equaled to the difficulty of hiking 10 miles on regular trail.

Free crystal picking
December 14, 2008

Had you seen a giant crystal lamp hanging in the mountain? If you had seen numerous ice crystals hanging on the branches, you wouldn’t think it special. I first saw this feature of nature in this trip. It was not fair. I had to hike more than 10 years to see this and Rose could see this in her second trip with Nature You. We had total 14 hikers joined this trip. As the start point and end point were different, I was lucky to have Yat and Kwok helped me to set up the shuttle arrangement. Other people included Guo’s family, Ken and Emily, Esther, Eric, Sam, Sunny and Moon.

We were ready to start at Arden Valley Road parking lot at 10:15am. The plan was 8 miles trip going West on AT across the bridge over Interstate 87 and then on Blue, Yellow, Red and White Trail. We seldom had chance to see the traffic flow of a main highway. The climbing uphill on AT was tough but it was safe if we had to go downhill on this section during winter time. Yat spotted out where he fell and flew down for about 50 feet last year. There were ice on the trail but luckily it was brittle so easy broken when stepped on it. The temperature was not too low so the ice surface was soft. We had a few warm days so snow melt and frozen again at night. This made possible the formation of ice crystals hanging on the branches. We saw sparkling crystals “fruits” on the branches under the sun. It was a crystal picking trip. No one could resist the temptation of not picking some to taste like picking grapes. Because of the heaviness of the crystals, some branches were broken and hanged there. Here we saw a huge hanging branch with numerous ice crystals like a lamp greeting us on the trail. Emily said she dumped it because she had too many crystal lamps at home.

We took enough ice pictures on AT and connected to Blue Trail. As we spent time on photo taking, we had to hike in faster pace because it was almost noon. Moon and I stayed at the front so I could announce the best spot to take lunch. I wouldn’t pick a high point because the cold wind would cut short our lunch break. There was a windless spot with Indian settlement remains on Yellow Trail. Eric served us hot coffee and I served them with sweet grapes. Rose told me she had lost her watch but it was too late for us to go back to search. I could only promise her that I will plan the same trip again in Spring.

We had 3.5 more miles to go after the Yellow Trail. We saw the historical furnace at the end of Red Trail. Here we took our group picture with the help of Rose’s tripod. The rough running river next to the Bramertown Road caused another 15 minutes of photo taking. Special shaped ice crystals were formed at the location that closed to water.

The last 2 miles on White Trail was tough for Guo’s family. It was their first 8 miles winter hike and they hadn’t any hiking boots. Kim Guo felt pain on her knee because of overused. This likely was her most difficult trip ever. Sam cleared up all the worries when I told him only 2 more miles to go. Sunny had strong legs to go up and down on ice even without hiking pole. Kwok first used his new hiking pole and Yat had a spare one in his backpack always. Ken, Emily and Esther took home with enough special photos in their cameras. Moon was happy to give us the 42nd stamp that she designed this year and collected her 39th Stamps of this year.

Automatically upgraded
December 6, 2008

When Kwok and my car reached Johnstontown Circle at 10 am, we saw more than 60 hikers were waiting. I found Sarah and Ray who were 2 faces which I was familiar with. This huge group actually belonged to 2 different hiking teams. Johnstontown Circle turned back into a quiet place after they started their trips. The parking area left only 6 hikers. I had Moon, Eric, Kwok, Tom and Rose. It was Rose’s first trip with Nature You. Welcome.

Tom and Rose joined because it was planned as a 6 miles Level B trip. As the group was small and I knew all hikers well, I had already set up a secret plan B in my mind after reading the map in order to make this trip more challenging. I did this because I knew they were qualified and would be happy for automatically upgraded. We started from White Bar and switched into Kakiat. We hit Stony Brook Yellow Trail in 1 mile after crossing 2 bridges. The Yellow Trail along Stony Brook gave a lot of chances for Rose to take picture. She might never see such a wide stream in the mountain. The trail was relatively flat so we finished 3 miles in 1.5 hours. I told everyone to hold the lunch into 1:30 pm because we would have to climb up Halfway Mountain before arrived Lake Sebago. Luckily, no one requested to see the map otherwise they would find Lake Sebago was just 5 minutes walk from us. I upgraded them from Level B hikers into 8 miles Level B+. We climbed 400 feet along Orange Trail to the top which half exhausted Rose and fully exhausted Tom. I was glad they could make it and proud of their new records. We took a break to view the scenery from the high point.

The trip continued into Blue Trail and then Red Trail to go back down to Stony Brook. Since we found a windless spot next to the pretty running water, we decided to take lunch instead of hiking further to Lake Sebago. I served them sweet grapes and Eric served us Malaysian coffee. It was so good to have hot drink in the cold mountain.

We saw a high dam before crossing Seven Lakes Drive. Everyone was exciting to see such a special construction in the State Park. We saw the huge Lake Sebago with a partly icy surface when walking on Seven Lakes Drive. The mirror reflection of the Lake gave out pretty winter nature sceneries. The trip kept going on Red Trail with little up and down slope. Tom was not so easy in breathing so he had to yell out to gain deeper breathe. I was scared to hear continuous loud noise from the back.

We hit White Bar after Red Trail. Last 2 miles on White Bar was basically a leisure walk. We took photos at a huge stone but too bad no other hikers could help us for taking a group picture. We finished the revised 8 miles course by 3 pm. We could finish the trip by 1:30 pm if I didn’t add the bonus miles. It would be a waste for it was such a perfect hiking day.

Dater for Three
November 30, 2008

There were 15 names on my signed up list until 7:30am in the morning. It was cloudy at 6am and rain started before 7am. Surprisingly, no one call me to quit so this gave me feeling that I would still have other 14 enthusiastic hikers who were willing to take the challenge. When I was driving to Manhattan to pick up my passengers, three drivers called and they were hesitating of coming or not. The weather liked this was not really enjoyable to hike especially for those beginner hikers so I let them made up the decision. They all decided to stay indoors. I was ready to cancel the trip but my passengers insisted to go. This made this trip to Dater Mountain one of the least people in the group with only Yvonne, Jia Ping and me.

The morning snow was probably the reason for so many car accidents on the highway. We reached trailhead around 10am but could still be the only car in that parking lot. There was snow remains on some slopes due to the low temperature. I explained to my fellows about today’s colorful trip. We will start from Orange trail and then Blue, Red, White, Blue again and ended with Orange. The rain was light in the morning but the long duration was enough to wet the non-waterproof outfits. Both Yvonne and JP had no waterproofed jackets and shoes. I knew we had to hike fast in order to minimize their tolerance.

To make it more fun, I asked them if they would like to predict how many other hikers we would meet today under such rainy day. JP said zero, Yvonne said 5 and I said 2. I planned to hike to Claudia Smith Den for lunch and came back along Blue Trail. We saw nobody at the sections of climbing Dater Mountain. When we switched to White Bar, I made a mistake of picking the wrong direction. I knew afterwards but it wasn’t too bad because it would be better if we could take lunch at the Shelter. We met 2 lady hikers and a dog on this section and that was how we could have our group picture. I won at this moment.

Before we reached the shelter, I saw smoke knowing we wouldn’t be alone in our lunch time. We met a group of about 10 Korean hikers in the Shelter at noon. As they were cooking and using the shelter, we were minority that could only stay outside. The good thing was they had set up a camp fire so our hands were not cold all the time. Since we could have fast pace, we tried to finish the remaining 3.5 miles sooner. Our lunch time was short. We didn’t even sit down. I led the group to Claudia Smith Den where we could have the best viewpoint of the area. We met another small group of Korean hikers on this section. The winner was Yvonne eventually.

The rain was getting heavier in the afternoon so we hiked non-stop at last 2 miles. We stayed only 3 minutes at Almost Perpendicular. After turned back to the Orange Trail, I knew we were not far away from cars. Both Yvonne and JP’s feet were cold when we were back to the car at 2pm. 7 miles in 3.5 hours was a fast pace, no doubt. It could be better if we all had hiking pole.