Sat 5th May 07
When u live in a state where there are a lot of mountains... one of the activity u engage in quite a bit is hiking... so this weekend we decided to do just tat... and it's the first hike since winter... and today... our objective is to hike to Arethusa falls... the single longest drop in New England...
So as usual... we reached the start of the trail after about 2 hrs in the car... the main bulk of us decided to take the easier trail while some of the guys took a longer and more challenging trail to the summit... and we will all meet at the falls... so we started hiking.... the initial part was gradual as it normally is... then we reach a point where the blue markings seems to lead us over rocks and among trees... it seems like a pretty 'hands-on' hike cos u have to actively climb on big rock pieces... hang on to tree trunks... stoop under bent tree trunks... maneuver our way to avoid the streams of water... and not forgetting... some of the snow is still not melted... so for a certain part of the way... we had to walk on thick snow... and we weren't prepared for it... cos we thought all the snow would have melted by now... but we were wrong... so we had to sink our feet into the snow and got our shoes and socks wet.... it was a pretty tough hike for it to be labelled as the easier route... finally we came to a tricky spot where we were all standing and hanging along the steep slope... trying to figure out wat our next move should be... and it seems pretty dangerous as some of us jumped among the many rocks along the stream of water while others tried to get across by holding on to tree trunks and struggle across the slopes... and it was at this time tat i hear voices of pple walking above us... i looked up.. and i saw ppl walking along this path... and i rem thinking to myself... why is there a walking path up there? i climbed up the slope to the walking path... and tat was where i saw wy... he was one of those who took the more challenging trail... he was surprised to see us all on the slopes below... and wondering wat are we doing down there... after talking to him... i realised we probably made a mistake somewhere in the hike that led us off the trail and into the surrounding foresty area... i quickly called out to the rest of them and finally we had everybody on the path... we made our way via the path towards the waterfall... and easy enough... we got there after a while....
we hang around the waterfall... admiring its beauty... taking photos... and joking about us taking an even more challenging trail than the guys... but it all seem so right to us at tat time because we could constantly see the blue markings on rocks or tree trunks... telling us we are still on the right track... so we had no idea how we got to divert from the trail...
Hanging around taking pictures while waiting for the ppl in front took turn to 'maneuver' their way thru the trees....
Finally we are there!
Now we are on the right track...
after hanging out at the falls for a light snack... we decided to head back down via the 'actual' trail.... and it was such an easy trail! it is a pathed trail... and while walking... we were in awe... everyone still couldn't believe we were way down there just now... cos we could hear the sounds of water below us but we couldn't see any water or stream... this shows how far down we were and how far off the trail we were...
nonetheless... it was a pretty interesting hike... we got to try a lot of maneuvers which made it much more interesting... the thing i was 'gasping' about was how much danger we subjected ourselves to.. trying to get across the stream of water... jumping over slippery and unstable rocks... as well as trying to hang on to anything and keeping ourselves from falling all the way down the steep slope... and to think we were still hanging off the steep slope while the guys who went to the summit and then back to the waterfalls are already on their way back...
well... it was indeed a memorable experience...
-jiahua
All dressed in red...
The birthday boy and girl... very ah lao.... wahahahaha....
so it's the usuals.... birthday songs singing... photo takings.... cake eating... games playing... alcohol consuming....
