Rose, Mary and Rosemary
August 1 2010
Due to someone quitted at last minute, only left 9 hikers today in this 5 miles trip intended to pick some blueberries. They were Joe, Vivian, Rose, Josephine, Esther, Paul, six years old Jeffrey and Anna. There was no either Mary or Rosemary in the team but these names were mentioned more than 30 times during the whole day. I carried a watermelon in case there were no more free picks in the mountain.
We started at 10 am along Long Path in order to reach Bowling Rocks earlier to pick blueberries. The first mile on Long Path with some slopes had defeated Little Jeffrey. He kept asking for how many more miles left in every 15 minutes. Paul and Anna were also tired because they had to take care of the boy. Esther led the team as she enjoyed hiking free to feel sweating. Joe, Vivian and Josephine took the challenge again after last week’s hike under hot wave. They could enjoy nice view under nice weather today. We stopped at the junction of Yellow Trail and here I gave time for the father and son to sit and eat. We hiked on Yellow Trail and where Rose and I found blueberry fields with good quality fruits. We started working while the others took time to rest. Anna picked and ate without bringing them home. As I didn’t like most people were boring while some others were busy, we could only pick for a short period of time. We finished the Yellow Trail and connected to R-D heading Times Square. There were big sheet of rocks on R-D ridge so Paul worried much for Jeffrey. Paul joined into the 311 team kept asking me how many miles left in every 30 minutes.
Rose was nice to play with Jeffrey to dilute his concentration on hiking. Paul kept addressed Rose into Mary even they met about 10 times in these 2 years. I joked Mary ought to be an important name other than Aida for Paul. I suggested Rose to rename herself Rosemary so both names could be referred to her. I was a dumbbells neck in the team now as I had 4 hikers in the front and 4 hikers at the back. I asked Esther to lead the front team to start lunch at Ship Rocks. It turned out she picked a better spot where more breeze and less sunshine. Rose spotted a tree trunk liked a salty fish head. I cut the watermelon and it was the first time that no one could take more. It was a good one but too big for only 8 persons because Jeffrey didn’t like watermelon. Vivian was a little bit shy to take more so I had to threaten her about consequence of not taking those 2 more pieces. Rose claimed she had never eaten so much watermelon before either at home or in the mountain. I used the container to keep the remaining and saved them for later afternoon. A few raspberry trees at the lunch point turned on the interest of free picking of Paul and Anna so they were busy working. We continued our trip after taking the group picture.
We continued on R-D until we reached the Times Square. As there were new hikers, I pushed them to take a picture with this landmark. I made up a regulation for MTA that they would get a 10% discount at subway ticket booth of Times Square of Manhattan if they showed this picture of Times Square at Harriman. They smiled sweetly in the photos. I first thought about splitting the team so fast hikers could hike an extra mile while the exhausted hikers could take their time at the back. Esther reminded me it would be too risky as the slow team was formed by un-experienced and under aged hikers. I took her advice and we spent more time on viewpoints and taking photos at the front. I knew now Vivian had used a lot of decaf coffee to tune herself up in hiking.
Even it was only a 5 miles trip and Josephine said she still had 50% of energy reserve unused but it might not be too simple for new hikers. Weather was an important determining factor on difficulty of a trip. Both Joe and Vivian were at the front team today. While we waited at the last viewpoint which could see 3 lakes on a line, I ordered the teammates to finish up the watermelon left over. Paul still called out Mary after 20 times of wrongs and laughs from us almost at the end of the trip. We needed to rush as the sky was getting cloudy rapidly. We finished 5 miles and reached the cars by 2:30 pm right before the big pouring started. Jeffrey said goodbye to Mary before we left the parking lot.