2006-02-18-Winter Hike at Harriman (Very Cold Day!)

It was a very cold day. The wind was gusty and the sky looked like a storm was coming when we set out in the morning. By the time we met up at the parking lot by Lake Tiorati, it was snowing very hard.

My first thought upon seeing the snow "damn, better not get left behind, cause people won't be able to find me!" Thank God the snow slowed down afte half an hour; the sun also came out. It was quite nice to be hiking on a thin layer of fresh snow.

I met several people on this trip. Jessica brought her dog, 來喜. Whe is one year old and very active. She was running around us constantly. If we did 5 miles, she probably did 20 miles. Jessica also brought 煮番薯 (boiled sweet potato). It was quite refreshing at 11:30AM when my breakfast was not longer sitting in my belly.



Jessica carrying her dog across a stream. The dog got scared after she nearly fell into the stream.










I also met Mr. Chen, who is a member of "26 mi. club." He just came back from a trip in Taiwan and had done some hiking over there. I am planning on getting some more info from him regarding hiking in Taiwan.








During lunch time, Michael gave us some 茶葉蛋 (eggs boiled in tea); Ben donated some sausage. Both helped boosting our energy in the cold weather.

Here is a picture of Su trying to fish out a 茶葉蛋 from Michael's thermos.

Despite being in the shelter, it was still very cold. We pretty much left right after everyone is done eating since most of us could not really stand up to the cold weather. It was probably the shortest lunch on trail for me.

Just a note, it was so cold that the tubing from my Camelbak froze. I had to defrost it with some warm water.

After lunch, we visited an "Ice Cave." It was an old mining site. There were icing hanging off the ceiling. I was told that when there is sufficient rainfall and cold weather there would be some spectacular ice formation. Well, not that day!













For more photos from this trip, try here.