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Lost Lost Situation at Times Square
January 14 2012

The weather was getting cold with strong wind of 18 miles per hour, it made us all alert of the coldness of staying outside except Anthony and Karen. Anthony prepared only a pair of gloves without fingers and Karen didn’t bring a jacket warm enough. Luckily, they could borrow extra stuff from Harry and Chung Kwong respectively. Other hikers included BaoGong, Dawn, Kok Chew, Chew Bian, Rose, Esther, Mary, Robert, Cheong Fook and Philip. We arrived at the parking lot at 9:15 am and started our trip at 9:45 am. I announced we would hike the similar route of last week but in the direction of anti-clockwise. As the plan was only 6 miles which might be too simple by seeing the snow free trail, I suggested we should upgrade it to 8 miles. Most hikers seemed refusing the bonus and claimed they wanted only go for 6 miles.

We started along White Bar and switched to White Nurian Trail in quarter mile. After climbed up the steep slope and the bare rock, we reached the summit of Black Rock Mountain. The sky was sunny with grand views. The wind wasn’t too strong at this moment so we could take a long break. If we stuck with the 6 miles plan, the Shelter would be the perfect place for lunch. I stayed behind to wait for the others and took pictures. I told Anthony, Philip and Harry to lead and waited for me at Bald Rocks Shelter. When I arrived at the Shelter, I first found only a group of Korean hikers who preparing fire. I felt surprised to see Anthony, Harry and Philip were taking lunch at a corner because it was just about 11 am. Since they had spread out their food, I couldn’t stop them. A Korean hiker interested on Kok Chew’s homemade all-metal hiking poles and asked for the details. Kok Chew told me these poles would be his walking sticks later and also be the family treasure for next few generations. After taking a group picture at the Shelter, I asked if any of hikers preferred to go for the 8 miles route and took lunch at Times Square. The team could be divided and those 6 miles hikers could enjoy their long lunch break at the Shelter. Due to the invisible pressure from the peers, all hikers agreed to extend their level of exercising. Harry said he could only intake half of his lunch which was a good way to force him to eat less.

I led the team switched to Yellow Trail from R-D Red Trail. The trail was covered by a piece of ice so we had to cross it carefully. Rose fearlessly stepped on the ice in order to take pictures. We found another large piece of pretty ice formations on the trail later. Anthony joked we should destroy all the ice formations on the trail so the photographers would have nothing to shoot and hiked faster. The Yellow Trail was basically flat so we reached the A-SB Red Trail with only 1 break. After half mile on the Red Trail, we arrived our lunch point at Times Square. Chung Kwong was busy removing stones inside his hiking boots so his lunch time was shorter than others. It turned out he had no time to enjoy the hot drink even he had carried the hot water bottle because it was really cold to take lunch at a place without shelter. Rose was nice to share her milk tea to me. While I was eating my bread, she gave me a small flipped cup of milk tea. Unfortunately, 1 layer of the cup broke and the milk tea stayed on both the cup and the bottom sauce. If I drank the top portion, the bottom one would be poured on my chin; if I drank the bottom first, the top one would be spilled out on my nose. As there was no straw I could find in the mountain, I tried to get my cup from my water bottle. It turned out I saved about 1 mouth of milk tea but I had dropped the bread from my hand. I called this a lost lost situation that happened at Times Square.

Harry was confused about the direction of turn into Long Path. I led everyone to continue our trip after lunch. We passed a frozen pond and BaoGong said the ice was strong. Esther believed him and tested the ice. Her right shoe was wet when the thin ice broke. If I didn’t catch her back before she lost her balance, we would name this little pond Esther’s Feet. We saw a pretty ice formation at a stream. Dawn followed BaoGong’s route to go closer and fell on a slippery spot. I joked it was all BaoGong’s faults that set up the wrong examples for other hikers. Harry, Anthony and Philip had to come back from Lemon Squeezer because they had missed the trailhead of White Bar. It was just the right time that all hikers arrived at that spot. I set all hikers free from now because White Bar could bring us back to the cars within 2.5 miles. The HAP team disappeared in 5 minutes. Chew Bian led the middle team but missed the trail mark a few times. Kok Chew was nice to control remotely from the back. Rose claimed she could tell all the routes at this area because she remembered she had hiked here for so many times. We went all the way on this 2.5 miles route without taking any break. We could complete 8 miles at 2:30 pm.

Anniversary of Anthony’s Points
January 8 2012

As the winter wasn’t as cold as usual in January of 2012, I knew it should be practicable to carry out the 9 miles plan of today. I had only 2 drivers signed up so we had only 10 hikers in this first trip of 2012. They were BaoGong, Jennifer, Carrie, Dawn, Chung Kwong, Rose, Esther, Qing and Chi. Qing felt my car was full of high voltage of power because she was co-incidentally riding with top 4 Nature You hikers of last year. We arrived at the parking lot at 9:15 am and started the long trip around 9:45 am. I decided to finish the route with clockwise direction because I estimated this level of difficulty would be suitable for the composition of this group. I guessed all of us could finish 9 miles but the speed wouldn’t be fast enough to add more bonus mile.

We started along White Bar by crossing Route 106. There was a wall of ice formation near the stream so Dawn was interested to go closer to take pictures. Esther decided to put away her camera because she would like to focus on hiking today. The front team stopped at an intersection of 2 white trail marks and debating which route to go. As I had distributed the map of hiking route, I stood there and kept silence to test their skills of map reading. Jennifer who was standing in front of me suggested getting the verdict until I arrived. I looked at her eyes with curiosity. Jennifer said she didn’t recognize me because I had worn a black jacket which was different from my normally red one. I joked she probably had deleted me from her eyes or memory but kept only the image of my red jacket. I first make sure the navigators knew our location before we continued on White Bar till the trail end. After a short break for snacks at the intersection, we switched to Long Path. Qing was confused about the special trail mark of Long Path on the map until I pointed to her a sample on the tree. We reached a huge directional pole at the junction of Long Path and AT. Instead of taking the 1mile route to Times Square, I brought everyone into the 3 miles route of AT. There were more up and down slopes to make the trip more challenging. And the most important reason was we had to re-visit a Nature You historical point in Harriman Park because it was its anniversary date.

All those witness hikers included Rose, Chung Kwong, Dawn and Esther shouted out when they arrived at a triangular pond at AT. Rose worked as a narrator to tell the new hikers about the history of this spot. This was an abandoned mine site. The pond looked liked icy on January 1 of 2011. Anthony stepped on and fell into cold water when the ice broke. This pond was then named Anthony’s Points because he had this unplanned winter swim and had to take off his wet clothing. There was no ice at all this year. I joked we had to relay the tradition to have our annual winter swim at this site. Since we had Anthony on the first year, we should have BaoGong today and then followed by Chung Kwong, Dawn, Esther, Feibun, George, Harry and more. BaoGong rejected the invitation by asking if any witness on site could replay the case.

We climbed up 2 steep slopes and met R-D Red Trail. Since it was really windy at the summit, I let Carrie led Jennifer, Qing and Chi to go Times Square while I stayed to wait for the others. BaoGong’s interruption pulled back the front team so I came up to lead everyone approaching Times Square. Chung Kwong was puzzled about why the front team came back from the opposite direction. It was because R-D connected to AT in a deep V shape. Even it was rather late for lunch, Carrie insisted we should hike more before lunch so we rushed to Times Square. The front team arrived at Times Square at 1 pm. Rose came afterwards and claimed she was powerless because of late lunch. Qing knew now we weren’t hiking in Times Square of Manhattan. We took a group picture in front of the Times Square with a Happy New Year hat in the middle. Carrie was eager to hike more so asked if I could give out bonus. I told her to recruit 1 more qualified fast hiker to form a team. Since I didn’t want all others waiting for both drivers, I didn’t accept Chi to be the third person. I decided whole team stuck with the original 9 miles plan.

We continued on Long Path and switched to Yellow Trail. Dawn had slightly feeling of cramp because she hadn’t hiked such a long mileage for a while. BaoGong and Chung Kwong immediately brought out their secret salty food to Dawn. The summit scenery of Bowling Rocks was pretty. We then had 1 mile of summit view on R-D. The sky turned gray and it was so windy that no one could stay long. The front team waited for everyone at the turn of White Trail even they were sure about the direction. We descended from Black Rock to have the final mile on 2 different White Trails. We finished 9 miles at 3:45 pm. Almost all hikers claimed this 9 miles route was just perfect for them because they were tired but not exhausted.

Cheers at Seven Hills
December 31 2011

It was the last trip on last day of 2011. We were happy to have Anthony joined because everyone remembered he had a bad beginning on the first trip of the first day of this year. I hoped he would be safe in this trip. Xiao Hung joined her first trip on the last day. Kelly brought Lily, Jessica and Lala. We had also Jennifer, Sophia, Chung Kwong, Ling Yen, Susie, Josephine, Roe, Esther, Mary, Robert, Qing, Janet and Clara. Each of us received the lucky money gift from Anthony when we reached parking lot. We had a simple award presentation party outside Visitors Center. I gave gifts to the top three stamp collectors of 2011. Rose and Esther collected 41 stamps and Chung Kwong received 35 stamps out of 48 trips that I had organized. Rose got 2 items of her favorite color, Esther got gifts to protect her hands and feet and Chung Kwong got a gift to please his ears.

I told everyone the game plan was 7 hills but we had an option of only 4 hills if someone felt too exhausted. I could see hopes spread out from most of their eyes. I led everyone started from Red Trail at 9:45 am. I stopped at the trailhead of Blue Seven Hills Trail and told everyone all they had to do is to remember firmly about the color and shape of this sign. We intended to hike through this trail from this end to the other end. The beginning of Blue Trail was only slightly up and down. The trail was quite muddy and Lala’s shoes were dirtied. Lala felt disgusting so she would like to wash away the ugly stuff at the stream. I told her be careful because never got the feet wet during hiking. The Blue Trail brought us to an elbow turn where we started climbing the first hill. Lily claimed she seldom sweated and eventually she got it. Jessica and Lala had to take off their jackets to cool off their overheated engines. As I prepared we would take the shortcut at Red Trail, I announced we would add half mile to go back and forth to Ramapo Torne. Anthony was so smart to put his backpack on the trail since he knew we would come back along the same trail. We switched to Orange Trail and reached the terrific viewpoint of Ramapo Torne. The special feature of grassland underneath attracted our attentions. We took a group picture in front of the cliff but with cheerful Lady Lala on the top of the cliff.

Anthony led the group back and continued on Blue Trail. I was at the back to assist Clara, Mary and Robert. We climbed down and up to the summit of second hill after the big challenge of rock climbing up a wall-liked cliff. It was time to have the lunch break. We had a time of sharing again. Mary and Robert carried grape juice, fried rice and cherries to share because they had to compensate for what they had forgotten last week. Sophia brought spicy peanuts, Qing brought organic cookies, Anthony brought golden chocolate bars, Janet brought super sized dry dates and Rose brought us a box of 36 miniature wine chocolates. Jennifer said I could only drink 1 bottle of wine chocolate because I had to maintain my alertness to bring them back to the parking lot. Mary provided us cups and we cheered her grape juice in the mountain for the coming of New Year in a few hours.

A few drops of drizzles had scared Josephine to put on a raincoat for her backpack. We continued on Blue Trail on the third and fourth hills. Anthony, Susie, Jennifer and Janet led the team and waited for us at the junction of Red Trail. Rose, Qing, Xiao Hung, Chung Kwong, Sophia, Mary and Robert were at the back. I hiked in the middle with Yin’s family, Clara, Esther, Josephine and Ling. I asked hikers of front team if anyone wanted to add a mile to climb the fifth hill. Since Jennifer was the only follower, I decided to cancel this option. Ling and Josephine preferred the easier version of 7 miles with 4 hills which was good enough to make them tired but not exhausted. I waited for the back team at the junction while Anthony led the others started their homebound 1.5 miles on Red Trail. The back team reached me in another 20 minutes. I led the rest teammates also into Red Trail because most of them felt exercising enough. They wanted to go home earlier to celebrate their year end parties. The strong running water on Stony Brook attracted Qing because it was the lively music from nature. She brought Xiao Hung went closer to take picture with the musicians. We finished 7 miles at 3 pm.