Wilson Trail Hike, Stage Three--April 17, 2009

We have work scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday--both us and the Woolseys and so at 1:00 we left work today and decided to take the Wilson Trail stage three hike because the trail manual said it was relatively free from any difficulty and one we should be able to finish in four hours. So here we are on the way, riding the MTR looking happy that we will have a fun, leisurely afternoon together. Elder Woolsey and I are especially happy that our wives are with us and that this hike will be fun for them.

We walked to the Lei Yeu Mun fishing village and had a fun time there. There were many booths inside the "restaurant alley" where there were all kinds of live fish and other ocean going fish types in big tanks where you could select the ones you wanted to eat, take them home or have one of the restaurants prepare them for you and eat there. It was fascinating and took extra time before we finally exited the village and got on the trail.
It didn't take long to figure out that the hiking manual had lied to us. The trail was strenuous and went on for hill/mountain after hill/mountain. There were a number of steep climbs and before we were a third of the way on the trail, the women were asking if we were almost there. I felt badly that we had put them in this position, but we were on the mountain and would have to go half-way before we would be able to exit to a road where we could get off so we persevered.
However, there was so much breath-taking scenery and the visibility was pretty good. On Devil's peak, we could see everything below us--the ocean, the mountains, the cities, etc., in a 360 degree view. Devils peak had some old military walls and fortresses from World War II and was a strategic location from which the Chinese could overlook any incoming threats and be prepared to meet them militarily.


About a third of the way, we did cross one highway where we might have been able to catch a taxi, but we agreed to go on. We ascended the hill across the highway and found a small pavilion and Kathy's expression says it all. This was a strenuous hike for her and Sister Woolsey. They were troopers, and we agreed to go on.
Would these mountains never end???
It started to get dusk and a threatening storm came in and so we decided to get off the mountain. We found a trail and an hour later, we came to Lam Tin and found that we had backtracked a lot to get there. As it was, we got off the mountain about half-way along the trail and could have gone almost 3/4 the way if we hadn't did the long back track to Lam Tin.
We beat the storm and the girls were in one piece. Kathy seems to be saying, "See, I did it!!" We found the MTR and just before getting on, we found a McDonald's and so stopped and got something to eat. We really did have a lot of fun and saw some beautiful scenery, among other highlights like the fishing village.

Stage Five and Six of the Wilson Trail

On Friday, April 10th, it was a statutory holiday and the offices were closed and so Elder Woolsey and I hiked stages 5 and 6 of the Wilson Trail. We took the MTR to Wong Tai Sin and started the hike there. As we got out of the MTR station, we were at the big temple in Wong Tai Sin. I put this picture in so you could see lion rock in the background above the temple gate. We are looking north and start our hike on the south side of the range of mountains that lion rock is a part of.
The sign says that this is a difficult hike. It was long, as a result of doing two stages. There wan't too much of it that was steep and a difficult climb. The day was great. It was overcast and the wind was blowing a little. It was about 73 degrees, but the wind kept it feeling cool. And we had fairly good visibility--about five miles.
This is on top of one of the ridges over-looking Sha Tin as this city spreads out in the Sha Tin valley to the Tolo Harbor. The colors of the trees and bushes on the mountains were vibrant and there were many of them. It is beautiful in the mountains this time of year.
Elder Woolsey and I on one of the long upward climbs.
One of the many tunnels in the mountains. This one is unique because the cars are out of the tunnel just a few yards and then right back into the mountains.
As I said, the mountains were full of color and the greens especially were varied and rich.
The faint mountain toward the middle left is lion rock. Now we are looking back at it southward. We have walked all of the way around it to the east and then proceeded north until this picture was taken. We have walked a long ways over many mountains. My pedometer registered 30,000 steps on this hike. As the crow flies, it is supposed to be only twelve and a half miles, but with the up and down it was more like fifteen or sixteen.
This is a view of the Jubilee reservoir. The sign at the reservoir said that it held three hundred thousand million gallons of water. I don't know why they just didn't say it was three hundred billion gallons. But it was a lot of water. I didn't include the dam, but it was impressive as well.

Pen 3 hike and barbeque April 4, 2009

On Saturday, April 4, after the morning in the temple with the Filipina and Chinese saints, we spent the afternoon with the Pen 3 branch. Today was a holiday and so the sisters didn't have to work. The branch planned an activity at Gold Coast, near the home of our branch president, President Balad. He planned for us to hike and then have a barbeque back near his home. We started our hike on the Gold Coast and took the last part of stage 10 of the Mclehose trail. It was a pretty level hike and mostly on pavement, but we did get out of the city. The girls wanted Kathy to be protected and so provided an umbrella. I found a place to prop my camera and was able to get a group photo. Obviously this isn't the whole branch, but it is the group that went hiking.
Kathy is like a magnet and the girls want to be with her. We had some great views of a local reservoir and here I climbed a hill off the trail and got a good shot of some of the group.
Kathy, not sure that she wanted this picture taken.
This was a view from the top of a hill off the trail. I stitched two pictures together to get the full effect of the countryside and the reservoir. We had a beautiful day for hiking.
After the hike, we went into the small village where President Balad and the Jacinto and Wen families live and had a barbeque. Some of the girls who didn't hike had prepared a great barbeque and while we waited for it to finish being grilled, the girls played games and had a lot of fun together. It is amazing that they can have such difficult struggles during the week and then just seem to forget about it when they get together. They are fun to be with.

After the meat was cooked, they laid it all out on a couple of big banana leaves. Then after the meal, the girls each started tearing the leaf apart and wrapping up the leftovers for a later meal. Banana leaves are good for a lot of things. They wrap food in them and then cook the food, using the leaves like we used to use tin foil for tin foil dinners. We had a great time.

This week we had a group of Mongolian saints come to the temple. On Monday morning, they came to the Wan Chai building where we gave them a tour of the building and spoke briefly to them about the temple and the covenants that they would be making and expected to keep throughout their lives. We had a good session with them and there were several who we knew really well when we were in Mongolia on our mission. This is Chinbaatar and Enkhtuya and their children. They are from the Bayanzurkh branch and the family was sealed on Wednesday. We were able to go early to the temple and participate in their sealing. They are a great family and Chinbaatar seems as grounded as any man we have recently had come to the temple. I see him as a future leader in the Mongolian church.

Two of our returned missionaries, Batmunkh and Shinegerel were sealed on Thursday night. It was a special time for them. Batmunkh is from Nailakh and when we first visited Nailakh back in March of 2005, he was a skinny seminary student who was very friendly to us. During the fall of 2005, he became the new seminary teacher and taught for the 2005-2006 seminary year while he was preparing for his mission. We left in August 2006 and in October, he entered the mission field, serving in Mongolia. He was released in October 2008 and we had a good visit with him when we were there in December, just before Shinegerel was to be released from her mission. She also served in Mongolia. She is from the Sukhbaatar branch and is the daughter of Batjargal, the branch president and our good friend.

Here we are with Shinegerel's parents. Batjargal is still branch president. He was for the whole time we were in Mongolia. He is the one person who doesn't seem to care that I can't understand Mongolian. He talks to me fast and furious anyway and smiles like I can understand every word he says. Then if he senses that I can't, he draws a picture in the air with his hands and pretty soon, we are on the same page. He is a good friend. He spent several sessions in our office talking to me and asking ecclesiastical questions when we were in Mongolia and he was learning his duty as a branch president.

Family Home Evening at Deep Water Bay

All of the senior couples except for the Aki's met at Deep Water Bay to have a barbeque and say good-bye to the Jacksons. They are the executive secretary for the Area Presidency and have orchestrated the monthly Saturday out activities for the couples. We have enjoyed them. Here is Mom helping with the preparation of getting the condiments together and visiting with Sister Woolsey.
Elder Bench and I are cooking our german hotdogs. They always taste better over a fire outdoors.
We are not trying to protect our food from theives, but just using our knees for tables.
Singing around the campfire went over big with this group. Most of them had done this kind of thing many times and the singing was a lot of fun. As usual, Mom is concentrating on the task at hand more seriously than I am. That seems to be true in most of what we do.