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Harry Potter and the New Moon Rising
April 12, 2009

Believe it or not, it was my first hiking at Popolopen Torne in 15 years. The rock scrambling to the top and sceneries from the Torne were good experience. More than these, I was so happy to have Harry and Moon returned to the team after their breaks. Harry came back by serving as a consultant because he hiked here before and Moon brought us a pretty designed stamp to symbolize coming back of Spring. Thank you all. We had 17 hikers today which also included Anthony, Simon, Charlene, Cici, Ping, Rose, David Wu and Karen. New hikers included Sharon, Judith, David Li, Grace, Raymond and Jed. Welcome aboard.

We met at Montgomery Historic Site Visitors Center and started hiking at 10:15 am. It was a sunny but windy day. We followed Red Trail after crossed the bridge and walked uphill along the stream. Cici was a challenging hiker which always wanted to lead. It made Charlene a bit hard to pull her back. We saw a waterfall in a mile where Harry and Ping suggested us to climb down to take pictures. Only a few hikers climbed due to the strong wind. The trail was basically flat until we crossed a new bridge. Judith said the bridge wasn’t here in her last trip here a few years ago.

We followed Blue Trail to climb steep uphill trail to reach Popolopen Torne. It was challenging but rewarding. It surprised me to find Moon was the first one reached the summit as she had skipped a few trips from February. Harry felt cold even he wore a down jacket because it wasn’t a windbreaker. The newly built Torne, pine trees, big rock and Weyants Pond attracted a lot of camera shots. It was not easy for the new hikers to go so steep. Karen lay down to rest when she reached the top. Cici brought her friends reached the top after 15 minutes. We enjoyed lunch with the pretty scenery and good weather.

After taking group picture in front of the caine, we descended along Blue Trail. We connected to Red Trail after seeing the small size parking area. The trail was blocked by military agency so we had to hike down the slope to find the trail mark. Sharon didn’t know we hiked on off trail until I told her. The trail before Brooks Lake was boring. After a few yards on auto road, we entered back on trail to approach Brooks Lake. Harry suggested taking a break at the picnic area which located at the other side of the lake. The lake view around Brooks Lake was pretty because of 2 white swans. All hikers with camera were busy shooting the creatures while they were feeding themselves. The swans flew up in the sky after posting enough for us. We took a break at the “train station”.

The last mile was easy and quick pace as most of us were in need of the clean restrooms at the Historical Site. Li’s family was in a high mood until now so I suggested David to bring Raymond and Grace more to get them better trained. They were probably the future of the Hiking Club. We reached the parking lot by 3 pm and finished 6 miles.

天生一隻又一隻
三四五六七八隻
鳳凰不少鳥還多
友緣共醉存金石

April 5, 2009

It was a perfect hiking day for running an important program, the 100th events of Nature You. The poem above reflected all participates were important that included founders, leaders, helpers and hikers. The Club could not accumulate 100 steps without You. Though we didn’t have 100 hikers to celebrate the milestone event; all 19 hikers joined today would definitely be honored in the history of the Club. Dodo, Raymond, Angie, Anna, Jeannie, Chan Shing, Joe, Sandy and Joseph got their first stamp of this year. Ken, Emily, Eric, Su, Ann, William, Kim, Rose and Ping would likely enjoy their first ever special stamp of today.

We gathered at Seven Lakes Drive Visitors Center at 10 am. My plan was an in average Level B 6 miles trip with lunch at Pine Meadow Lake. The ingoing trail would have some uphill but viewpoints while the way back would be as easy as Level A. Some hikers prepared me 100 related gifts so I had to reserve time for the celebration. We would cover White, Black, Yellow and Red Trail today. Dodo wore blue color jacket so she wondered if it was possible to hike also on Blue Trail. I smiled and tried to be a wish giver. We started at White Trail and connected to Black Trail. There were some steep slopes on Black Trail which might make those new and lazy hikers exhausted. When the Black Trail hit Blue Trail, I asked Dodo to take a picture with the trail mark to put the memory on record. We continued up and down on Black Trail which compensated them with nice viewpoints. The pace was slow because of the fun we could generate by Ken, Emily, Dodo, Eric and Rose. We all agreed we were missing Yat. William was quiet as he was the only Mandarin speaking person today. As many new hikers joined today, I took chance to teach them how to read trail marks.

Not everyone expected so many hills in the morning, so some of them were hungry and tired at noon. They had no mood to take picture with the special ladder put on the Black Trail. We still had more than 1 mile before seeing the Lake. Joseph questioned if the trip had been upgraded secretly by the leader from B6 into C9. The wind was too strong at the mountain top so I insisted to take lunch at the Lake. After 3 minutes hiked on the fried egg liked Yellow Trail, we were at the lakeshore of Pine Meadow Lake.  The wind was softer here but the flies were liked hurricane. Nobody was willing to open the mouth as it would be a horrible experience. We kept going a hundred yard to a location away from the Lake and took lunch there.

Rose, Ping and Dodo gave me the gifts in the mountain. With also some gifts before and after the trip, I had 9 celebrating gifts for this memorable 100th trip. I received 100 candies from a friend last week, a banner from Ann which indicate NYC and 100, 3 CDs each with 100+ songs by Ken & Emily, 100 chocolate beans from Joe, 100 paper folded from Dodo, a photo album of 100 photos from previous 100 trips by Rose, 100 paper lucky stars from Ping, 100 coins from Chan Shing and 100 piece of gums from Jeannie. Somebody joked to give me 100 hairs on the spot but I discouraged him that he should tie them up into 10 bundles first.

I concluded that we had enough exercise today, so led the group hiked back along Red Trail after lunch which had only down slope. We met groups of groups of relax hikers on their ways to go to the Lake. Ping started hiking with us since last winter so he said he never saw so many hikers in the mountain. The rough running water on Pine Meadow Brooks attracted Angie a lot so she said she would like to come back in summer when she could play with water in bare feet. I could see friends were moving slower either because they were tired or the trip was approaching to the end. We finished 6 miles and reached the cars by 3 pm. All participants were first shocked by the large sized stamp and then by the souvenir that I prepared for them. Each hiker received a souvenir of the above 4 lines poem on a Chinese painting. It was a challenging riddle of how to use the numbers to get to the total of 100 to capture the theme of today. This probably was someone’s first take home exam after the hike.