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.
