(Scroll down to bottom for slideshow and English comments)
Vendredi 13 mars, la fin de journée approche à grands pas. Difficile de ne pas réaliser comme le temps passe vite, j’ai constaté avec dépit que mon blog commence à être à la traîne et c’est pas cool ! Ni pour vous ni pour moi…
Comme tous les weekends, je me prévois le plus beau des deux jours en ballade à Manhattan et l’autre pour les tâches ménagères et la détente. Comme un weekend sur deux ça ne se passe pas comme prévu… Je reçois ainsi un coup de fil de Sachin, couchsurfer de long island rencontré à la soirée bowling la semaine dernière. Il est amateur de randonnée et nous avions évoqué l’idée d’une excursion ensemble – moi par défaut de moyen de transport et lui pour le partage du coût du trajet. La météo est prometteuse samedi, donc on lance l’idée sur le groupe couchsurfing de New York. Râpé pour la grasse mat’ (ce n’est que partie remise) car je dois prendre le train assez tôt jusqu’au point de ramassage.
Soit dit en passant : Jamaica Station c’est un coin du Queens qui craint du boudin !! En 10 minutes d’attente j’ai vu un gars louche qui a essayé de me faire croire qu’il était chauffeur de taxi (so what?), une femme bizarre qui prenait les passants à parti (mais j’ai rien compris…), un vieux qui promenait des composants électroniques dans un caddie et deux policiers interpeler deux blacks après une fouille au corps sur le trottoir…
Sachin arrive ensuite en compagnie de Sarahjean au volant d’une Audi A4 à boîte manuelle qui nous a garanti un trajet assez sportif ! Nous récupérons le dernier participant à la gare la plus proche du départ de la rando et nous élançons sur le Chemin des Appalaches qui offre suffisamment d’options pour permettre d’adapter la durée et la difficulté au fur et à mesure en rajoutant des détours à la boucle prévue.
Pour les désintéressés du texte, pas la peine d’aller plus loin (ni plus haut … vous avez déjà passé tout le texte pour voir les illustrations !) je vous mets un diaporama … et -une fois n’est pas coutume- les commentaires seront en anglais ! (ceux que ça intéresse vraiment et qui ne comprennent pas me demanderont des détails)
I really enjoyed the way there, despite Sachin’s failed attempt to convince us that a GPS device needed to be followed blindly (on the bright side, we went past a few interesting spots we wouldn’t have seen otherwise!)
At the start of the trail, we met this weird guy who had nothing else to do on a Saturday morning but to come speak with hikers… The weather was really nice and I was starting to feel I had too much clothes on (espacially on the way up!).
The winter landscape seemed rather dead all along the hike with no leaves in the trees and a lot of trees down (we saw plenty of chainsaw marks, probably the work of the weird guy…).
We walked at a quiet pace, took time for breaks and stops to see the view.
There was this Led Zeppelin moment when I learnt what a “brook” is : of course I know “Stairway to heaven”, but that doesn’t mean I know the lyrics or their complete translation! tss tss!
Around 1PM we stopped on top of a hill for lunch which turned into a debate on marriage and modern society (in a boys against girl pattern it seems… =Þ)
We voted against a nap and went back on track for the remaining of the hike which took us to some very interesting places :
There was this hole in the ground where Dileep insisted to look inside (didn’t go all the way down though …) just after crossing the path of these untouristic japanese people.
Then we had this long talk (while walking) on people doing incredible stuff when in the particular situation (lost on an island, and stuff…) which turned into a talk on beliefs and fate and knowledge and positive thinking (can’t figure how…)
And before we knew it we were standing on the ice of an ancient mine filled with frozen water (=ice, that’s right!) We spent a lot of time trying to figure out wether it was thick enough for us to stand on it (throwing rocks and ice blocks) and then Sarahjean just went all the way there so we started having fun too! (refer to pictures)
Then we went on and I learnt another word: boulder. How come we never learn the useful stuff at school??? Like when I’m in a pizzeria and there’s no menu I have no idea what their name is!!! That’s basic stuff!!! How do you expect to teach students to survive in an English-speaking country if they can’t even order a pizza???
So I missed the joke about the boulder valley… We were on top of a close-by hill and Dileep was staring at something in the valley: “I think I can see one!!!” and Sachin : “where? Oh yeah, I can see one too” and so on during 5 minutes before I start staring too … “What are you looking at, I can’t see anything!”… very funny guys! =Þ
We finally walked through this valley and we did see a lot of them …
We saw a few white-tailed deers (maybe that’s why they had white tails…) running away as we arrived, debating about I can’t remeber what… I had my camera in my hand but before I switched it on they were gone. Here’s a picture found on the internet:
I can’t remember, but maybe that was even before the frozen cave…
We took a break on a little bridge over another brook after the boulder valley where we met two guys we had gone “bouldering” with a thick mattress in case they fall in the process. If someone went there recently, you might have found a lone hat right there, it’s Sachin’s! Give it back!
Nothing much happened later, we just took another break on another -broken- bridge not long before the end of the hike.
We dropped Dileep at his train station and went for dinner at Chili’s which is a well-knowed chain of restaurants. Sachin’s efforts weren’t enough to get the waitress nor the manager to accept my French Driver’s license as a proof of age and I was refused the right to drink alcohol. My vengeance was to get 3 free refills of my big glass of lemonade!!! Mouahahahaha !!!
The way back to Long Island was kind of sleepy for Sarahjean in the back of the car and kind of racy for me in the front. Nothing dangerous though, it really felt like Sachin was in good control.
Thx again Sachin, that was a great day away from the city! Don’t hesitate to write a comment if you have more to tell about that day!
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