nature-you.org Blog

Return of Prince Watermelon
July 19, 2009

Prince Watermelon returned. In addition to the free blueberries from Mother Nature, there was also cold watermelon from Leader Michael in this trip. All 41 participants enjoyed the event included those not so crazy on all-you-can-pick because of the presence of pretty sceneries on R-D ridge. I supposed to have 52 people but 2 cars could not make it so the team was downsized into 41. New friends included Jessica, Ling, Tim, Oiman, Kate, Sonya, Karen, Shih Shien, Wei, Han Nan, Hui Tan, Jane’s family and Harvey’s family. As the team was so big, special thanked to Ken, Dodo, Moon and Feng on assisting the teammates and leading the team. I told new hikers about the danger of blueberry picking trip which was heat stroke if they hadn’t enough water. The emergency cases last year made me very cautious on mountain safety. I demanded each hiker should carry at least 1.5 liters of water.

The trip started at 10 am by the help from Feng as I had to wait for a group which was still on the way. We started around 10:20 am and we caught up the group at the first blueberry field on R-D. Little friends and new friends were busy picking blueberries while the experienced hikers were chatting under the shades. I gave them enough time to pick and pack. But, they turned back into crazy when seeing another trees with big fruits. Joseph joked that there was no blueberries on a tree while Sandy was busy picking. Ping just followed the rule of all-you-can-eat without taking home any fruits. Karen, Ken and Rose went home with a lot of photos because they executed the rule of all-you-can-take. I was not as a hardworking bee as them so my container was never filled. It was fun even our pace was slowed. We finished only 2 miles when we reached the Bald Rocks Shelter for lunch. Chau Shing predicted we couldn’t finish the 5 miles plan before dusk.

At least 10 people asked what was inside my big backpack. It was time to open the secret. I pulled and cut a cold 15 lbs watermelon to share. I knew 15 lbs was not enough for 40 thirsty hikers so I pulled and cut another cold 15 lb watermelon. This probably made them more satisfied if the blueberries couldn’t fill up their desires. Rose served us some potato cakes. As time was running out, we had to be rush to finish the trip. Moon led us went back to R-D. Angela was so nice to tell me I was still a nice leader no matter me served them watermelon or not. As people were still interested on picking blueberries, we had to stop at a big bare rock to wait for everyone into the group picture. I announced no more blueberries picking after this point because we had a long way to go. We switched to Blue Lichen Trail where the views over the ridge were nice. The group had to move onto A-SB Red which was going through a valley. Mosquitoes were fierce at the spot that we couldn’t wait longer. Moon led the group continued onto White Bar while I had to wait for the slow team.

I had nice helper Ken, Dodo, Yat, Emily and Sonya’s friends, Kate and Karen in my group. Sonya was the one who suffered the most because she never lived in rural area for more than 1 hour. Surprisingly, she never gave up even her legs and feet had been separated from her body. Ken was attacked by mosquitoes because of slow movement but Sonya never complained about that. Moon called me they were at the junction of White Bar and White Nurian Trail. Feng reported he led 10 people after Moon’s team. I told Moon to move on when her team could merge with Feng’s team. As I could tell it was impossible for Sonya to climb the last hill, I sent all other hikers to catch up with the front teams and I would bring Sonya back by Route 106. Since Sonya wore NYC T-shirt and cap which represented Nature You Club, I had to ensure our flag would never go down. The whole picture of our team movement if we could see from the sky was hiking in 4 segments: Moon’s, Feng’s, Ken’s and mine.

When Sonya and I were walking on Route 106 towards the parking lot, Kate’s car came to rescue her friend. I was puzzled but then knew Ken’s team had missed the turn into Nurian Trail so they were the earliest team reached the parking lot. Moon and Feng’s team hiked according to the plan so they were the last group of getting back. Most people were exhausted but with smiling faces when I greeted them at the parking lot. It was a good experience for those new hikers. They might feel muscle pain or too tired but they learned what was called hiking. The rule was always true: the higher you hiked, the further you sighted. We finished 5 miles by 4 pm.

Level D Certification
July 12, 2009

It was my first exploration at Fishkill Conservation Area. I had never hiked there but the map had showed the slopes were steep. Thanked Harry to help on research of the driving direction, we had no problem located the trailhead. I had 12 participants today of whom most of them were experienced hikers except Weiyin and Jenny. It was a challenging trip and undoubtedly a Level D event. This trip’s experience had been certified that Simon, Weiyin, Ping, Jenny, Rose, Harry, Sam, Ying, John, Hua and Moon were qualified to go advance to Level E events in the future.

We started after warming up exercises. The trip began with a 152 steps metal ladder which was really helpful if we had to hike on the steep slope underneath. We saw the cable car structure which reflected there must be pretty sceneries at the summit. We climbed 1,200 feet along the Red Casino Trail until we found a wall remains of a house. The rusting cable engines were still there. The endless steep slope was not an easy job. Ying was tired and sat aside quietly. Harry was so tired that he demanded a 15 minutes nap before reached the summit. New young hikers were at the front and could overcome the first uphill slopes with the pushing from Hua. John and Sam enjoyed good companionship during this section. When we proceed to an observation platform, all our mouths and eyes were opened wide. The view was so wide opened that it overlooked the Beacon Town and Hudson River. We called Harry to catch us up here because it was a terrific viewpoint he would regret if he missed. We took group pictures at the summit.

Our next target was the fire tower on South Beacon Mtn. which was 1 mile away. The trail was quite flat except the last quarter mile before reaching the bare rock where the fire tower stood. The view was again very nice but with strong cold wind. There was a sign to stop people going up the tower so Simon could only climb a few inches above the ground on the frame. We started descended along White Trail until we reached a spot could overlook the entire area. I decided to go lunch at this point even we finished only 2 miles. It was because it was the last viewpoint in coming hour and the wind would get rid of the annoying flies. Rose served us potato cakes.

The steep downhill rocky trail was not easy to overcome. Our pace was not too fast. We met a girl’s school picnic team at the junction of White and Yellow Trail. I had no chance to know their hiking plan as we had to be hurried to catch up the time. We had 5.5 more miles to go at 1:30pm. I led the team most of the time in this trip because Moon was scared of snakes after reading some journals on Internet about this hiking area. I turned on the turbo on Yellow Trail to push my teammates to experience what is fast pace. I announced we could cut short the trip into 5 miles if anyone felt exhausted. No one took the Red Trail when we were at the crossroad of short cut and designed trail. We continued on Yellow Trail for another 1.5 miles after passing 6 viewpoints. We switched to Blue, and then White Trail. The White Trail brought us climbed Lambs Hill and descended to hike along a wide river. The water volume was enough to form a small waterfall. A lot of hikers stayed a few minutes at this spot to touch the fresh and cool water. We couldn’t stay too long as mosquitoes were hungry here.

We found Yellow Trail on the left and followed Yellow for a mile. We saw so many abandoned vehicles on this trip which created a big question about how could the vehicles came to here. Ping interested on thinking how to bring them home and recycle the rusty metals. The last section on Red was the same as we climbed up. The downhill was not too easy though. When we were a few steps before back on the metal ladder, Harry had almost been hit by a huge fallen branch. After a cracking noise, a 20 lbs branch landed on the trail just 3 steps in front of him. He was lucky because he was kind of  hikers who hiked with ears.

We finished 8 miles at 4:30pm. I consulted hikers about the level of difficulty about this trip. I got equal votes among Level C, D and E. I concluded this was a very typical Level D event even with only 8 miles. There were numerous up and downhill slopes which were difficult. It was a trip definitely not for beginners.

An Ideal Park for Family Trip
July 5, 2009

Thanked to Harry’s contribution to research and suggest this trip. This made us a trip just ideal for Dou’s family because Tom, Vanessa and Thompson would be back to Dallas tomorrow. There were no hills in Dallas, so this trip gave them little experience about hiking. I had totally 13 people signed up for this trip on the next day after Independency Day. The others included Simon, Ping, Rose, Judith, Chia Mei, Jeannie, Chau Shing and Moon. It was Chia Mei and Vanessa’s first trip with Nature You.

We met outside Teatown Lake Visitors Center before 9 am. We bought a very colorful map to know more about the entire region. Since the trails were short, it wouldn’t be too difficult to go for 3 loops in 4 hours. I announced the plan was the Hidden Valley loop, Outlook Loop and finished by another big loop to see Teatown Lake. According to the map description, it would be only 6 miles with very minimum slopes. We found the Red Trail closed to the Visitors Center and passed a small zoo of just a few animals. From what we found on the trip, this reservation area took a big role of educating people about the nature. The trail was basically flat with enough shades before and after we crossed the Blinn Road. The only exciting moment was when Ping found a 3 dimensional spider sphere web. I joked spiders had evolved to know the importance of saving so this was their storage room. We connected to Yellow Trail to hike on Overlook Loop after climbing up a short steep slope. Harry was leading most of the time because he had studied the map. There were no viewpoints even it claimed itself an overlook loop. We descended back to Red Trail and completed the second half before 12 noon.

We followed Hilltop Trail to the dam of Teatown Lake. There were lotuses at the lake which made photographers exciting to shoot. We then entered Northwest Trail intended to take lunch at the Teatown Hill. The plan was abandoned after 3 minutes because there was a splendid lunch site next to the river. There was an outdoor classroom which with 6 small benches and a platform in the middle. It was likely a lecture hall for park rangers to talk to students of nature studies. We took group pictures here and everyone agreed to have a sat down lunch at this spot. Jeannie and Chau Shing were sitting on the platform with all others were looking at their backs. We looked like watching a romance movie. Moon served us her delicious homemade Cantonese jelly which might be new food for those Mandarin speakers.

We continued on Northwest Trail and approached Griffin Swamp. The Swamp was downsized as the boardwalk wasn’t as long as shown on the map. We found super big signs on the trees with some codes written on the corners. We guessed it was an orienteering game for students to find the next spot with the clues on previous sign. The trail brought us to climb up a 5 minutes steep slope which Harry claimed this trip should be graded Level C. We descended from Teatown Hill and passed 2 electricity towers. We were exciting to reach the other side of Teatown Lake because there would be a boardwalk built on the water. We knew now the boardwalk was built on floating barrels. There were pretty lotuses on both sides of the boardwalk that again attracted numerous shoots by our photographers. Rose had a big harvest today.

As the trip was smooth and still early, I planned to bring the group to Wildflower Island. It was a special section on flower cultivation and display of this Reservation. We were disappointed to see the gate being locked and stated visitors had to make appointment before hand. We stayed longer at the spot to see, feed and photo taking the swan couples and a few ducklings. We got back to the cars at 2 pm and finished 6 miles. It would be a perfect trip for family with kids as the trails were flat and there were enough nature elements to learn.

First and Last BBQ
June 27, 2009

Special thanks to friends of Nature You who had devoted their time and effort for the BBQ event. They contributed on shopping, food preparation and cooking on site. The list included: Danny, Ping, Emily, Ken, Yat, Sherry, Eric, Chung Kwong, Kit Chan, Dodo & her family. There were also Su, Rose, Ann and Moon generously shared their homemade food for the group. We had Leung’s, Wong’s, 2 Lin’s, Mei’s, Thong’s, Ruan’s and Zou’s families joined to make us a family group. As the ages were ranged from 4 years to 70 years old, the activities after lunch were varied. 13 people took the challenging hike all the way to the Perkins Tower, 12 people took the easy walk to Fort Clinton and rest 19 people spent their time within the picnic area. We had first time hikers: Sherry, Wing Si, Jenny, Steven, Teddy, Jonathan, Mei Jain and a few family members. Other friends included Simon, Jimmy, Angie, Harry and Sunny. This would be a memorable trip for Tom and Nature You because it was the first and last BBQ trips for both of us.

I chose Bear Mountain Recreational Area because of its rich facilities. There were enough choices for small kids, teens, relax hikers, serious hikers, seniors and family members. 10 vehicles arrived at different times. The earliest groups reached at 9 am. I had Ping, Harry, Simon and Moon helped set up the tables. Rose was disappeared for an hour as she was attracted by the beautiful sceneries. Jenny and Ann helped to prepare the beverage table. Yat, Eric, Chung Kwong and Ping helped on set up BBQ furnaces. Emily, Ken, Dodo and her family helped on serving food on picnic tables. Food had been ready when other families came group by group later. The latest group was Ruan’s family who arrived until 12 noon. The weather turned to cloudy and finally rained before 1 pm. It was lucky that it wasn’t long and the blue sky resumed. I announced free time started at 2 pm where people could choose to hike or stay. I would lead the group to Perkins Tower and Ken would help leading a team to Fort Clinton.

Tom first joined Nature You’s activity on May 6, 2007 to Hook Mountain. He told me he was physically fit before becoming a heavy smoker. After this first trip, he found hiking was a really good and helpful exercise to get back health. He joined 13 activities in 2007 which included father’s day hike, apple picking, kids hike, foliage trip and Storm King. He was one of the 15 award winners of 2007. Due to whatever reasons, he joined only 3 trips in 2008 and this BBQ was his first event in 2009. Very sadly to say, this would also be his last trip with Nature You before his moved back to Dallas in July. I prepared him a photo album to capture his pleasant moments in the mountain and hoped he would remember the time and friends at New York.

I led 13 people climbed on AT. The trail was quite steep so 3 hikers had to leave us. 10 people reached the summit after being stopped by sudden rain for 2 times. But they claimed the scenery at the top was pretty enough to pay back the effort. There was no bear on Bear Mountain but we saw a reddish bird and a hawk resting on a branch. Su was fooled by the small print “Tower” on the rock to think it was the Perkins Tower. It was Jenny’s first trip so she needed to get better hiking equipments. Harry still remembered the story of never tied shoelaces if you were the last one in the hiking team. We hurried to go back along AT as time was running out. Ken’s group had been back to the BBQ site after 2 miles easy walk to Fort Clinton. They brought back very pretty and cheerful pictures. It probably was an easy trip for 5 years old Jeffrey because he had hiked 5 miles 2 weeks ago.

Feng, Federick and Jeffrey had left before I got back. I was rushed to give out the stamps and passports to the others. Jenny was interested in reading the content of the passport. We cleaned and wrapped up very efficiently by the helps of all friends so we could leave before 5:30 pm. Even they were volunteering to help but I still thought I had put too much burden on my friends to handle the BBQ food. I had decided this would be the first and also last BBQ trip of 2009 or even in the future. I would still value high on organizing family trips but no more BBQ events. The event in November would be changed into potluck style so more time could be reserved for group activities.