Trip Journal –Big Indian Wildness Area Overnight Backpack行程記錄 – Big Indian Wildness Area 兩天一夜之Backpacking之旅

It was the third weekend of May. Before the trip, two things worried me: 1. the black fly season was about to start. 2. The weather forecast called for thunderstorms for both Saturday and Sunday.

Thunderstorms showed up earlier on my way driving up to the Catskills. When I reached the parking lot for the north-end trailhead of the Giant Ledge-Panther-Fox Hollow Trail, it was dark as ink. Without the help from either moonlight or starlight, I could still recognize that there was only one other car parked in the lot. My nerve was irritated and I started to worry about one more thing: 3. there should have been two other cars. Who was or who were the missing one(s)?

A four tenth mile of uphill led me to the Fox-Hollow lean-to; the outer shells of my boots were a bit damp and muddy. I lied down and soon fell asleep. The dawn didn’t bring me the sixth, and last, participant. I had to assume that he was waiting for the group at the end point (where we would shuttle some of our cars to), and luckily this assumption was verified in a couple hours.

There were no thunderstorms on Saturday; instead, there were occasional light showers. The rain brought down the temperature, and drove away black flies, which made Saturday a pleasant day for hiking. This excellent condition switched the opening challenge (a 1900-foot climbing over 2.2 miles) from a struggling one to a fulfilling one. One of my trip participants used to say, “It’s always nice to do the hardest part at the beginning.” As a leader, “the hardest part is over” is the best line to encourage my participants if needed.

The climax of the trip came when we tried to set up a fire at the Shandaken Brook Lean-to. I am not pro or against camp fire usage because I heard different arguments from both sides and haven’t made up my mind. My standing is that I don’t propose starting a camp fire unless there’s a good reason; however, if my participants want a fire and voluntarily take the job as a fire starter and in addition to that there’s an existing fire ring, I don’t see any reason to oppose it, especially since we were damp and the sun was about to set.

It was very difficult to set up a fire given the circumstances. Around the lean-to, we had no problems to collecting leaves and broken limbs; however, everything that was from the ground was wet and soaking wet. Water molecules built up stubborn shields to prevent any heat source from taking over their territories. The head of the fire starting team, Alyssa, tried to hold the lighter as long as possible and later even my emergency fire starter joined the troop; there was no luck. No fire could stay on any thin and tiny branch for more than a few seconds.

“Give me the log book of the shelter.” I could see the hesitation on Paula’s face when she handed the log book to Alyssa. “This is friendship, but as a leader I have to make the call if this course of action is appropriate… “ I wondered. Paula and I both suspected Alyssa was going to tear down some pages off from the log book since it was the only dry stuff around. Surprisingly Alyssa didn’t take the log book and requested Paula to fan the fire using a quick but steady pace. I was relieved, and so was Paula. The fire started to dance with the fanning motion, but the smoke soon danced more wildly.

Before the fire took over the branches, the smoke took over our eyes first. “You tried your best, they are just too wet,” I said to Alyssa, given that it was not a life-or-death situation we needed to solve. At the moment Alyssa was about to step down, another participant expressed his interest to give it another try. Hmm… it seemed that my group wanted a fire.” I could understand that. On a backpacking trip, once the group gets to the camp, besides cooking and chatting, what else can we do to entertain ourselves?

I participated in the fire team too. The new fireman took a different approach to build a pyramid with slimmest branches mixed with some half-dry ones taken over from Alyssa’s previous work. I used my “chopstick approach” to move a burning fire starter to the center of the architecture. A participant joined in to fan the fire while another one was breaking down collected woods into small pieces. Although I still got a lot of smoke in my eyes, I saw the slow birth of a fire. The group effort rocked!

The next day, Sunday, when we got up and cooked our breakfast, dark gray clouds still occupied most of the sky. Rays of sunshine started to penetrate and eventually the sun managed to give us a warm, bright shower. Ironically, less an hour after we put on our sunscreen, heavy clouds recovered their lost land. It started to rain, starting from a bunch of rain drops to almost cats and dogs. Since there was no wind and the temperature was pleasant, and most importantly we were almost there when it started to rain more heavily, nobody stopped and put on their rain coats.

In no time, the group hiked out, taking off their boots and changing to their dry clothes. After we picked up the cars parked at the starting point, we headed to Phoenicia for a celebratory afternoon snack. Everybody enjoyed the trip and the company from each other. To me, it was the best reward as a trip leader.


那是五月的第三個禮拜。行前，心裡一直在咕噥著兩件事：一是，討厭的黑蠅季節恐怕要開始了。二是，氣象報告居然說週六和週日都有不停歇的雷陣雨。

雷陣雨倒是在星期五，驅車前往紐約州的Catskills山區就開始了。到了Giant Ledge-Panther-Fox Hollow步道的北端停車場時，天色漆黑如墨。即便沒有月光，亦無星光，還是辨認出該處除了我的車以外，只停泊了另一輛車。呃，我的緊張指數表開始標高，開始咕噥著第三件事：三是，應該總共有三台車啊，不是大家都說好，要到這裡來集合過夜的嗎？

也不能想這麼多，背上會用上的東西，緩緩地爬著約莫六七百公尺的山坡路，抵達過夜的山屋。鞋子因為雨水露水，微微帶些濕意，還沾了好些泥巴。鋪好睡墊，須臾則沈沈睡去。可惜，第二天清晨的曙光，沒有像私心盼望的那般，帶來最後的參加者。唯一的指望，就是在健行終點的停車場會遇到他，因為接下來隊伍必須到該處置放車輛，而那是最後一個集合的機會。幸好，兩個鐘頭之後，整個隊伍總算是集合在一起了。

星期六，沒有雷陣雨，只有間歇性的濛濛細雨。細雨讓氣溫變得沁涼，也讓黑蠅不知道躲到哪去了。真是絕佳的健行天氣，使得序幕的挑戰性上坡（三點多公里的健行距離，上升約七八百公尺的高度）變得不讓人失意，反而大大鼓舞士氣。曾經一個參加過我隊伍的團員常說：「起頭就是最困難的部分，是最棒的安排了。」而，身為一個領隊，「最艱難的部分已經結束了」也是在必要時候提振人心的最佳台詞。

旅途的高潮發生在當天，於Shandaken Brook Lean-to紮營，隊伍決定生營火的時候。我個人對營火的態度是不贊成也不反對，因為聽過兩派人馬的意見，似乎都還蠻有道理的，所以還沒有能下最後的決定。基本上，我是不會主動說要生營火，除非真的有很好的理由。如果團員主動願意擔任生火的工作，而且現場已經有個生火基台，那倒是找不出理由反對，更何況雖然走過的是濛濛細雨，大家身上還是少有乾燥的區域，且，當時太陽也快要下山了。

根據當時的客觀環境，要生火還不是普通的困難。掉落的斷枝殘幹，枯黃的落葉倒是信手拈來，偏偏都濕淋淋的不堪使用。水分子建立起強壯的壁壘，不願意任何火苗熱源攻佔它們的領土。生火頭子，Alyssa，很努力地維持打火機燃燒的時間，最後也拿出火種加入生火的行列，還是沒有一點消息：火苗像天邊的流星，僅作短暫的勾留。

「把山屋的紀錄本給我！」Alyssa這樣說。我可以看見Paula眼中流露出的遲疑，她還是硬著頭皮，把手上的紀錄本遞出去。「這就是友誼啊，但是身為一個領隊，我絕對不能讓她做出不妥當的行為…」我這樣暗自下了決心。Paula和我不約而同都忖度Alyssa要燒那本可憐的紀錄本，誰叫它是唯一還乾著的東西呢？沒想到，Alyssa並沒有接過紀錄本，轉而吩咐Paula以快速有力的節奏，努力地給星星的火苗搧風打氣。我鬆了一口氣，Paula也是。火苗似乎開始隨著風的律動起舞，只可惜，頃刻間濃煙變本加厲地熱舞起來。

在第一絲火苗可以攻佔進堡壘，而做進一步的居留之前，濃煙早一步地攻佔了眾人的雙眼。我流著眼淚對Alyssa說，「你很努力了，只是木材實在是濕透了」，又不是生死交關，生不生得起火來其實沒什麼大不了的。Alyssa也準備鳴金收兵了，怎知另一個團員走上前來，說「我可以接手繼續試試看嗎？」「呃，難道我的隊伍這麼想生營火嗎？」是可以了解啦，backpacking旅行，在大家抵達營地之後，除了煮飯聊天，還可以做些什麼來娛樂自己呢？

這樣想著，我也加入了生火的行列。新的生火頭子採取了一個比較不一樣的步驟，他使用細小的樹枝，混入因為Alyssa先前的努力，已經燻得半乾的小樹枝，建造起一個鬆緊合度的金字塔。我使用我的筷子功，緩緩地將燃燒的火種置放在架構的中心地帶。一個團員開始搧火，另一個幫忙將木材拆散成更小的體積。很多時候，濃煙仍然嗆地我難過，只是一片霧濛濛間，我們欣喜地看到火苗的誕生。果然是眾志成城啊。

星期天，早晨起來，烹煮著早餐，濃密的雨雲仍然佔領著大半的天空。偶爾，四射的陽光勉力地穿過雲層，終於，太陽露臉，撒出濃濃的暖意。可惜的是，在隊伍興沖沖地抹上防曬乳液，還不到半小時的時間之後，雨雲收復了失土。開始下雨了，從輕巧細柔的小雨珠，到下起貓和狗來。當時，無風，氣溫宜人，也沒有人想要穿上雨衣，反正也快到目的地了，且就享受這一陣淋漓吧。

很快地，看到停泊在終點的車輛。脫下泥濘的登山鞋，換上乾燥的衣物，隊伍前往附近的Phoenicia享用著下午的慶功點心。每個隊員都表達他們的盡興，也互相表達與新認識的伙伴相處的愉悅。對於一個領隊來說，還有比這個更好的獎勵嗎？

Related link:
Trip Announcement: Big Indian Wildness Area Overnight Backpack