nature-you.org Blog

A Yellow Magic Marker
October 25, 2009

The extremely bad weather situation on last 2 weeks made me questioned about the quality of this fall foliages trips. I could see the power of 24 hours non-stop rain and strong wind on Saturday. I made the stamp which was a blank maple leave. To make the stamp more colorful, I colored the maple leaves in yellow because I had found only a yellow marker at home. Surprisingly, this made Simon, Ken, Audrey, William, Sherry, Emily, Chung Kwong, Dodo, Rose, Esther, Eric, Cheng Fu, Yat, Karen Wong, Philip, David, Karen Wu and Diana to experience a very yellowish trip in nature. I didn’t know I had got a magic marker that it could decide the color of the nature. What if I had found a red one?

We reached Johnsontown Circle at 9:30 am. Rose told us she had already shot 80 pictures when the car was running along Palisades Parkway. Ken suggested we should stop by the highway and spent time over there after hiking. After a short briefing, we started climbing uphill at 10 am along Blue Disc Trail. Yellow leaves were everywhere both on the trees and on the ground. The color was bright because of strong sunshine shone on them especially when we saw them with a background of blue sky. We saw enough colors of yellow, brown and green but rarely colors of red, orange or purple.

Good hiking weather with enough sunshine had granted us a happy trip. We climbed Almost Perpendicular in a mile to the first viewpoint of the trip. Here we met a couple with 2 lovely dogs. We stayed long enough to take pictures because it was a wide-opened spot that could see the whole area. There were colors on the slopes but they were far away. Cheng Fu and Philip were the only one didn’t bring camera so were a little bit boring of waiting. There were individually golden trees standing along our route so most people had fun of posting and photo taking. We reached Claudia Smith Den in another mile which was another wide-opened spot could see the colorful vegetations. The colors were again mainly yellow and brown. Even it was quite windy but sunshine was rich, we took early lunch here at 11:45am. David learned the importance of polypropylene quick dry material sweater in winter because he felt cold after sweating. We took group picture with the help of Rose and Ken. Karen Wu got a bee bite on her finger when we were ready to go. Eric and Chung Kwong had first aid stuff to heal the unlucky girl. Ken was so nice to help Dodo by eating her lunch so the weight of her backpack was released.

I met Audrey and her little brother William in 2007 and they cut hiking for almost 2 years. William remembered me but not sure about my look when he met his driver, Philip in the morning. He whispered to Audrey about why Michael had grown so big. I asked everyone if it was okay to extend 2 more miles on Yellow Trail so we could visit Lake Skenonto. Co-incidentally, the color yellow was again added into the trip. Lake Skenonto was my favorite place because of its quietness and remoteness. We might have a good luck to see more colors by the lake. We switched to T-MI Red Trail and reached White Bar in a mile. T-MI was basically a flat trail which cutting a wide valley so there were enough yellow and brown colors on both sides. Everyone was in good condition so they followed me to approach the bonus miles along Yellow Trail. When we passed Dutch Doctor Shelter, I smelt a group of Korean hikers who were cooking their traditional Korean hiking lunch at the Shelter.

The back and forth miles on Yellow Trail was more challenging but worth taking. We reached the Lake around 1:30 pm. Even there were only few trees with reddish color, the blue water gave out big contrast on the lakeside yellow vegetations. We stayed long to give enough time for photographers and models. Philip took a lap while he was waiting. Rose was reluctant to leave as she was the last one to reach the Lake. We went back along Yellow Trail and connected to easy White Bar for last 1.5 miles. Rose remembered the triangular rock where she took a good picture last year so asked Chung Kwong to re-take a new version for her. Yat climbed to the top to give us a look of being an observation soldier. We finished 7 miles and reached the parking lot by 3:30 pm. As 50% of leaves were on the ground, I announced the end of fall foliages season at Harriman State Park of this year.

Snow falls at fall foliages
October 18, 2009

There were 60 names on the list expected to view fall foliages. The bad weather forecasted made 15 people withdrew on Saturday. The heavy rainfall in the morning further downsized the team into 16. The dropped out rate was 75%. Actually, the weather was windy, rainy and low temperature which was not easy for beginner hikers. I had debated for a while about should I keep the trip so 15 friends could still have a choice of joining or should I left this 15 people boring at home. No matter how bad was the weather, Guidan, Max, Harry, Feng, Moon, Chung Kwong, Jessica, Jenny, Rose, Esther, Joe, Hong, Megan, Karen and Philip appeared at the parking lot on time. I planned a 6 miles route to bring the group to R-D ridge to see colorful fall foliages. Due to the extreme weather liked that I wouldn’t even think about adding any bonus mile.

The heavy rain and strong wind made us impossible to do warming up exercise. 6 years old Megan wanted to lead so I gave the leading position to her and her mom. We climbed Black Rock Mountain along R-D Red Trail. It was so cold that Jenny had to borrow a yellow raincoat on the top of her pink one. Megan had a princess raincoat which probably was the prettiest one of all. Joe’s blue raincoat was so thin liked a recycle plastic table cloth but surprisingly it was durable for the entire trip. Guidan wore a long one which was supposed to be used when he went to his office. Esther put on a white raincoat to make her looked like a cutie ghost in Ghostbusters. Jessica and Philip’s raincoats were really reliable in keeping themselves warm. It was easier to identify Moon, Hong, Rose, Feng, Chung Kwong and Karen because they used only waterproof jackets.

We reached the junction of Red and White and started the hiking under strong wind and rain on the summit. Since it was an open area, we were also rewarded with pretty color of individual trees. The color had not reached the peak yet and some trees hadn’t many leaves left under such strong wind. Our photographers still found it a special day to shoot colorful nature under such a wet day. The temperature was really low so the rainfall turned into snowfall. It was the first time that I experienced snow fell at fall foliages. No one was going to believe us if we told people we saw snowing last Sunday. We reached Bald Rock Shelter before 11 am so I decided to keep going for 3 more miles and returned to the same Shelter around 1 pm to take lunch. I gave the group 15 minutes break so some of them had been smart enough to take quick lunch.

We kept on R-D viewing some pretty spot liked Ship Rock. We had to climb down on some big pieces of rocks which made people afraid of the slippery down slopes. When we came across a bridge, Joe walked into a pool to let water pour into his shoes. He probably was the coolest man of today. We reached Times Square and we had to turn into Long Path. This section was more hidden so the wind was not so strong. We enjoyed more on the colorful nature because yellow leaves had covered the slopes or trail. Guidan found this trip had made him more tired than the 9 miles trip of last week. We stopped at the junction of Long Path and Yellow Trail. We still had 1 mile before seeing the Shelter. Harry was so hungry that he requested if we could have 10 minutes break so he could take quick lunch. I disapproved because it was too windy to sit here and it would further delay the lunch time of another 10 people. Karen and Esther saved him by giving him some snacks.

We reached the Shelter again around 1:15 pm. Everyone did the same action, eating. First 10 people could find a space to sit on the platform while others had to stand. Even some of them didn’t need to sit, shelter was a much warmer place to stay rather than eating under strong wind. I asked if anyone had a lighter so we could set a fire at the chimney. It was good news that there were no smokers in this group. Harry entertained us by showing his dancing technique and Feng joked with Rose to cheer everybody up. Joe made the greatest prediction that we would still feel windy in the rest 1.5 miles trip.

The portion on R-D was really windy and cold. This was the same section we hiked this morning so I pushed everyone to walk quickly before anyone would catch colds. When we descended from the ridge and came to a spot with a lot of yellowish leaves, we took group picture here. The sunshine broke through at this moment so all photographers had a great harvest at this point. We finished 6 miles and reached the parking lot by 3:30 pm. This was one of the most windy and freezing hiking trips of Nature You.

New Idea on Covering Scenic Trip
October 11, 2009

The fall foliage forecasted “peak” at Minnewaska this weekend. It made me really happy for being so lucky of setting up the trip at the best timing. I had 26 people signed up and all cars had no problem to meet at parking lot. Since Minnewaska was a very popular area for fall foliage viewing, we met a lot of hiking teams and family teams. We had Guidan, Simon, Harry, Xin Li, Dawn, Jenny, Tom, Richard Wang, Richard Ge, Angela, Chung Kwong, Miu Lan, Rose, Esther, Fu Wei, Joe, Vincent, Suhneu, Karen, Philip, Lily, Kelly, Sam, Moon and Donna. Esther was the one who broke the record of early signed up. Since she had missed all my previous Minnewaska trips, she signed up in June once she saw the hiking schedule. We gathered at the beach of Lake Minnewaska and had a briefing of today’s plan. As it was the first visit of Minnewaska trip for most of the teammates, I decided to take the 8 miles scenic route to cover Echo Rock, Hamilton Point and Castle Point. We would go by Red, Yellow and then returned along Blue Trail. The grand views over Hamilton Point and Castle Point would likely make the new hikers breathless.

We started at 10:30 am after I requested Tom and Suhneu to refill their backpacks with more water. Sam and Guidan led the team at the front. As the trails were basically carriageways, we proceed in quick pace. The color of leaves had been changed but not as colorful as expected. Still, one or two reddish or golden trees attracted closed up shoots by the photographers. The pretty blue sky was another positive factor to add value on the pictures. I stopped the fast team at the junction of Red and Yellow Trail until all arrived because I understood it might take longer for those serious photographers to catch up. I led the team to a fork where Yellow Trail had been divided into 2. We didn’t understand why but both were labeled with Yellow even they would go different directions to different destinations. I made the mistake of not counting again before proceed. I thought I saw Moon was at the team so I kept going but it actually was only the memory at previous junction. Even there was a sign on the fork showing the destinations, but it was not the excuse of my fault.

Sam and Guidan led the team to Echo Rock in 30 minutes. We spent 15 minutes at the viewpoints but had no sight of Moon, Rose, Esther, Harry and Chung Kwong. I was confidence that they were late only because they were serious photographers. I finally called Moon and Rose in another 10 minutes but no signals. Kelly helped me called and I could talk to Rose. Rose said they were at Yellow Trail and she told me they were on the right track. Sam went back a little bit and had no sign of anyone were coming. As the front team had been waiting too long, I assigned Philip and Sam to bring the team to Hamilton Point and I would wait until they caught up. I walked back half mile and finally there was better phone reception to talk to the losing team. They went into another Yellow Trail at the fork and they were now 3 miles away from me or 4 miles away from the other team. I estimated it would be too tired for them to turn back to catch us up and there were good landscapes on that side, I assigned Chung Kwong and Moon to be in-charged of the South Team. I would lead the North Team on the North rim and they would cover the South rim of Minnewaska valley. We should finish and meet at the parking lot before 4 pm.

I caught up the North Team at Hamilton Point at which was the prettiest point of this route. The cliffs had been cracked and broken that it was scary when looked down from the top. The wide opened view on the cliffs was terrific. The undesirable factors today were only 50% color changed and it was very windy cold at opened area. We climbed to Castle Point to take lunch but it was impossible to enjoy both the food and the views because of the coldness. Lily and Tom had to leave rapidly and the whole team could not stay for more than 20 minutes. The contact with South Team knew that they enjoyed their route and they would go to a rock known as Eagle’s Mouth. I was surprised to hear Esther said that she might see the North Team from her side.

I decided to keep carrying the watermelon to the end so the South Team members could enjoy together. We had to walk on Blue Trail carriageway for another 4 miles. We had fast hikers who had little interest on fall foliage so they hiked non-stopped. The team was segmented as I had to take care of those tired members. Xin Li, Miu Lan, Jenny and Donna were the group with better intention on photo taking. Karen preferred to be photo taken rather than using her cold fingers to shoot. As the pace was faster than I expected, I called the South Team if they could be back around 3:30 pm.

The South Team ran fast and made it to reach the parking lot at 3:30 pm but they could only see Philip, Joe, Vincent, Dawn, me and a few pieces of watermelon. It was because the North Team had finished the hike before 3 pm and not willing to wait longer after eating watermelon and chatting enough. According to what Chung Kwong and Moon described, I estimated they had probably finished 7 miles today. It took them more time than us because they spent more time on posing on special landscapes. 2 teams in a trip was not a bad idea because we could share totally different photos afterwards.

A Trail not for Wet Day
September 27, 2009

I remembered until I reached the parking area to know I had hiked in this area few years ago. It was also a rainy and humid day liked today. I remembered I had seen ocean of thick fog covered the valley. It had made me felt as looking down from a plane. I hoped I could bring new hiking friends to get the same experience because the weather was so bad since this morning. It rained heavily when we drove and still cloudy at this moment. I had a team who never quit because of weather. They were Simon, Feng, Max, Harry, Angela, Ping, Chung Kwong, Rose, Joe, Karen, Philip, Sam and Moon.

We started at White Trail trailhead at Taylor Road at 9:30 am. The first mile on a grand greenish plateau was so nice. I pointed to the group that we had to climb up the mountain chain on our right side. After climbed up a small slope, we came across the Metro North Railroad. A lot of hikers were exciting to take photos while walking on the rail. Simon promised to take care of Chung Kwong’s new camera if a train arrived now. We crossed the railroad and found the Black Trail after a small section on Red Trail. These 1.25 miles on Black Trail was painful to Karen because we had to climb 1,120 feet. Light shower started and never stopped until later afternoon. It increased the level of her painful because the rock surface was slippery. The foggy situation was not so thick so I didn’t see the same scenery as my last trip.

We connected to Yellow Trail at the ridge. As the trail lied on the mountain ridge, the slippery situation turned even worse. I had to remind everyone to walk firmly move slowly. Those lady hikers were frightened and needed a helping hand even they had a hiking pole on the other hand. Chung Kwong was still the one who didn’t pull out his hiking pole. We reached the junction of Yellow and White Trail where we had to see the Megaliths. Megaliths were special geographic landscape where the rocks were cracked, tilted and moved separated. The walk on these non-flat bare rocks was so dangerous especially on such a wet day. We found the Megaliths which were gorgeous except the view of the area was foggy. Ping found there were small stones sculptured on the rock surface liked cements. The rocks were a little bit red in color. That was why the mountain was called Schunemunk which meant Good Fireplace in American Indian. It was a special geographic feature that I had never seen. We took lunch there hoped to stay longer for weather to turn better. Moon was so prepared to serve us moon cakes because Moon Festival was coming. The open area was quite windy so I cut short the lunch time when I found Harry was shaking.

We walked back to Yellow Trail and found the 1664 feet mark which was the highest point of the area. We then connected to Blue Trail to plan for the return route. My original 8 miles plan was Long Path, Yellow Trail and White Trail. Feng suggested taking a longer but less steep route which might be a safer trip on the day with slippery trail condition. I agreed and announced we would go further on Long Path and descended along Yellow Trail. The portion on Long Path was not easy. We temporary had little sunshine at the viewpoint but most hikers were quite exhausted because of the slippery rock. Chung Kwong had to pull out his hiking pole at this portion.

We connected to Yellow Trail after a short distance on Red Trail. The trail was less risky because the slope was not so steep. Feng used his downhill skiing technique to run down the slope while all others were just hiking in a faster pace. Moon screamed suddenly and turned back with a frightened look. I knew the only reason that triggered her tears was snakes. I followed her finger and found a 5 feet black snake was moving downhill slowly along the trail. Before I could grab a stick to move it away from trail, Ping threw a branch on it. This attack made it angry and stood its head towards us. I could also see its fork tongue coming out to defense itself. Ping threw another one that didn’t hit it and finally he did the same thing as I wanted. Unfortunately, he lost control and threw the stick with snake backward to the direction of other hikers. It caused another bigger screaming noise from the frightened audience. The snake moved quick down the slope to keep away from human intervention. We caught up Feng to tell him he had missed the scene of Ping’s Reptile Adventure and he told us we had also missed his closed encounter with 2 deer.

Moon dared not to walk alone at the front from now. We crossed the Metro North Railroad again and kept on Yellow Trail until we saw a big field of small wild flowers. Photographers had mood to take some shoots because sunshine caught us. We walked on the same plateau again and reached the parking lot at 3:30 pm. It was finally a 9 miles trip with a lot of minor incidents. I fell once on slippery trail and I heard Max, Angela, Joe and Harry had also fallen down once or more. This location was not a good choice to hike at wet weather.

Who Carried the Birthday Cakes to the Mountain?
September 19, 2009

It was a special day for a special hiking friend which made this a very busy day for me. Even it was busy and exhausted but the achievement had paid back enough. I learned how to carry fragile birthday cakes to the mountain and successfully set up a birthday party for Moon and her other 22 hiking friends. I had Moon, Simon, Lacey, Max, Harry Chen, Juliet, Scott, Jolly, Elza, Chung Kwong, Rose, Esther, Joe, Harry Tse, Hua Yan, Karen, Katie, Philip, David, Sam, Helen and Xue Lei to witness this event.

I scheduled this trip months ago to West Mountain which was 8 miles level C because I planned to bring the group to climb a few hundred feet to see fall foliage. After knowing this was also Moon’s birthday and she would like to have a special birthday party in the mountain, I debated should I change the location to an easier level. Finally, I decided to take the challenge. Our plan was: Moon and I would go early in the morning and brought the birthday cake to the mountain before others. I would go back to the trailhead to lead the team up. Then, they would find Moon and birthday cake closed to the shelter as a surprise. As the waiting time for Moon in the mountain would be 2 hours, I carried also a tent so she could rest in. The plan was modified into 2 cakes because we found 1 cake might not be enough for 23 people. It wasn’t so easy when carrying a 35 pounds backpack and hand carried 2 birthday cakes. I had to be careful of not overturning the cakes so I could use no hiking pole. It made me exhausted because time was running out and I had no chance to take break. We hiked all the way uphill for 2 miles in 1.5 hours. I rapidly set up the tent and ran back along the trail.

I saw the rest 21 hikers at the parking lot at 9:45 am after running down from West Mountain. I could finish 2 miles downhill in 30 minutes. Even they didn’t understand why Moon was absence, but nobody questioned that except Harry. I led the group hiked again on AT to climb West Mountain. The trail was steep so I was worried about Elza when her face turned pale at a viewpoint. She might be a city girl so I could tell she was really tired. The viewpoints were terrific just fall foliage wasn’t there yet. The vegetations were still too green. We merged with Blue Trail in a mile and had a lot of grand views over Anthony Wayne Recreation Area. When I led the group approaching the designated point, Esther was the first one realized a familiar figure next to the tent. “That girl was Moon!”

We sang song and cut cakes to celebrate Moon’s birthday. New hikers should know Moon was our Chief Stamp Designer. The stamps designed by her were artworks that worth collected. As I needed time to dismantle the tent, I asked the group to take early lunch at this point. I merged 2 backpacks into 1 and made a super heavy 50 pound backpack. All hikers were interested to try to carry it or at least took a picture with it. We continued on Blue Trail to reach the West Mountain Shelter. There was a big group of Korean hikers cooking outside. The Blue Trail was quite steep with up and down. Lacey, Jolly and Elza compared themselves into ninja warriors when they knew they had crossed over mountains and valleys. When we were taking a break at The Timp, David volunteered to switch his backpack with me. He said he didn’t feel any trace of doing exercise so far. With the light backpack, I could hike in leisure walk and saved myself from getting cramp. Joe had a good camera which could take a clear picture of West Mountain Shelter from this point. We hit 1777 and started going downhill for 2 miles. Most people enjoyed this section even there was no much viewpoints. We took a break at the junction of 1777 and 1777W. Sam was eager to try the heavy backpack so asked David for switching. I was again free from the heavy load and enjoyed light pace. It looked like I could team up some guys to carry watermelons to the mountain and set up our Nature You watermelon service point.

There were some new hikers in this trip. Hopefully, they knew more about the level system of us. I used to set up difficult part in the morning and easier in the afternoon. After 1.5 miles of easy trail on 1777W, we were back to the parking lot by 3:30 pm. We finished 8 miles hike with an implementation of a birthday party for a faithful hiker. I had to thank David and Sam for the helps on carrying the backpack or I might get into trouble of exhaustion.

A Peaceful Trip
September 13, 2009

Easy trip would always get into huge audience. Also because of the announcement on community events board on local Chinese newspapers, I had more than 100 people called to sign up for this trip. As the club policy had been set the limitation to 50 and I had already extended the number to 60, I felt sorry and guilty to reject those called late. It was going to be a double headed trip again. We would first visit Chuang Yen Monastery and went for a 4 miles hiking after vegetarian lunch.

15 cars brought in 62 people at Chuang Yen Monastery around 10:30 am. I had Yat, Colin Nghi Tran, Mrs. Wong, Dodo, Eric, Sherry Hong, Danny, Fanny, Moon, Tim, Ken, Emily, Esther, Jessica Wong, Karen Qing, Joe, Christine, Clara Lau, Raymond, Sharon Ou, Clara Yu, Donna, Chi Wai, Susie, Lisa, Lina, Kate, Sonya, Kelly, Mina, Edward, Dennis, Lesley, Sherry Shen, Max, Philip, David, Karen Wu, Feng, Sharon Yip, Ben, Hong, Megan, Jenny, Oi Man, Fannie, Susan, Harry, Jimmy, Ary Paula, Chung Kwong, Rose, Jessica Li, Aileen, John, Jamie, Janet, Anna, Betty and Dana. Aileen was pregnant so we should count 1 more on the total. To my surprised, I met Dr. Bai, Feng Lin, Jeffrey and Federick at the Monastery because they came on their own after my rejection. There were also 2 other people in the Monastery asked for information of the Club when they saw the big hiking group.

The tour at the Monastery was self help. For those first time visitors, they were busy tour around the area and with eyes wide opened by the giant drum, bell and Buddha. Some of them went to main temple to have a few minutes of quiet time. Some of them were just sitting and waiting at the picnic tables. Some of them visited the book store for sacred gifts. Some of them made this chance to meet new and old hiking friends. It was too bad that the trip was too early for fall foliage or they would be busier at the time before lunch. I was busy catching people on the list to sign up people and gave out passports and stamps. Special thanks to Moon to design the stamp on the theme of peaceful Chuang Yen Monastery. It was a ripple created by a dropped green leave. The water surface was always symbolized as our mind. How could we be cleared from ripples to have a peaceful mind? The 10 minutes stayed before the grand ivory Buddha gave me an insight of equalization. There was no difference when we watched from the viewpoint of Buddha. We were equally as small as ants so never compared with others. Just worked on individual live and enjoyed the walk to the future.

We gathered at the parking lot as scheduled and moved to another parking lot for hiking. A few ladies decided to stay at the Monastery for more hours. It was too bad that 2 cars missed the turn and could not locate the trailhead. I intended to bring the group to John Allen Pond following Blue, Red and Yellow trails. The team size of over 55 people was really big so I had to stop from time to time to make sure no segmentation. My most difficult job was to hold down 6 years old Megan who walked too fast at the front. There were some steep slopes on Blue Trail which might make everyone sweated for Aileen. We hit Sunk Mine Road in a mile which was wide and flat. The walk was so enjoyable and relaxed that I led the team into the wrong trail. We did follow the Blue trail mark as showed on the map but likely there were also different Blue marks on Sunk Mine Road. When I began to puzzle how came there was a valley on the left side, I realized the trail mark of AT. I was shock because it was impossible to see AT in my route. I needed more time to locate our present position so I treated the group by distributing the prepared tangerines. After sending Chung Kwong to find the Red Trail, I was sure about the mistake. We had to change the plan to go back along AT. It wasn’t too bad for this change because the original plan might be too much for Aileen.

We hiked 2 miles on AT all the way back to the parking lot. The trip was still 4 miles and the difficulty was downgraded a little bit. We reached the cars at 4 pm because we started hiking at 2 pm. No one seemed complained for my mistake and change of route so that I could conclude this was a peaceful trip.