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Figure Skating at Lost Pond
December 19, 2009

It was my second lead to Manitoga Nature Preserve. I remembered I got lost in 2006 because the map wasn’t reflecting the trail. I led a group of hikers circled among some trails for a few hours. I knew I was wrong until we came back to the same spot after an hour. It hadn’t hurt anyone because the trails were short and not steep at all. This was just a shame on the leader’s heart. I intended to solve the mystery so scheduled this trip again. Even a blizzard was on the way to the East Coast, I had Dawn, Anthony, Chung Kwong, Fang, Susie, Rose, Esther, Joe, Raymond, Clara, Moon and Patric on the team. It was a trip of only 3 miles. I planned to have the additional 2 miles hike on Manitou Point Preserve which was 1 mile away if the time permitted.

I led all cars reached the parking lot around 9 am. There was a visitor’s center at the trailhead but it was closed in winter. Patric got a trail guide map from the box which turned out was very useful in the afternoon. We found a clear described trail system notice board at trailhead. They even included the warning sign of wrong trail by putting a black dot in the center of the trail mark. I decided to follow the longest 2.5 miles route by following White Trail to reach Lost Pond. According to my hiking map, I might be able to locate the trail to link to Osborn Blue Trail and AT to make the trip longer.

It was a cold day. We all wore warm jacket but the face and hands were freezing cold. Esther and Fang used their masks immediately. Moon felt we had 2 dangerous strangers in the team who were serial killer and terrorist. It could be a guessing game by looking at the photos if Esther put the mask on during the whole trip. I gave out warm pads to Esther, Dawn and Moon to warm up their hands. We visited some viewpoints where rangers would give out lecture to the visitors. We should come again at summer time and took the guided tour. We climbed 450 feet to reach Lost Pond. The size of Lost Pond was small but it was a skating range now. Joe was the first one went onto the Pond fearlessly. He even slept on it to test the ice. Dawn and Esther were so excited to pose liked figure skating stars. Joe later added to make it a triple performance. Rose and Anthony also made this chance to pose a picture on the ice. While they were performing their figure skating, I was looking for the trail to link to Blue Trail. As the trail mark was not clear, I decided to give up and just brought the group completed the White Trail.

When we were descending from Lost Pond, we saw a big Ling Zi on the way. Rose and Anthony were interested to go closed to take picture. I saw a Yellow Trail later which linked to another double Ling Zi on the tree. I led the group to explore into the Yellow Trail found an excellent viewpoint over Hudson River. I decided to take lunch at this spot. After matched the scenery with the map from Patric, I knew we were not far from Four Corners. Four Corners was a point where White, Blue and Red Trails met. I led the group descended again on White Trail and reached the endpoint in 10 minutes.

It was too early to call it a day so I brought the group to hike on Manitou Point. We spent 30 minutes to locate the parking lot. We hiked along White Trail and crossed the Metro North Track by a bridge. The scenery of Hudson River from Outward Bound Headquarter was terrific. We hiked along Hudson River along Blue Trail and turned round along Red Trail. We knew how busy Metro North Train was. When we were taking a break at the lawn of Outward Bound House, Anthony suggested taking a picture of everyone in a pattern. We lay down and formed a letter “Y” in that group picture. It was fun.

When we were crossing the bridge over Metro North again, there was a train just passing. I ran quickly to take a picture of a running train. Rose said she never saw me reacting so rapidly. Was I so old? A few hikers went into a side trail to take picture for a small frozen waterfall. Until now I saw an eagle flying on the sky which perfectly matched with Moon’s stamp. We reached the parking lot by 2 pm and finished totally 5 miles. Some hikers intended to see snowfall in the mountain so they were not willing to leave. As it was more risky to drive while snowing, it was better to see the blizzard indoors.

Super Hikers’ Level A
December 13, 2009

Pine Meadow Lake was a huge and pretty lake in Harriman which could be accessed by an easy 2.5 miles Red Trail. It was the most popular trail in Harriman and it was not unusual to see family of all ages and pets on the trail. I always said this was the first trip for any new hikers. I scheduled this Level A trip in December intended to let new hikers to try a winter hike. It turned out there was no new hikers in the team. Since all of us had equipment and experience, I decided to upgrade the regular Level A into special edition of Level A for this group of super hikers. I had Guidan, Dawn, Angela, Chung Kwong, Su, Rose, Esther, Xiao Mai, Joe, Karen, Philip and Moon in the team.

It might be too boring if we hiked on the same trail back and forth. The weather forecasted rain would start at noon. It was cloudy but I hoped the rain would start late or just a drizzle that wouldn’t hurt. I still announced our course would be changed as follows: we would approach Pine Meadow Lake by climbing some hills on White Trail, Blue Trail, White Trail, Black Trail and Yellow Trail. The winter sceneries on Seven Hills and Raccoon Brook Hills Trail should be great.

We started at 9:45 am and all hikers were happy for the pretty sceneries on the hill side. We took pictures of the ice features at the stream and terrific views at the viewpoints. The snow on the trail was not soft but still safe to hike. Rain started at 10:30 am and never stopped for the rest of the day. This added up the difficulty because now the trail was more slippery and hikers might feel cold. Angela said it was her first hiking on the snow and probably also the first trip under heavy rain. It seemed Su hadn’t got what I said at the beginning and now questioning about how came so many hills for a Level A trip. I joked this was a special Level A for super hikers. We switched to Seven Hills Blue Trail in 1.5 miles. There were some rock climbing spots that scared some lady hikers. I found most of us were wet through because of the rain and decided to change the course. We hiked all the way on Blue Trail to Red Trail and discussed what to do for the rest of the day.

It was understandable that someone was suffering under such bad weather. I should also consider those who still wanted to complete the event. As the Red Trail was easy and linked back to the parking in less than 2 miles, I decided to split the group. I had Chung Kwong, Rose, Philip, Moon, Esther, Karen and Joe wanted to follow me to take lunch at the Pine Meadow Lake. The trail was very slippery because the rain had polished it for hours. We reached Ga-Nus-Quah Rock in 15 minutes. This was a spot with 2 giant rocks leaning each other to create a gap in between. Moon had a good idea to take lunch here because there was no shelter at the Lake. It was better to have coverage so temporarily away from wet and cold. There was not enough space for 8 but perfectly fit 6 hikers. Rose could even find a spot on the rock for her coffee cup. I gave someone warm pads to save their frozen hands.

We continued to approach the Lake after lunch. We saw a quiet Pine Meadow Lake under extreme bad weather. After taking a few group pictures and I shared them some snacks, we took the trip back on Red Trail. The Red Trail was full of icy spots so we had to walk very carefully. We took a few pictures with a tiny pine tree to celebrate Christmas ahead of others. When we were back to the parking at 3:30 pm, I saw the quietest Visitors Center ever. There were only 2 cars other than ours. We finished 6 miles under such a cold and wet hiking day.

Surprising Snow Trip
December 6, 2009

There was no any snowfall in the city so surprising enough to see a lot of snow at Tiorati Circle. Everyone including me was not prepared with today’s trail condition. I didn’t wear waterproofed hiking pants, Clara and Susie didn’t have waterproofed hiking boots, Lisa, Raymond, Susie and Clara had no hiking pole and Chung Kwong hadn’t put on his winter hiking pants. The other hikers included Guidan, Harry Chen, Dawn, William, Johnny, Fang, Rose, Esther, Xiao Mai, Joe, Harry Tse, Wei and Philip were not expecting to see such pretty winter scenery in the mountain.

We reached Tiorati Circle at 9 am while Rose had already loaded 75 photos on Route 106 and Seven Lakes Drive. The winter and snow scenery caught the shoots. I planned to bring the group in a 6 miles trip to Lemon Squeezer. Lemon Squeezer was famous for the narrow trail which might squeeze a large sized hiker. Moon couldn’t make it today but designed us a special stamp. It was a stamp of 3 worrying fat penguins that had to face the challenge of Lemon Squeezer. What a special stamp and looked like she could predict or command the weather.

We started from a short Blue Trail and reached the R-D Red where we could see the huge water tank. As the civilized restrooms were closed in winter, here we divided the group to give chance for each one to go private. We climbed the R-D to see the pretty winter scenery. Photographers and models were busy shooting and posing. The entire area was covered with 6 inches of snow. The snow on the branches created a strong contrast of color. The snow that covered the bare rocks created hidden danger. For those didn’t get waterproofed footwear, they had to take extra effort to avoid from puddles. Guidan had fallen 2 times on slippery rocks that made Xiao Mai worried a lot. I gave Clara 2 warm pads to warm her feet. We stopped by the Fingerboard Shelter and found a Korean hiking group was cooking their lunch inside. As time was too early, we kept on R-D and targeted to take lunch at Times Square. There were steep slopes on R-D so Susie was hesitated to follow my lead. Since the team was moving slow, I intended to cut short the trip and went along Bottle Cap Trail. It was too bad that I couldn’t locate the trail under snow condition. We reached Times Square after 12:30 pm and took lunch over there.

Esther found a very good spot for her backpack to rest and Philip showed us his no-good warm pot because his noodles were cold. I consulted the new hikers if they would like to go by short cut trail. No one wanted to quit before seeing Lemon Squeezer. Lisa was so happy to come back to nature after buried herself a few years into her career. Snow on the leaves was liked cotton and we were liked entered into the world of cotton trees. We continued on Long Path and A-SB Red Trail and reached the Lemon Squeezer in a mile. None of us were fat penguins but Harry Tse had problem because he was carrying a big backpack. The only problem on Philip was his round shaped cowboy hat. After we passed the test, Chung Kwong, Harry Chen, Esther, Rose, Lisa and Philip took another challenge of climbing a big rock. They all succeed except Esther.

We were now entered the turned back course along AT. I caught the front team up and led everyone turned into Long Path. I could free them to go on their own pace now because 2 miles on Long Path would bring them to the main road. There were still up and down slopes that slowed down Xiao Mai. Fang said thankful for my professional advice so she had bought a waterproofed hiking boots, prepared hiking pole and wore 2 pair of socks. She also felt painful because she never expected this hike would be so tough. She asked for a break and Wei was always with her. We took our group picture at a spot where we could have snow at the background. There were lots of puddles at the last part that we had to test our decision making to find the best spot to step on. The rocks on the trail made Guidan really mad and intended to go off trail to hit the main road. I stopped him otherwise he would be stopped by a stream and had to spend extra effort to turn back. Everyone was happy to step on the main road and had leisure walk to go back to Tiorati Circle. Hiking on snow really took double the time on regular trail. We finished 6 miles and reached the parking lot at 4 pm.

From Sunrise to Moon Rise
November 29, 2009

It was a 10 miles trip with a lot of up and downhill in the morning. The climb to Ramapo Torne was not easy and the viewpoints might attract hikers to stay long. I announced we should start as early as 9 am and hopefully we could finish before 4 pm. I had 17 serious hikers who all prepared to hike long hours or fast pace. They were: Guidun, Xiao Mai, Max, Harry, Feng, Jing, Dawn, Chung Kwong, Helen, Qiang, Rose, Esther, Joe, Philip, John and Moon.

The meeting time at the city was 7 am so Rose and Chung Kwong had to leave home before 5 am. This was the time before sunrise. All cars were at Visitors Center of Seven Lakes Drive around 8:45 am but we couldn’t start before 9:15 am. We started from Red Trail and connected to Blue Trail with a few slopes. The fast team arrived at the junction of Blue and Orange Trail quick. Rose had found a problem on her foot because she wore new shopping boots yesterday. I felt bad and worried about her possibility of completion of 8 more miles. Feet care was so important for a hiker not only during but before the hiking event. I led the group on Orange Trail and climbed to the Torne after a section of rock climbing. They were interesting to see the natural shelter. We took 2 group pictures at the Torne based on genders. It turned out this was the only chance we could be together before lunch. We spent time for taking photos at the Torne because we had to compensate for the foggy condition of our last visit. They all knew now what scenery was under this hill.

I planned to take lunch at the Russian Bear which was another viewpoint and matched with the time frame even we were quite behind the schedule. We had finished only 3.5 miles by lunch time. Moon took a very relax picture with her lunch box by leaning on a tree. I consulted Rose and Xiao Mai if they could continue with the rest of the trip. Both ladies had troubles on their feet and legs but both were so determined to continue. Luckily, I had Feng in the team so I prepared to split. We connected to Black Trail for a mile and then White Kakiat Trail. After 1 mile on White Trail, Feng announced we were close to Yellow Trail. Everyone was so happy except me because I remembered we were still far from Grandma and Grandpa Rocks.

I caught the front team at Grandma and Grandpa Rocks and brought them to Yellow Trail. Here was the last spot that I could see the whole team because there was at least 30 minutes difference. After clear explanation about the order of coming trails which were Yellow, White and Red Trail, I let Feng brought the fast team proceed. Moon and I would wait for Bai’s couples. There were still a lot of ups and downs on Yellow Trail. This probably the most difficult trip of Xiao Mai because her knees were not strong enough for so many slopes. Since Feng called me from time to time to tell me their location, while we were waiting at the White Trail for Bai’s, I knew Feng had finished the Red Trail that next to Pine Meadow Lake. They were taking pictures and waiting for Rose. We were 45 minutes apart.

The section on White and Red Trail was mostly flat but it was still a torture for a tired hiker. We saw pretty sunset scenery when we reached Pine Meadow Lake. That matched perfectly with Moon’s stamp. Feng reported to me that the super fast team had reached parking lot at 3:30 pm but Chung Kwong and Rose were out of his sight. I didn’t worry about it because they must be in between the team and Rose was not by herself. I called Philip to wait at the parking lot for me so in case I could get help. The last 2.5 miles on Red Trail was boring until I got the phone call from Chung Kwong. The story was: Chung Kwong ran back to search for Rose while Rose was confused about the direction and turned around between the trails of Pine Meadow Lake. Pine Meadow Lake was renamed as Rose Missing Lake after this trip.

Once they knew my team was behind them, they spent more time on photo taking of the evening scenery of the mountain. The trail was still full of rolling stones and getting dark. Xiao Mai took out her headlight but fell so bad on a slippery spot that she could hardly stand up again. Luckily, Guidan was right there to help. Chung Kwong and Rose reached the parking around 4:15 pm and Bai’s couples reached at 4:45 pm. The mountain was so dark and we were happy to see the big clear full Moon rising behind trees. Moon watching was finally delivered which I had owed them in an October trip. We had set a record of spending 7 hours to finish 10 miles.

A Fish is Killed at Fishkill
November 21, 2009

This was the second visit of Fishkill and so I picked another trailhead and route. The route was 9 miles with a lot of viewpoints. I had Max, Harry, Jennifer, Dawn, Anthony, Scott, Juliet, Magdalene, Chung Kwong, Rose, Esther, Joe, Karen, Philip, Stanley and Moon. There were no new faces in the group likely because it was claimed as a level D trip.

Few cars met at the gas station of Route 52 at 8 am. I got a call from Magdalene telling me the parking area was not opened yet. After we reached there, I found luckily we could still park outside the gate without blocking any traffic. As we were going to climb 1,000 feet to Fishkill Ridge along Outlook Trail, we finished the warming up exercise seriously. The uphill was not too steep and rewarded with good viewpoints. We finished this Red Trail in 2 miles and connected to White Trail after a break. We had a few hikers wearing yellow jackets so it made the team very eye catching. The view over Beacon Town and Beacon Bridge was terrific. We climbed to Lambs Hill so quick that we didn’t really know we were there. We reached the junction of Blue and White Trail at 3rd mile. Magdalene fell on a slippery rock and blamed it to Harry. For the rest of the trip, Magdalene would like to see a fall on Harry for the revenge.

As the trail was not so difficult and all serious hikers were prepared to hike in quick pace and long distance, we kept hiking fast on White Trail. Juliet and Scott used to hike big miles on their own. Jennifer was known to have a motor on her feet. All hikers reached the greatest viewpoint at Bald Hill where we could see the entire area. Stanley liked to climb trees so he made a challenging effort to get into the good pose on a tree. Since I found it was too early, I decided to take lunch at the next viewpoint. We descended from the hill but impossible to locate both viewpoints afterwards. Finally, we took lunch at a spot where we could find more stones to sit. Philip was leading at the front so I had to catch him back to the lunch spot or his friends would have nothing to eat. The sunshine was rich and warm that we could relax enjoy our lunch. Anthony and Rose brought and shared us their food.

We kept on White Trail after lunch. I let them go at the front but surprising they were waiting for me at the junction of White and Yellow Trail. They were puzzled about the direction because the map they got from the information kiosk at the trailhead was outdated. I checked with my hiking map and located our position before leading the team to connect to Blue Trail. Blue Trail was a short trail but it was filled with some abandon vehicles. I just wondered how the drivers could move the vehicles to the mountain by this kind of rough trail. We took the group picture with the biggest one that at the junction. Since it took time for everyone to climb up to the vehicle, Esther had to hide her face away from the sun for a while.

We went back to the section that we climbed this morning but the direction reversed. We were now hiking with great views in front of us. The afternoon sunshine created good shadows for our photographers. Joe knew how steep the slope was this morning when he could see now from the top. The trail was full of fallen leaves that made the downhill very slippery. Karen fell at a spot and there were laughing from the front. Eventually, the laugh came from the group that they were betting if Harry would take the difficult short cut to climb the slope. We finished 9 miles at 2:30 pm. It turned out all 17 hikers probably felt this trip not as difficult as expected. Luckily, not many of them had tried the first route so they would be happy to try the other route next time. If there were 2 fishes in this area, I would say one had been killed because I would never lead hiking on this trail again. The other fish was much more challenging and spectacular.

A Bridge Too Far
November 15, 2009

It was lucky that we met at 9:30 am which was 15 minutes earlier than the other hikers at Fort Montgomery Visitors Center. We could find 8 parking spots. I had Ken, William, Audrey, Max, Harry Chen, Dawn, Sherry, Emily, Chung Kwong, Dodo, Helen, Susie, Rose, Esther, Joe, Eric, Suhneu, Harry Tse, Karen, Philip, Raymond, Clara and Moon. It was George’s first trip in 2009 because he found the number on the weigh was unacceptably high. Paul brought his family and arrived so late until everyone had already crossed the first bridge. There were 4 bridges in this area. I planned to bring the team to walk on 3.

I gave out pretty stamps before we started the trip at 10 am. The stamp was designed by Moon which was the night scene of Bear Mountain Bridge. We would have no chance to see this bridge in the evening. We crossed the first foot bridge next to the Visitors Center on which we were so closed to the water. The trail linked us to Fort Clinton Museum but we had no time to go in. We took a break for photo taking outside the Fort and walked across the Bear Mountain Bridge. This was a long bridge hanged over the downstream of Hudson River. A team of 29 hikers lined up at the bridge should have attracted eyes of the bypassed drivers. This was probably the first experience of all of us that we could stand and stay on this bridge. Good photographers took this chance to make shots to everything they could spot, it took us an hour to finish the first mile of this trip.

I pointed to the hill up there at the end of the bridge telling people that was our destination, Anthony’s Nose. People were frightened by the cliff before I told them the trail was not on this side. We walked along Route 9D for 5 minutes and got back to the trail of AT. I took a photo for Philip because we were now entering the Philipstown area. This 0.5 mile uphill was quite tough for new hikers especially for those wanted to hike all the way without taking a break. We climbed 600 feet within 0.5 mile was liked climbed up 50 floors. Suhneu was the first one reached the Blue Trail but it had exhausted all her energy reserved. She gave up the last hill after lunch and returned right away on her own. Susie won over Clara and Raymond in their race. Chung Kwong had to overcome his stomach problem which had lasted for a few days. Eric took care of Sherry carefully to give her a pleasant time in hiking. Both Esther and Karen felt it was a good test to their heart beat and leg muscles. The most amazing part was 6 years old Jeffrey could also make it by the help of parents and Auntie Rose.

We waited at the sign in box until everyone was here and proceed along Blue Trail. The Blue Trail was flat and led us to an open area which could oversee the Hudson River and Bear Mountain Bridge. This was Anthony’s Nose which was named when the sailor of an explored ship realized the shape of this mountain was looked like the nose of Captain Anthony. This was the most desirable lunch point for this route, so I had no hesitate to announce for 30 minutes lunch break. The sunshine was so rich that our photographers were busy between eating and photo taking. Rose served us some homemade food which composed of both sweetie and salty.

Mei’s family decided to turn back after lunch because little Jeffrey had been tired for the uphill trip. I led the others kept going further on Blue Trail until we reached the 3 miles checkpoint. After Harry Tse hiked down from the ridge, I led the group start hiking back along the same trail. This extra mile gave hikers another chance of climbing uphill to test their leg muscles. They never knew the downhill slope on slippery AT Trail later would be the biggest challenge of this trip. Karen claimed it was a painful experience of hiking on slippery surface. Most hikers hiked slowly on this downhill slope even with the help of hiking pole. We reached the Bear Mountain Bridge around 2 pm. I told the group we would walk back along the Route 9W Bridge after crossed Bear Mountain Bridge to add 1 more bridge on today’s trip. There were 4 bridges in this area. We had walked on 3 and left only the one untouched because it was the bridge only for CSX Train. We finished 6 miles and reached the Visitors Center by 2:45 pm.