The Moon on the Stamp
June 26, 2010
It was the full moon day on Saturday so I planned this moon watching trip hoped to catch the pretty stages of moon rising. For those relatively new hikers, hiking with headlight or flashlight were also exciting and adventurous. I had all 16 hikers continued on this second program after hiking for 5 miles. We saw Feng’s family included Denise, Irena, Sabrina, Lu and Dong Sheung in the parking lot at 5:15 pm. Clara, Susie and Raymond were also waiting for us at the parking lot and brought us some fruits. I gave out the snacks bags, eating utensils, water and a portable stove for other hikers to carry. After a brief description of the destination, I sent Feng to lead the group climbing Black Rock Mountain along R-D. I had to pack 2 gallons of water and a watermelon into my big backpack and more important to wait for one last car. There were 2 other names on my list that were still missing.
I was carrying a 50 pounds backpack hiking slowly after Philip. Each uphill step was heavy and I could speak of nothing. Since the summit was within a mile, I knew I could handle. When I reached the intersection of R-D and White Trail, I saw hikers had been settled down. Chen’s family, Yu’s family, Ada & Alex’s and Eric’s group had set their bases while others were resting at the highest point. My plan was to set our base in another open area which was quarter mile away, but the cloudy sky disappointed me. I decided to stay here as they wanted because I predicted it was no way to see any sight of moon no matter where we stayed. I picked a spot for stove so I could prepare hot tea. The flat stone next to it could also be the cutting board of watermelon.
It was only about 6 pm so the sky was still bright. Photographers were busy shooting and painter Simon had found a good angle of the nature. He brought out his painting instrument and dissolved himself into his artistic world. People were enjoying chatting and the snacks that I brought. The weather with breeze was not bad except it was too cloudy. I got a gift of mosquito repellent sticker from Eric so I didn’t even feel flying insects. Feng gave comfort advice to all ladies that they should be happy to be targets because mosquitoes bit only those sweet ladies. Raymond served us some fruits and opened 2 cantaloupes. I boiled water to make tea but put in too much tea leaves liked cooking vegetable soup. The tea was so strong that Raymond said they might call me tonight if they couldn’t fall sleep at home. Moon said it was first time in her hiking experience that the whole group could sit down relaxed for almost 3 hours. The moon was still missing but 2 missing hikers appeared around 7:30 pm. They were Magdalene and Anthony.
Magdalene had just come back from Spain last night and joined this moon watching trip right away. Anthony had to work to 5 pm but still prepared us Lai Chee which was quite sweet. As everyone was here, I cut and shared the watermelon. Everyone was watching the sky but had no idea about where is east. I gave out the direction of east but Susie was puzzled by a bright object in the sky. She needed someone to persuade her with evidence that that bright object was the sun but not the moon. Philip concluded it was because I had forgotten to pray so we got a cloudy sky and the moon was hidden. As the sky was getting darker, Rose suggested taking a group picture before we lost our fingers.
Alex was so relaxed to have long chat with Ada, he said it was good to take a day off from the routine job and treated himself by do something different. Tammy, Queenie and Sherry had prepared enough food for every hour because I saw them continuously eating and pulled out a lunch box full of fried noodles at 8 pm. I could presume most food must be come out from Eric’s backpack. The sky was still cloudy around 9 pm. The moon must had been in the sky but blocked by thick clouds. I was afraid I had to disappointed Karen because she hibernated for a few months and came out today mainly for moon watching. The rural area after dusk belonged to wild animals. We heard a noisy bird in that area likely we were its unexpected visitors who stayed so late. I declared we would descend after 9 pm because no more reason to wait longer. I asked everyone prepared their flashlights or headlights. We turned into a miner’s team because most people carried headlights. Someone suggest taking a group picture with a background of deep darkness which reflected we had hiked at night. I requested the drivers to find all their passengers and we started hiking at 9:15 pm.
Magdalene and Anthony were at the front of the team. They joked that they came at last but left at first. Magdalene had the biggest responsibility as she was the one who break through the darkness and found the trail. When I looked back to the team, we were liked a long fire dragon. There were 27 lights so the trail was not too dark even without lights from sky. If night journey was not so risky, it was an activity with fun and excitement. The trail brought us back into a spot where Magdalene could not locate the next trail mark. Moon stepped up and found the trail so she led the last part of the trip. The shadow created by moving light could make something lively. Moon was scared by a yellow road sign which was similar to a killer in yellow raincoat. We reached Route 106 at 10 pm and finished 2 miles in this moon watching trip.
We were lucky that we didn’t have a single drop of rain even it had been cloudy for hours. But, sure we didn’t achieve our mission of watching different stages of moon rising. I would like all hikers to reserve another Saturday in October for another moon watching trip. At the meantime, we could only see the moon on the stamp because Moon had designed us a pretty night journey stamp with the biggest full moon I had ever seen.
