Funs on a Frozen Lake
January 23, 2010
We had Philip’s 9 years old son, Chen joined today. But the craziness of playing on a frozen lake didn’t limit by age. The other 17 adults went onto the lake and most of them had so much fun in those 45 minutes. If I ranked them in descended order, it would be Max, Rose, Esther, Harry, Raymond, Philip, Susie, Clara, Simon, Lacey, Jolly, Lovett, Moon, Shawn, Melody and Fang. Fang stepped on the ice for only 5 minutes for taking group picture.
When we started at 9:45 am, Susie’s car was still on the way. I gave them the hiking plan and expected not too much to meet them at Lake Skenonto. It was quite windy cold at the parking lot. We started along R-D Red and reached the trail in half a mile. There were a lot of upslope on the first mile. It was disappointed that the trail was basically clear of snow and ice. We were exciting to see a big piece of thin icy spot so most hiker stepped on to show off their leg power. They were liked breaking a sheet of glass. Since the wind had gone at this side and the sunshine was so rich, we enjoyed a long break at the little pond. Little Chen, Rose, and Esther had been unable to resist the temptation of going onto the frozen water. I shared them some snacks. As it was a perfect day for hiking and the last trip before the 3 weeks break, I decided to give out the bonus by upgrading the trip into 8 miles. We continued on R-D Red to capture 2 more viewpoints before turning back to Lake Skenonto. Moon realized a super big rock at the trail so took the challenge of climbing it up. Simon found the easy way so most hikers met at the top to take pictures. Some hikers were exhausted because of chains of upslope. As it was closed to noon time, Harry suggested taking lunch at the viewpoint of Yellow Trail. I gave them some snacks again but insisted to take lunch at the Lake because I knew they would like to spend more time over there.
Rose played sliding on a side trail because she didn’t want to switch back to the trail. After 20 more minutes on the Yellow Trail, we reached Lake Skenonto around 12:30 pm. Susie ran to us liked greeting friends from the airport. What a surprised to have a reunion at the Lake. Raymond, Clara and Susie were here 30 minutes ago because they were guided by an experienced hiker who could show them the easiest route to reach the Lake. We also met the AMC hiking team at the Lake which was led by Judith King. We saw someone were ice-fishing in the middle of the Lake. Before I could finish my lunch, I saw Max, Little Chen, Rose, Harry, Esther, Philip had started their party on the icy lake. Raymond, Susie and Clara joined to share the fun. It wasn’t a bad idea to take pictures on the ice, this attracted Moon, Lacey, Jolly and Simon to participate. Lovett was the last one to join under the request of his friends. Max and Susie even walked to the island to claim the colony. Raymond found the change on water level when stepped hard on the ice. Philip pulled Chen on the ice. Harry lied down as a sleeping Buddha. Rose and Esther demonstrated their technique of ice skating. I saw a lot of human stars on the ice. Max suggested to take group picture on the lake so Shawn, Melody and Fang finally stepped onto the ice. That was so much fun for 45 minutes and it was time to go back to trail.
We finished the Yellow Trail and linked to White Bar. I was told that Lovett needed to take rest because he was cramp. I was ready to give him choice of short cut but he was tough enough to keep up with the group. We reached Dutch Doctor Shelter from White Bar. As time was running out, we kept on T-MI immediately. There were up and down slopes on T-MI so I gave them a longer break at Claudia Smith Den. I found Melody, Fang, Lovett and Clara were exhausted. My automatically upgraded might have created a big challenge on someone but we had no choice but kept going. Luckily, it was mainly downhill after this point and we still had enough sunshine before 4:30 pm. We finished T-MI and switched back to R-D before 3:45 pm. I knew we could make it because the endpoint would be within 15 minutes. We finished 8 miles and reached the parking lot by 4 pm.
