Blueberry and Woodbury
July 31 2010
It was a double event called Blueberry and Woodbury which was tailored for special groups of friends. Since they were all city people, I needed to put 3 magnets to attract them to the rural area. They were: only easy 3 miles, organic blueberry free picking and Woodbury shopping after the hike. There were 29 participants today which was a combination of 3 groups. Monica, Diana and Kenneth were my family members. I had a group of Church friends which included Wendy, Carmen, Mandy, Fiona, Kum, Alan, Julia, Kam Lung, Mary and Susan. I had Kit, Alexandra, Christopher, Elliot, Sharon, Jimmy, Anna, Janet, Melody, John, Tony, Edmond, Dominic, Sarah and Henry who were related to my friend’s law firm. Most of them were first time hikers. Only few of them had joined Nature You years before.
There was a mistake on information flow so 2 cars were heading to the wrong hiking location. Luckily, we could net them back before it was too late. After a simple briefing on how to pick safely and about mountain safety, we started the hike along White Bar at 11 am. There were 2 babies in the team so we saw 2 porters always at the back. Diana followed me closed to show me her physical ability which was trained after her numerous biking trips. She loved the hilly and pretty Route 106 and claimed she would like to bike on it next time. The steep uphill slopes at the beginning had defeated most new hikers. Even Wendy who was the best hiker of the church group had to beg for no more uphill in the afternoon. We climbed up to the ridge in about half mile after the last challenge of a big rock. Everyone was so happy to conquer the world because here we could overlook the entire area. The weather was perfect with clear views and breeze. I rewarded them by giving them enough time to take pictures and snacks. Fiona, Julia and Kum set up their snack circle at once. Kit ordered Alexandra and Christopher to share their snacks to everyone. Alan took a picture on a stone inside bushes. I found the blueberries were too small at this area, so persuaded them to save time and energy for later target. There were little ups and downs on R-D so we took more breaks to wait for the group. We reached the Bare Rocks Shelter around 12:30 pm and it was perfect time for lunch.
There was a big Korean hiking group resting outside the shelter. I pulled out the 20 pounds watermelon from my backpack after lunch which was still cold and very sweet. All teammates surprised except 2 years old Elliot because it was his regular nap time. The whole group enjoyed the treat and the Korean group left jealously. Even the watermelon skins were bio-degradable, it could be considered as garbage if just threw on the trail. I demonstrated to the kids a normal procedure of recycling. I dug a hole to bury the skins which made 3 years old Tony interested to join. I let him dug another one and hopefully gave him a good memory of environment protection after this trip.
I brought the group to the Yellow Trail which I knew there were enough tall bushes of blueberries. It was quite disappointed that the berries were dried up because of drought. Since we were running late and this was the last spot we could go, all teammates tried to search for better target around this area. Some hikers simply just picked and ate. There were some others who stayed under the shade and enjoyed the scenery of busy bees. The sky was blue with breeze message. It would be nice to sit down for the whole afternoon here if there was no other program afterwards. Alexandra and Sarah formed an alliance so they could reach some higher spots to pick. Henry didn’t prepare container but only a plastic bag so the fruits couldn’t be kept in good shape. He got a plastic container from Kum later which made him brought home some blueberries instead of blueberry juice. Most people agreed that the blueberries were small but fresh and organic. I concluded we had come 1 to 2 weeks late so most fruits on the trail were either picked or dried. Someone did bring home a small container of blueberries which could be priced $2.49. As we had been almost 1 hour delay according to the plan, we had to start hiking back along Yellow Trail at 2:15 pm. We connected to White Bar after half mile on Yellow Trail. Christopher never exercised 5 miles long so he was quite tired. Alexandra and Sarah kept spraying on themselves to cool off their body temperature. Tony was sleeping comfortably into John’s arms which might have made John impossible to drive home after hike. I knew it would be no problem for the new hikers because there were enough shades on White Bar. Mary and Susan were in good shape so they could always follow my legs. Carmen couldn’t exercise too long because of her injured ankle and this 3 miles journey was just perfect for her. Monica had a good conversation with Sharon and helped out on taking care of Elliot. Dominic and Edmond would stay in New York only for a short time so hopefully they would bring back Hong Kong an idea of how a hiking trip was running in here.
We finished 3 miles and reached the parking lot by 3:30 pm. Monica had to leave with Diana and Kenneth while the others were heading to Woodbury as planned. We landed on Woodbury around 4 pm and started another type of leg exercise. If we calculated according to the average of 2 miles per hour, some girls had walked 6 miles while they shopped until 7:30 pm.
