Any Limits on Blueberries that We Can Pick?
July 24, 2010
It was again a day with high temperature up to 95 degrees. I had 8 hikers in this trip. I scheduled this location because I remembered there were blueberry bushes along the trail and it was not a very popular trail. I expected we could still find bigger sized blueberries. Vivian, Joe, Jessie and Kenny were first time hikers and I had Sam, Josephine and Rose in the team. It was not an easy trip for new hikers even we didn’t spend much time on blueberry picking under the sun.
Drivers were very punctual to arrive at Equestrian Center at 9:30 am. The horse riding school had given us convenience of using civilized restrooms and soda machine. Josephine taught us some theoretical skills of horse riding because she had some experience at Prospect Park. Our targets were lunch at Pine Meadow Lake which was behind the Ramapo Mountain and blueberries on the way. Vivian thought we were picking at a farm so asked if there was a limit on number of blueberry that we could pick. I joked that we had to stop if a bear came out and complained to us. Rose prepared 3 small plastic containers and I had 2 large ones. Both of us had an order to fulfill after last trip. But all the others didn’t feel too eager to pick or even taste. We started from trailhead of Red Pine Meadow Trail climbed up Ramapo Mountain. This first mile of steep uphill trail had defeated Joe. Even he ran 3 times every week on track mill, he was exhausted at first half hour. He said he could stop when he was tired on track mill but he had to complete the whole trip once started. Sam pointed out the biggest difference between doing exercise in the gymnasium and at the mountain was quality of air.
We took a few breaks at this section. I saw Jessie’s Gore Tex book bag which probably was the most valuable item in our team because a pair of hiking boots with Gore Tex would mean $50 dollars more. There were blueberries on the bushes but the situation was as bad as a damaged city after war. I found there were only a few small blueberries hanging on the branches, I just didn’t want to hurt the orphans. We kept going on a relatively flat section of Red Trail. All new hikers felt more relax and enjoyable. Rose and I spot a blueberry field with stronger bushes so we decided to fill up a little bit on our containers. I served Josephine the biggest blueberry of the day and she returned me 15 minutes of free service time of blueberry picking. Sam helped me also as he had nothing to do. Vivian tasted some good ones and took every minute to sit down. Joe, Jessie and Kenny had mood to pick now. We reached a metal notice board liked a door at the trail where our new hikers had a picture with it.
Blue colored Pine Meadow Lake was in front of us where I told the teammates that we would go further along the lake to take lunch at a pretty spot and returned along the White Trail here. We came closed to the water at an open land and took a group picture there. Vivian was so happy that wanted to fly as a bird. Rose was interested in Vivian’s legs so told her to stand facing the lake and she would take a shot of her legs in front of the water. That was the difference between female and male photographers as I didn’t think I could make the same request. We passed an abandoned manor site which was a special feature of this trail. I brought the group hiked into the small peninsula where we could touch the water and had shade under pine trees. Once again, Kenny took away his socks and cooled down his body temperature.
There were other groups in that site. Someone was swimming and playing with his dogs. The breeze under the shade made us forgot about time. Vivian was generous to share me some chicken wings and watermelon so I returned her raisins but not for herself later. We found a giant turtle in the lake which was liked a pre-historical feature. Vivian was excited to feed it so throw away all her remaining food into the water. Later came more fish and a family of ducks. It turned out she had to ask donations from Joe, Jessie and me. We spent extra time on a little girl’s activity and we had to go back under extremely hot weather. I gave a test to Josephine to see if she would follow the wrong leader and she passed.
We went back along Red Trail and connected to White Trail as planned. This 2/3 mile of White Trail wasn’t too bad because it was not so hilly. We took a break at the end of White Trail before moved on to Yellow Trail. After showed them where the Egg was as indicated on the map, the following 1 mile on Yellow Trail had totally defeated the new hikers. There were a lot of up and down on this section and the weather was too hot. After taking another group picture at the Stone Memorial Shelter, we started the experience of hiking inside an oven. All new hikers had almost emptied their bottles so I had to give out the water that I had reserved for them. The hiking was now under their willpowers. I intentionally hiked at the front so they would have no chance to ask but kept moving. Josephine told me the sweat dripped down from her face. I waited at the junction of Red and Yellow Trail where I knew they would be happy to know only 1 more mile left. There were only downhill slopes by now. Joe told me later, he was liked flying down at this last mile because his legs had been departed from his control but just moved forward.
The super hot temperature had made this trip super difficult for our new hikers. I was sure they would have different feeling to the same trail if we would do it again in autumn. We finished 6 miles at 4 pm and rushed to the soda machine at the quickest pace.
