nature-you.org Blog

Valentine’s Stamp
February 15, 2009

It was the day after Valentine’s Day. We had 4 hikers today who were lucky enough to get the special designed Valentine’s stamp in whom not even included the stamp designer. Moon spent a lot of effort on designing the stamp but it turned out she could not make it. What a pity!

As all hikers were experienced and equipped, I announced the bonus mile added before the trip. I would bring the group to Third Reservoir before turning back to the Shelter. The wind was so strong and freezing at the parking area that gave us no chance to do any warm up exercise. We started climbing Jackie Jones Mountain at 9:30 am. There were still hard ice remains on the trail but luckily not all covered so we could find safe spots to put our feet on. No matter what, it wouldn’t affect Eric as he hadn’t brought stabilizers. To ensure safety, I requested Rose and Ping put on their stabilizers when we started hiking on footpath. We stood under the Fire Tower in a mile which attracted all new hikers to climb. The wind was strong so no one could stay too long over there, too bad.

We caught up a Korean hiking group at 11:30 am. The slippery uphill slope before the Shelter was tough. As usual, the Korean hikers stayed and took lunch at the Shelter. We kept going to Third Reservoir. I planned to come back in an hour so we could have the full occupancy of the Shelter. This mile to the Third Reservoir was more slippery as more ice was found on the trail.

Rose was so happy to see the icy reservoir. She took a lot of pictures and stepped on the frozen water to get the feeling. We had the group picture here. Eric joked the icy water could cure her coughing. As the sunshine was so rich, I decided to keep approaching to Second Reservoir to give them new sceneries instead of turning back on the same trail. We found a special electrical device which we couldn’t figure out what it was. According to the map, the unmarked trail was located closed to the Second Reservoir. As I never hiked on that unmarked trail, I checked carefully with compass to get the right bearing to locate the trail. I told the hikers we would see the Shelter in 20 minutes if it was the right one.

We saw the Shelter and the Korean hikers around 1 pm. Ping murmured how that hiking group could spend 1.5 hours for lunch. Luckily, they were ready to go so the Shelter was all ours at this moment. We took lunch accompanied with the songs by few birds on the trees. Ping took a few photo shots for Rose before he understood what she wanted.

We wrapped up before 1:30 pm and started the remaining 2 miles. We hiked quietly on Long Path until we reached a stream. The crystal ice formations at the river always attracted camera shots. I brought the group went along an unmarked trail and hit back to Yellow Trail. The last section was familiar because it was the same trail we went up in the morning. We reached the cars at 2:30 pm and finished 6 miles with some adventures on unmarked trail. It was a rare experience for us as I usually wouldn’t go on unmarked trail in winter. It would be too much risky if there were snow all over the mountain.

Blue colored ice-fall
February 8, 2009

It had been a few months of not seeing Karen and Jennifer since last year. Both said they had some hurts so unwillingly had to take a break. They picked the same week of resume hiking so made up the number of hikers today into 6. The others were Moon, Rose and Ping. We reached Tuxedo Parking lot before 9:30 am. After the gift presentation and warming up exercise, we started the trip by walking along auto road.

My plan was a 7 miles hiking targeted to reach Lake Skenonto. The plan was almost demolished by the 10 minutes rain before we reached the trailhead. Luckily, I had a team of no-fear hikers who had no regret to hike under the rain. Nature knew there was no way to stop us so generously awarded us enough of sunshine for the rest of the day. I ordered everyone put on their stabilizers before tackled the icy trail which I could expect due to the recent weather situation. The high temperature and rain would definitely polish the snow into smooth ice.

The first mile on R-D uphill was tough as I expected. We approached slowly to try to avoid stepping on slippery trail surface. We reached a viewpoint which gave us a view to overlook the Tuxedo Town area. I saw the biggest R-D trail mark ever on a tree. As the trail was too icy and it was more dangerous to hike downhill on this section, I decided to change the plan. We switched to T-MI so went directly to the shelter to have lunch by skipping Lake Skenonto and came back along a less steep trail.

Because we changed the course, thanked to Moon who spotted a blue colored ice-fall which was 50 feet away from the trail. We all rushed to that location because no one would miss the chance of watching this special feature. Rose instructed me patiently of how to take good digital pictures. We reached the Claudius Smith’s Den which was a cave formed with gigantic rocks. Human being turned into so tiny when standing in front of the rocks. Next mile before hitting the Dutch Doctor Shelter was a hike on snow trail. I felt amazing to see thick snow remained in this area which was pretty and safe for winter hiking.

We reached the Shelter at 12:30 and surprised of not seeing any Korean hiking group in this pretty shelter. We then had no chance of warming up the hands with their campfire. It was a clean and luxury shelter. We found someone left food in the shelter to treat others and volunteers built this shelter with rain shade.

As time was running out and we had 3.5 more miles to go, I removed the thought of bringing the group 2 extra miles to visit Lake Skenonto. I promised to compensate it in the near future with a shorter course. The hike on White Bar was basically flat with very gentle slope. We did fast and relax pace. We had a group picture in front of a rock which Rose and Ping would definitely remember. We switched to Kakiat White Trail for the last 2 miles. There were more slopes on this section and better rock sceneries on the site. We found another ice-fall on the side and also a large human-liked stone figure even with a hiking pole. That was a reminder that hiking pole could not be excluded on the list of winter hiking gears. When I was asked, I joked to Karen we still had 2 more miles after hiking for an hour.

The last down slope was mostly covered with ice but not too steep. We were smart to go for the side which was more guaranteed the safety. We hit back to the cars by 3 pm and both new hikers finished 6 miles on their first 2009 trip.