nature-you.org Blog

15 Minutes Nap under the Sun
March 21, 2010

Good weather and easy trip attracted more people to go outdoors. I had the biggest group ever this year which was 22 hikers in this trip. The newest hikers were first time Ary and second time Yi Yang. Others included: Simon, Ken, Max, Jing, Dawn, George, Sherry, Emily, Chung Kwong, Dodo, Rose, Esther, Yvonne, Eric, Yat, Philip, Chen, Sam and Moon. The plan was a 5 miles relatively flat trail of visiting Queensboro Lake and Turkey Hill Lake. The only challenge would be the steep slope to climb to Torrey Memorial at last section. It turned out the unexpected fallen branches had added up the difficulty but also challenge for this trip.

Little Chen led the team with me at the front in the beginning. I told Philip he could be a good commander to lead a kids’ hike. We walked along Long Path down slope until we saw the trailhead of the Red Trail. We followed Red Trail further down hill and stopped at the water front of Turkey Hill Lake. I told them we would have to climb back the slope this afternoon. We took a long photo break at the Lake. We had a cluster of best photographers of Nature You today so they could probably have a photo contest. We switched to the White Trail afterwards which brought us to cross Route 6. The trail was clear of snow or ice but the strong wind last week had blown down a lot of branches. The trail was interrupted by fallen branches which were full of thorns. The worst section was the 1/3 mile trail between Route 6 and Seven Lakes Drive. Most vegetation there bore big or hairy thorns and some were fallen blocking the trail. We had no choice but crawled through the killing lines or stepped on it. It was a test of our joints flexibility. The biggest troubles were on Chen who was wearing cotton and Max who was wearing fleece. I saw Chen was caught by more than 6 thorns and needed help from Rose to release him. Chung Kwong’s sweater had been added a few holes after passing this hurdle. Sam said we were hiking in a needles mountain.

After a few minutes in the bushes, we walked along Seven Lakes Drive and crossed again the Route 6. Someone questioned about how came we were making circle around the auto roads. The 1779 Blue Trail brought us went through a construction site and back to a wide trail. There were a lot of fallen branches on this section so Ary joked the leader should clean up the trail on the day before the event. I asked if I could recruit her to be in the cleaning team. Max found a big tree grew at the crack of 2 rocks which showed the power of plant. We hiked along Blue Trail to a bridge. While people were posting on the bridge, Dawn fell because she stepped into a hole that covered by fallen leaves. She said she didn’t get hurt except those who had worried for her. I led the group went further on 1779 to visit the Queensboro Lake. We took a long break again at the lakeside. There were wild ducks living in this lake. After serving them a fruit, Chen challenged us with a balancing game on a fallen trunk. Yat, Dodo, Ary, Ken and I went to play with him. On the way back to Red Trail, I found Philip’s towel on the trail which even the owner didn’t realize the loss. We climbed up a short slope to find the pretty and remote Turkey Hill Lake on our right. It was time to have a lakeside lunch under gentle sunshine. Most people grouped together except Dawn and Yvonne. As we were sitting closed to the outlet of the lake, the running water served as our background music while we were enjoying the food. What a band of nature it was.

We kept going along Red Trail along Turkey Hill Lake to the spot that we connected to the White Trail this morning. I pointed and told the group that we had to climb up to that peak which scared few hikers. Chung Kwong used his first aid knowledge to remove the splinter on Ary’s finger. Emily was the second person today lost and found her towel. Rose, Jing, Dawn, Esther, Moon, Sherry and Eric took turn to take a picture with a curved bent down branch. The first uphill slope of today along Red Trail had segmented the group. When everyone had entered the Long Path facing Torrey Memorial, I accelerated to chase the front team. I found so surprised that there was a big spot of snow on the side trail even under such a hot day. The scenery over the Torne was spectacular. Our artist, Simon had tried his best to record down the pretty scenery into his mind. Most girls were busy taking photos or being the models. Chen was the hottest model on the spot. Yat picked and put a small piece of ice on his hat to cool off his overheated engine. There was nothing better than taking a nap under the sun with breeze after the exhausted uphill slope. Max, Yat, Dodo, Sherry, Chung Kwong, Chen, Moon and Emily were calm and quiet for a few minutes. I gave all teammates 15 minutes of non-disturbed time before calling everyone for taking a group picture. We had George today served as our human bi-pod because he chose not to be included into the group picture. He was smart enough to find out how to control 5 different models of cameras. Yi Yang enjoyed this trip very much when compared with the one of last week. She came in only 2 trips which were both the trips of the least and the most people joined.

Even it wasn’t too late, we should set the time limit of exposure under the sun. The red face of Chung Kwong explained everything. We left the Torne and got back to the parking at 3:15 pm. It was a 5 miles trip with 5 hours of laughs over the mountain.

Right Decision at Right Time
March 14, 2010

There were a lot of decision makings in our lives. How to make right decision at the right time was based on experience and expertise. Didn’t you see those super heroes who saved our world in the movies? They wouldn’t make it if they never got trained and had luck.

The weather had been warmed for a week. The heavy rain and strong wind of yesterday was so terrible but we were lucky to get a quiet day today. The daylight saving time started today so we had lost one hour of sleep last night. I had only 6 people in the team with Yi Yang and Calin who were first time hikers and others were Max, Esther and Moon. All these factors set up the background to make this a very special hiking trip.

Three hikers had trouble of making it on time to the meeting places due to clock or subway problem. As we planned to have only an easy trip so it wasn’t a big problem to wait longer. When Max and I had driven to the gas station of Palisades Parkway, we found it was closed. The bad weather overnight had destroyed the electricity cable so there was no power supply for the entire area. I aimed at the other gas station at the Parkway because my fuel tank was low. I felt helpless to find the second gas station at Exit 4 was also under the black out region. Since I wouldn’t have enough gas to run back and forth to Exit 19, likely I had to cancel the trip. I decided to try our luck by taking the next exit to find a gas station at Route 303. If the luck wasn’t on our side, we would have to drive back and hike near the George Washington Bridge. I found a gas station just off Route 303. The line outside a gas station was long but I was just thankful and patience to wait. Once I had enough gas, could we keep up with the hiking plan? It was too early to say.

When our cars turned into Seven Lakes Drive as planned, I realized the flooding was so serious that a temporary lake was formed in a valley. I was afraid that the water would cover our hiking trail but I still insisted to try. I hoped we could go by side trails and crossed over the water. We started from 1777 targeted to Queensboro Lake. There were extra running streams all over the valley due to heavy rainfall yesterday. It took us extra time and effort to find the easiest spots to cross over. Max and Moon helped to find a route on higher slope. After we climbed up to a high point, we were standing with all mouths opened to see we were surrounded 3 sides by a new formed lake. The water depth was at least 2 feet and we saw 2 wild geese swimming in it. The water world was pretty because I never saw trees with clear reflections when submerged into water. I felt disappointed as we had to turn back after an hour. I planned to make the short cut to the Seven Lakes Drive and continued the plan. The shortest route brought us in front of a steep slope with loose mud and stones. Max volunteered to be the pioneer and found the route for us. When he said he found a wide road up there, we had to use our rock climbing skills. All girls tried very hard especially Yi Yang who was really scared of following my route because of the loose stones. Esther, Moon and Calin took the route with vegetation full of thorns. When we were at the peak, we found it was a dump site of the State Park. Yi Yang and I had even seen an animal skull on our way up. I felt sorry to bring our beginner hikers into such a terrible site but we had to find the way out. Esther and Moon also claimed it was one of their most difficult experiences with Nature You. We saw our cars again at 11 am because the road brought us back to the parking lot. We spent 2 hours in the mountain but didn’t move a step forward.

Since the trail condition was so bad, I decided to reverse the plan by going Anthony Wayne Recreational Area for lunch now and might be returned along the same trail. We re-started from the parking lot along 1777 from another direction and connected to AT. The trail condition was not too bad. As we linked to Red Fawn Trail, the trail condition changed into snow and ice. This created another unexpected difficulty for the new friends because the trail was slippery. But, it was better than flooded trail. We moved slowly and finally rested at a picnic table of Anthony Wayne by 12:30 pm. A picnic table was good enough to fit 6 people. We knew now 6 people came from 6 different regions which included Taiwan, Malaysia, Sichuan, Shanghai, Guangdong and Hong Kong. When seeing tall Max’s noodles lunch, Yi Yang remembered her mom told her about the relationship between noodles and body height. Calin’s lunch was strange in order which was apple and then sandwiches. Esther helped to take a group picture.

I brought the group to see the Picnic Area after lunch and surprisingly saw 2 hiking friends at the parking lot. They were Warren and Frank. They had finished 8 miles after climbed up West Mountain. Frank suggested us to have a little climbing to West Mountain instead of going through flooded lowland. I agreed with this idea because it was still early so brought the group climbed up a steep slope along Blue Trail for about 400 feet. The whole area was full of snow so gave new hikers a new chapter of winter hike. Calin joked she would like to check what the other hikers had eaten in their lunch because it was unreasonable that they could hike so fast on uphill slope. The viewpoint over the area was terrific. Calin taped the scenery with her mobile phone. I hoped this additional challenge wouldn’t scare away the new friends for their future participations. We descended from West Mountain along AT which was very steep. Yi Yang claimed she could hike fast on downhill which was true. We finished this 5 miles trip by 4 pm. There were a chain of decision makings today to handle the unexpected situations. I was lucky it turned out all decision that I made were right.

Have a Good Sleep after Hike
March 6, 2010

I had the same crew as last week with only Stanley replaced Karen. All 11 hikers probably expected to continue the snow fight of last week but the Mother Nature delivered a different phase of snow condition. There was no more fresh powdered snow but snow with icy surface. There were either very limited availability of snowball weapons or the ice balls were not appropriate because they were classified as vast destructive weapons. There were small fights among Chen, Stanley, Magdalene and Anthony at the beginning but most hikers enjoyed more the winter scenery under a sunny day.

I had Simon, Anthony, Magdalene, Chung Kwong, Rose, Esther, Philip, Chen, Stanley and Moon in the team. The snow had been cleared in the city but it didn’t mean the same in the mountain. We were surprised to find the ice that frozen in Johnsontown Circle was so hard to step on. It wasn’t too bad if the trail was full of hard snow because it would be easier to walk on. We started at 10 am from White Bar and connected to White Kakiat Trail in 1/3 mile. Moon, Rose, Chen, Chung Kwong and Anthony couldn’t wait to play snow slide but they all felt the snow was harder than last week. We crossed Seven Lakes Drive and experienced the deep but crunch snow on the trail. This uphill slope made most of us removed 1 layer of our outfits. Simon showed his pretty vest which changed his appearance from a hiker into a white collar officer. The snow was deep and not so hard which made snow fight possible. The snow game among the gang of four started so we could hear from time to time how Magdalene enjoyed the day.

We descended along the slope and met Yellow Trail. Here we crossed the first footbridge and 2 more different bridges in a short distance. It was a spot with heavy traffic because we saw a huge group of hikers were hiking uphill on the Red Trail above. Comparatively, there was less hikers on White Trail and we were the first group to break the deep snow on uphill trail. It was not an easy assignment because the snow under the feet would sink when we tried to uplift to next step. Every extra pound was counted to increase the difficulty. Chen was the lightest while Philip and I were the ones who needed super powerful legs. The White Trail ran along a stream so we saw ice formation with water. Chen was so creative to pick up the thin ice sheets that floating on the stream. We took pictures liked behind a glass. We kept on White Trail and switched to Black Trail after 2 miles. The snow was even deeper on Black Trail and the uphill slopes were steeper. I was so tired and felt helpless to move fast under such snow condition. Esther showed her sympathy on me every time when she saw me knelt down on the deep snow. Chen was so tired to request a rest of 10 hours instead of saying 10 minutes. Amazingly, he was full of energy again to protect the potato chips that Magdalene offered him. No one could catch him and shared with him the treat even the owner of the package. I understood we couldn’t make it to take lunch at Pine Meadow Lake. I announced we would take lunch at any spot that wasn’t too windy.

Our lunch was quiet likely because most of us needed time to refresh. Philip took this chance to dry the feet for Chen. My feet were not comfortable either because snow got into my shoes. Almost every one of us was experiencing feet freezing except those few wore both gaiters and waterproofed hiking boots. We continued on Black Trail and connected to Yellow Trail before seeing the huge frozen Pine Meadow Lake. I knew it would be the only lake we could approach today because Lake Sebago was too far from us. We took a lot of pictures at the Lake. Stanley wanted to step on the Lake and turned out stepped into water. He felt scary by witnessed so many moving ticks on the snow.

As I decided to take the shortest route back to the cars but without making the trip too easy, I led the group climbed up a Yellow Trail after leaving the Lake. That was probably the worst decision because the snow condition was deep and slope was steeper than I expected. The whole team struggled and fought for their lives of survival. Moon followed the Yellow Trail to the end while I led the group went up along a shorter route. We met at the mountain top and went down the hill along Orange Trail. The portion on Orange Trail was not easy because the snow was deep. No adult hikers complained but Chen felt lost of motive. Magdalene kept talking and encouraging him to keep him up. This turned the trip nothing more than a trip of physical training. There were no more snow fights or even breath to talk too much.

Yellow Trail brought us back to White Kakiat Trail so we had 1.5 more miles to go. The snows melt a little bit but most of us came back with heavy and tired feet. We saw deer on the trail as it had been their dinner time. Simon had to take a long break himself to intake sugar supplement. I waited to ensure no one was missing. We finished 7 tough miles by 5 pm. I could expect everyone would have a good and long sleep tonight after such a demanded trip.

Three Battlefields at Elk Pen
February 27, 2010

It was an unusual trip. 2 feet of snow was fallen on the previous day in Northeast coast. Since all 11 hikers were equipped, what worried me was only the parking lot at Elk Pen. If the parking lot was full of snow, we would have to change our hiking location. I prepared Pine Meadow Lake as the backup. I had Simon, Anthony, Magdalene, Chung Kwong, Rose, Esther, Karen, Philip, 10 years old Chen and Moon enjoyed a full day of beautiful fresh snow and fun game.

There was a fallen branch blocking the driveway. Chung Kwong, Rose, Anthony and Philip helped together to break and move it away. The branch hit my leg and gave me the first injury in hiking of last 10 years. We could hardly clear 3 spots to park the cars before the bridge because the snow beyond that line was not cleaned at all. Since we were the first group in this area, I predicted it could be impossible to break the snow and finished 6 miles as planned. I would leave the day on the hands of the participants. The scenery on the bridge was so pretty that all photographers were busy taking pictures. Chen and Magdalene couldn’t wait to start one-on-one snow fight. Karen started building a snowwoman at that spot. She gave the snowwoman her hat, Moon lent her the scarf and Rose contributed her hiking poles and gloves. We took turn to take photos with the pretty sculpture. After taking the group picture with the snowwoman, we hiked approaching the parking lot at Elk Pen.

Moon found the gentle slope with deep snow so rolled down to feel the softness. The snow at that spot was up to the waist. Moon lay down liked drowned in the snow. About half group of hikers was playing at the deep spot which made the group divided into 2 teams. Here marked the first battlefield of Elk Pen. Most of the fires were made between Chen, Philip, Anthony against Magdalene, Simon, Chung Kwong and me. The fight lasted for 20 minutes until I could reach the enemy’s base and called for continuation of the trip. Since the snow was too deep on the flatland, I decided we should proceed along Arden Valley Road and entered Red Trail. The snow on Red Trail was about 2 feet deep. It was difficult but still possible to break through. Rose led for a hundred feet and Moon took over to break the snow. I usually stayed at the second to enlarge the steps for the teammates. The Red Trail was flat with high slope on the left. Moon found a high rise slope which was full of new clean snow. We decided to put away the backpacks and played snow slide here. Moon led the group climbed up the slope and rolled down from the top. Most people tried and Chen went for 3 times. Simon and Rose felt dizzies.

We switched to another Red Trail which was still very flat. I intended to take lunch at the stream where we might be able to find some stones to sit. Chen yelled hungry around noon so I picked a spot with wide opened view for lunch. There were few trees in a distance and birds were looking for their lunch. It was such a nice and quiet picture of nature. There were no stones at that spot but we could dig a cell to sit on the snow. Rose made her first-class compartment which she could lean on. When the lunch was over, it was time for game. I heard Magdalene and Chen whispered and turned out they were forming a union to fight against me. Here located the second battlefield of Elk Pen. All hikers got involved by divided into 3 to 4 teams. Basically, the opponent teams were Chen, Magdalene, Simon and Anthony against Chung Kwong, Moon and me. Rose, Karen, Philip and Esther were freelancers who fired and being fired by everyone. Chen was very wild in the game so he pushed down the enemy instead of only snow throw. My position was at the wing so Magdalene and Anthony were exposed to wide angle fire net. We played at least 30 minutes until most people felt exhausted.

As time was late, I set the destination to be the waterfall about half mile away. We kept going and reached the stream around 2 pm. Moon was exhausted after breaking snow for 2 hours. I decided to turn back along the same route because it might need more time if we went through a new route. The back route was easier because we could step on the previous snow holes. We came across a small slope which attracted hikers to slide down and took pictures. 2 teams were set when Philip, Anthony, Chen, Esther, Rose and Karen were at the downhill. Chung Kwong, Simon, Magdalene and me were at the uphill so we tried to stop them climbing up. Here was the third battlefield of Elk Pen. The fires were mostly away from Karen, Rose and Esther but they received also some deadly hits by Chung Kwong and me. Anthony and Philip were targets of our fires. Chen climbed up to seize Chung Kwong so finally Anthony could breakthrough our defense fire. We played about 20 minutes until the sky turned grey and flurry started.

The sun finally came at last half hour so we could have some photos with better light condition. We hiked only 4 flat miles and reached the cars by 3:30 pm. The hiking was little but the snow condition was pretty and group game was so fun. I hadn’t been playing so wild on snow fight for long. We crowned Chen the name of warrior after this trip.

Each Stamp was Unique
February 21 2010

It was the first trip after taking 3 weeks break. I had Simon, Max, Harry, Chung Kwong, Susie, Rose, Miranda, Yvonne, Philip, Chen, Clara and Moon who were waiting so long for this trip. Moon designed a special stamp captured the joyful Chinese New Year which was a paper sculpture of a tiger and lucky phrases on both sides. She requested me to individually write out the words on the spaces so each hiker would get a hand-made stamp for this trip and each stamp was unique. There was a special friend of mine, Miranda who was a visitor from Toronto joined and it was also the first trip of Yvonne for this year.

We started at Tiorati Circle after putting 2 cars at Silvermine Lake. My plan was a 9 miles hike which would cover Ice Cave and William Brien Shelter. There was snow on the trail that was thick enough to cover the ice at the bottom. The wind was quite strong so we couldn’t stay too long on R-D. The sunshine was bright that was a good day to take some photos. The snow was deep enough to cause trouble for those without waterproof hiking boots or gaiters. We switched to AT at a junction after passing a shelter. The down slope on AT was steep but no problem for all of us. I brought the team crossed an icy stream and led them into an unmarked trail after treating them snacks. The long stem vegetation in a valley attracted photographers so we stayed long in that spot. After we came across the Long Path and saw another shelter from a distance, I decided to lead the group into an adventure of unmarked trail. It was an adventure because I never hiked on it before and kind of risky to walk on unmarked in winter when the trail was covered with snow. The snow on that trail was so deep that the first hiker had to break the snow through. Since the trail was not clear, I led the group climbed up to a high point and finally found the frozen lake. After matching the landscape with the map, we found the way and right direction. While the group was adventuring at the lakeside, I hiked on the other trail to ensure they wouldn’t get lost. I led the group back to the unmarked trail and reached a vacant campground. The campground was closed in winter so we could enter without a permit. We walked along Arden Valley Road and approached the Ice Cave.

It was the first visit to Ice Cave for Miranda, Harry, Yvonne, Chen and Max. The scale was not too spectacular but had attracted a lot of shots. As we had spent much time on snow walking in the morning, I estimated it would be too late if I insisted to take lunch at next shelter. I decided to take lunch at a less windy spot on Long Path. Simon inspected 3 sites and finally took the one closed to Rose. There wasn’t much space to sit so the group was scattered along the trail. Max was at the high point and he had advantage over Harry, Rose and Chen during their snow fight. Rose was heavily hit twice and joked to request an ambulance. Miranda was nice to show us some of her hiking photos in Toronto. As I knew someone was really suffering from cold feet due to snow got into their shoes, I decided to cut short the trip into 8 miles and skipped few mountains. We would follow Long Path to see Hippo Rock and went Silvermine Lake by Yellow Trail. This route was basically flat and down hill.

The snow was quite deep on this section. The winter scenery was pretty even it was windy. The windy cold situation made us impossible to stay long for group picture taking. I thought we could wait until we reach Silvermine Lake. Moon showed us how to lift up on a high rock with the backward way. Yvonne wore a very colorful sunglass because it converted sunlight into rainbow colors. The Hippo Rock attracted camera shots and we took a long break over there. The journey on Yellow Trail was speedy because it was an all downhill trail. We passed the pine tree forest and the frozen lake after taking a few pictures. Finally, we saw a big crowd of hikers at Silvermine Lake. There were families playing snow tubing on the long steep slopes. That was such a pretty day for winter sports. Even I insisted we had done only 8 miles but Harry didn’t agree with me because his legs told him that they had been exercised for 10 miles. Clara drove the drivers back to Tiorati Circle to pick up their cars. Harry and Max were in a hurry so they were missing from the group picture. This would be the first in-completed group picture collection of Rose. Miranda claimed she had a good time with us and a new hiking experience compared with the Toronto style. We hiked 8 miles and finished the trip by 3:30 pm.