98% on Leader’s Role
April 21 2012
After the tough 12 miles last week, I came up an idea of adding a tough 11 miles trip this week. I got good feedback that 7 people raised their hands but it turned out only 4 hikers could show up in the morning. They were Philip, Esther and Qing. The group was the smallest ever this year but elites were usually small number in a group. There were no photographers in the team that would pull back our speed. We had enjoyed a perfect trip under perfect hiking weather. Another record was broken on this trip was I could lead the entire team for 98% of the trip which was rare in last 4 years because we usually divided into few teams with more than 1 leader.
We arrived at the parking lot at Route 106 before 9 am. The designed route was 11 miles with enough of up and down slopes. Qing and Esther were satisfied with the mileage and level of difficulty. Since Philip was a serious hiker, I suggested if he wanted to go for extra mile to make it 12 miles. He said he preferred to hike with other teammates. Qing worried about the fast pace so she tried to minimize the load in her backpack. She was so happy later at the endpoint said she was smart to take away 1 pound included keys, raincoat and other stuffs from her backpack, otherwise she might not be able to complete this tough 11 miles trip. We crossed the Route 106 and began the trip from White Bar at 9:15 am. We switched to another White Trail in 0.5 mile which included the first uphill slope. Qing didn’t warm up enough so she had to stay at the back. When we were at the summit of Black Rock Mountain, the nice view rewarded her enough for the exhaustion. From her Buddhist point of view, she marked this one of the best spots to practice mediation in the mountain.
After a short break at the summit, we descended along R-D back to Route 106. The R-D brought us climbed up Tom Jones Mountain which was the second challenge of today. We met few CMC hikers as they were doing their 26 miles challenge. Qing asked me for the location of the first Shelter. It was too late because it was quite hidden away from the trail and we had already passed it. After a few up and downs on R-D, we had about 3.5 miles on Yellow Trail. This was the easiest slightly downhill trail which might be too boring for them. While I pushed up the odometer, the ladies were exchanging ideas about hand exercising. They had different schools of hitting their hands and arms to increase the blood circulation. Their practice added more sound and fun for the journey. Philip shared his secret of breathing in exercising with Esther and Qing. Esther tried and felt the extra power from this new way of air combustion. Philip suggested to the young hikers that if they could insist to hike tough 10 miles every week, they could keep fit and built up their endurance for sure. We hit the trail end of Yellow Trail and had descended a lot from the mountain. Qing was still fine even we hiked in the speed of 3 miles per hour. I decided to set the lunch point at a viewpoint instead of the pond area because the flies around the water might be hungrier than we could expect. Esther was so happy to find a piece of shade at the lunch spot.
The view over the nearby small Tuxedo town was peaceful. The lunch under breeze was even a bonus from the nature. Philip laid down to take a nap as when Qing was giving Esther and me pressure points stimulation to cure our allergies. Undoubtedly, my nose congestion was released because I could climb up the slope easy after lunch. Qing joked she shouldn’t have helped me so she could have a chance to follow my defected pace. There wasn’t any other hiker at our lunch spot. We took turn to be the photographer to shoot the group picture. Esther said even she didn’t bring her camera, but it didn’t stop her to give out professional comment on the picture that we took. We continued on R-D after lunch and reached the little pond. Esther gave up the idea of changing the route to Lake Skenonto to view the Mountain Laurel, if any. Qing was tired on the fourth uphill as expected so we waited for her to catch us up. I knew she had reached her limit but I was cruel enough to tell her the bigger challenge would be on the fifth and sixth hill.
We switched to White Bar and descended 300 feet into the valley. The girls didn’t know the parking lot now was 400 feet above us. When we were at the bridge before the last 2 uphill slopes, I asked Esther to lead the team as I needed to have a private break. This was the first and only time that I left the position of leading the team today. I caught them up after 10 minutes and back to my leading role. The fifth uphill was steep and long which totally exhausted Qing. It would also be a big difference for Esther if we climbed this hill in the morning. She needed to take a break in the middle even she had learned the new way of breathing from Philip. As we weren’t far away from the parking, we took a break at a viewpoint. We definitely refreshed a lot after the break so it wasn’t so bad when we climbed up the last hill. I pointed to a direction and told Qing it was where the other Shelter located. We supposed to see 3 Shelters but we eventually saw none today. It was because we changed the route to skip the first one and we had no energy to go extra distance to search the other two. We finished this tough 11 miles route at 3 pm. The pace was very quick and we had passed the test of our physical fitness.