It was hot; it was over 90 degrees both on Saturday and Sunday. It was dry; on both days we had to hike about 10 miles without encountering a water source. I couldn’t forget that the sunlight was poisonous and the mosquitoes at camp were mischievous because of the tanning and bug bites on my arms. Not like the sections 3 and 4 of this trail, the sections 6 and 7 we hiked this time were not well marked—both the starting point and end point were hard to locate. If not because we had a participant with sharp eyes, we could have wasted so much time even before we headed into the woods. Most of the trail was either rocky plus wobbly or covered by overgrown ferns and sometimes poison ivy. But the worst experience happened when we almost got lost because a lumber company used the same color paint as the trail blazes to mark their logging area. So you might ask, “why were you guys there?” It was fun regardless of all the hassle and sweat, and we were so excited when we finally reached a big creek, dipping in the chilling water and drinking from an abundant water supply. At night, camping at a clearing, sleeping so deeply under the starlight generated thousands of years ago. Water, food, and rest. It’s so easy to feel satisfied in the outdoors, because other than those basics, what else do we really need? 這次的行程，如果只以兩個字來概括形容，就是熱和乾。兩天的氣溫都超過攝氏三十六度；同時，行程中，每天各有超過十五公里的行程，是毫無水源的。回到家中，曬紅的肌膚以及紅腫的蟲咬痕跡，再三喚起，我對於行程中，豔陽殘酷，以及營區蚊子無情的記憶。 此次健行的區段，不似四月時健行的另一區段一般，標示地清楚明白。要不是一個隊員眼尖，在行程真正開始前，還不知道要浪費多少時間，在確定健行起點以及終點的所在地上。大部分的步道都是岩跡斑斑，該些石塊在隊伍走過時，不論大小，總是會不停晃動；另外，春夏之際，雜草樹木叢生，加上滿地都是有毒的poison ivy，將步道幾乎整個掩蓋住了。但這些還不是最壞的，最令人沮喪的經驗是：當地的伐木公司用和步道標示一樣顏色的油漆，來劃分他們伐木的領域，害得隊伍差點迷失路徑。 看到這裡，也許你會問我：「那你們去那幹啥？」旅途的艱辛，和眾人揮灑的汗水以外，得來的經歷是令人愉悅的。不能忘記：隊伍好不容易抵達小溪，浸入沁涼的溪水，恣意地享受不虞匱乏的水源的歡喜。傍晚，隊伍在視野開闊處紮營，在數千萬年前產生的星光下沈睡。水、食物、休息。在戶外，心靈很容易就得到滿足，畢竟，除了那些基本需要，我們還要要求什麼嗎？ Read More…

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)? 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？ Read More…

Since my very first few backpacks, I hadn’t had one trip that beat me that hard until this extremely fun bushwhacking endeavor. Yes, the fun tasted a bit bitter but the trip was fun with no sarcasm added. This trip was a private trip for friends, and I was the unofficial leader. Therefore I was not as prepared as I always am for every AMC trip and that was the first mistake. The second mistake was that I was too optimistic about the group pace. We were all strong hikers; however, the bushes in the Catskills were stronger than us. They were so thick which made me wish I had a chainsaw; they were so dense which made it easy to get disoriented and hard to stay on the planned route. And what is the third mistake? Two mistakes were more than enough to make our trip much more difficult than it should have been. The second day, we hiked more than 12 hours and a few of them were in the dark. I bore scars collected mostly from hemlocks and balsam firs for more than two weeks, and my ripped raincoat became my reason not to attempt it again just to prove that my plan would have worked out as sketched if we fixed the above two mistakes. Alright, the following is my original plan: 除了開始backpacking的那一段時光以外，已經有好一陣子不再有被backpacking打敗的感覺了—直到這一次，超折磨人的茂林找路任務（bushwhacking）。折磨歸折磨，仍然是苦中帶甜，而說這次旅途真好玩，可沒有半點諷刺的意味喔！ 雖說這次的旅途是由我規劃，但由於不是為登山團體所開的隊，純屬朋友間的私人出遊，所以並沒有兢兢業業、一絲不苟，準備充分，此為第一個錯誤。第二個錯誤是，我對於隊伍的行進速度太過樂觀，雖然說參加者都是健足，可，Catskills的灌木森林也不是好相與的：有太多地方，樹木濃密到恨不得手上持有兩把開山刀；另外，濃密的灌木叢，讓人容易不辨東西，極易喪失方向感。 那，那，第三個錯誤呢？喔，兩個錯誤已經令人夠受的。第二天，隊伍行進的時間超過十二個鐘點，還有幾個小時是在天黑的情況下完成的。從樹林裡收集到的細密傷口，兩個多禮拜後才漸漸淡去。而我的昂貴雨衣，也被可恨的樹枝勾破了，成為我不願意再嘗試此旅途（就為了證明修正兩個錯誤後的計畫，其實是可行的）的有力理由。 好，閒話不多說，以下就是我的原始構想： Read More…