When it is -10 degrees F
January 3, 2010
Happy New Year of 2010. I had 10 hikers joined in order to have a record on this first trip of a new year even the weather was definitely not suitable for outdoors. The low temperature and strong wind further pushed the temperature at Perkins Tower into -10 degree F. All the huge trees nodded their heads and agreed that it was one of the most extreme weathers they had ever experienced. Simon, Max, Harry, Chung Kwong, Helen, Rose, Philip, Moon and Eric would probably be fearless to any weather situations after this trip.
We arrived at the parking lot at Seven Lakes Drive before 9:15 am with definitely no other cars in it. As the wind was so cold, we didn’t have too much time for briefing. Rose helped distributed the first stamp of this year which she had almost caught a cold in that 3 minutes because she had to remove her gloves. Due to the coldness and windy situation, I planned cautiously. We would first go and took lunch at Bear Mountain Recreational Area by easy trail. We then would decide to climb Perkins Tower based on the weather and trail situations. I picked the house of Merry-Go-Round to be the lunch point because we could have a good shelter away from strong wind.
We started along 1777 W and connected to 1777 E in a mile. It was Eric’s first trip with Nature You and he was exciting to lead the group at the front. When we were at the junction of Yellow Trail, Max, Rose and Simon remembered the trip that we had got lost 3 times last year. We took pictures at the icy stream and bridge. When we were passing the frozen Doodletown Reservoir, I invited Harry to go into the lake to try ice skating. There were lots of paths within Doodletown so I was mistakenly led the group off the trail. This gave us a chance to see the demolished settlements. When I found we were at the auto road, I knew we had to walk to the Recreational Area by Seven Lakes Drive. We always hiked on the trail underneath so we never saw the area from this altitude. As the sceneries of the neighboring mountains were not bad, so no one complained. In addition, Moon realized there were 7 deer moving at the front and would cross the road to go uphill. It was the first time that we could see a group of deer and luckily we had Chung Kwong and Rose to put them into their cameras. When we were a hundred feet from the Recreational Area, we were welcome by a strong wind mixed with snow. Moon felt she was slapped on the face when she didn’t turn around quick enough. We first visited the restrooms and met at the house of Merry-Go-Round.
The game site was so quiet. We saw only a few workers and no any other single visitors. The wind outside was so strong liked a fierce snowstorm. We were lucky to have an enclosed shelter to enjoy our lunch. All hikers had their thermo containers of hot or warm food except Chung Kwong. Helen brought out a very dedicated new metal container which was pretty but not a good one to keep the food warm. Photographers had time to take pictures of the colorful Merry-Go-Round and hanging origami animals. After knowing we were not too old or heavy to go into the Merry-Go-Round, we decided to merry-go-back to our childhoods. With Eric and Max decided to be our photographers outside the game, we all 8 people had beautiful 10 minutes into the time machine. Philip picked a colorful turkey while Rose picked a tamed deer to be their rides.
It was time to be back to our trip. I decided to go to Perkins Tower even it would be very windy. As all of us were equipped, we could just leave the summit right away if the situation was very bad. We passed the Hessian Lake and climbed on AT all the way to the Tower. The wind was not too strong but the snow was quite deep. It was comfortable to climb up steep slope under such cool weather. The temperature was low so photo taking had become a complicated chain of actions. We had to pull out the hand from the glove and finished the shootings before the fingers frozen. There were some ice formations on the route and Eric was energetic enough to try to break them all. We reached the summit at 2 pm but no chance to stay for more than 5 minutes. The wind was so strong and rough that I thought the trees would be pulled out. The whole area was as noisy as the sky was going to break apart. I pushed everyone to follow me to descend along AT before any accident might happen. Harry likely had got cold cut because his face was so red.
It was much colder and more windy on this side of the mountain. We took no rest until we reached the auto road. Helen questioned why we met auto road at least 5 times today. We took a group picture at the spot before going back to the trail. The trail at last half mile was turning into more icy. It was a perfect time to be back to the car because the trail might be turned into more risky when the temperature was dropped rapidly after dusk. We finished a 6 miles adventurous hike under very extreme weather.
