Tag: Hikes

Hike to Mt Qua Qua & Grand Etang Lake

bearcruzer

July 26th, 2010

We joined a group of cruisers including many of  whom  are anchored in Mt. Hartman Bay on a hike up to Mt Qua Qua.   We took a bus up into the rainforest and got off at the trailhead near Monkey Point named for the Mona Monkeys who frequent the area in hopes of a handout.    We gathered at a picnic table to take a few photos in the event we lost track of any of our group…..but really, it’s an Island,    how far can you go if you get lost?   The trail started out very nicely maintained but due to the recent and continuing rains that have graced the Island, soon became quite the mud fest.    We wandered along becoming a little taller with each step as the mud accumulated on the soles of our shoes.  This I am certain is what caused the change in my center of gravity thus disrupting my amazing balance and causing me to end up on my butt on a number of occasions.   As evidenced by the back side of my shorts after a few slips and slides.     We traversed along the shore of Grand Etang Lake which is situated inside of a volcanic crater.   The trail in some spots reminded me of knife ridge back in Colorado as it was no more that 2 ft wide in places and dropped off steeply on both sides of the trail that followed the ridgeline.   The views as always were spectacular.     Some of us were looking forward to taking the trail all the way to Concord falls, a 10 mile hike but the only information we had was to take a left at the fork in the Mt. Qua Qua trail.   When we got to the fork, that section of trail was not maintained and had quite a lot of razor grass and wait-a-bit scrub that constantly grabbed at our bare arms, legs and clothing.     The combination of the muddy slippery conditions, and additional forks that were not in the description, convinced us to hike back out on the Mt. Qua Qua trail.    We stopped at Grand Etang Lake and enjoyed our lunch.   We headed back out to the trailhead and got to see the Monkeys just before catching a bus.     I have been playing with the little handheld GPS unit that Mike has had for a few years but never used.   After cleaning it up I downloaded a map of Grenada sent to me by my friend Rebecca on S/V Passport and entered the coordinates  for a Virtual Geocache that was listed near where we were going to hike.    The Dock at Grand Etang Lake, next to where we had lunch, was where the coordinates finally led me, so I successfully located my 1st Geocache.   There are 3 other traditional Geocaches here on the Island so I may take some additional side trips to see if I can locate any of them.

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Seven Sisters Falls

bearcruzer

July 14th, 2010

Mike and I joined Dave and Michelle from S/V DaniellStorey on a walk to the Seven Sisters falls.   We caught the bus from Woburn into the Main Terminal and then on up into the mountains squealing around corners  to Grand Etang.   The bus let us out at a place called Monkey Point in Grand Etang but we were not lucky enough to see any.   Mona Monkeys were introduced to Grenada from Africa.   We walked down the road about ½ mile to the trailhead to the Falls.    We paid our fee to cross private land and then picked up a walking stick and headed down the trail.   We crossed a working farm where a wide variety of fruits and veggies were being grown including Nutmeg, Mango, starfruit, Avocado, Pumpkin, Melons, Long Beans, and many others crops we did not recognize.    The trail was a little slick from the recent rains but not too bad.  The walking sticks were very helpful.    Michelle had brought some samples of some seeds she was hoping to collect and asked the local who was collecting the fees if any of them were found along this trail.   The seeds , shells and sea glass she has found in her travels she incorporates with beads to make some beautiful jewelry.  http://web.me.com/daniellstorey/Seed_and_Sea_Caribbean_Jewelry/Welcome.html As we were walking along she spotted an oblong pod on the ground and suddenly the treasure hunt was on.   We had found what are referred to as Donkey Eye Seeds.   I helped her collect a nice bag full before continuing on our hike.   After taking some photos, Dave and Mike meandered further down the trail where we met up with them when we finally exhausted our search efforts.   We made our way to the Lower falls of the Seven Sisters and changed into our swimsuits to take a cooling plunge after our hike.    We enjoyed the lunch we had brought with us and were soon joined by a few others and their guide Cliffon Castle.   Cliffon is certified to be able to dive from the top of the falls and gave us a great show by doing a back flip from the top of the falls into the pool below.    It was amazing to watch.    After relaxing at the falls for a while we made our way back, stopping under a Nutmeg tree as we waited for a small rain shower to pass.  We met a local Rasta Farmer walking the road carrying a bunch of bananas on his head.   I found and photographed a Torch Lily also called a Porcelain Rose.  Our hike concluded back at the trailhead where we sat and talked with Cliffon and a couple of other locals about the area and showed them the footage we had taken at the falls.   I will try to post it to You Tube when I have the bandwidth.   It was a wonderful day in the hills of Grenada and we look forward to many more hikes and adventures with the Crew of DaniellStorey.

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A nice walk to the beach!

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When we weren’t pouring over the latest weather reports and tracking the Storms progress,  we did enjoy the sites around Marin and St. Anne, Martinique.   We became quite the baguette connoisseurs and relished heading into town each morning to pick up our fresh bread.    When we could see that the storm was not going to develop into a hurricane we took advantage of the overcast weather.   Mike said,    “How about we take a little walk this morning over to the beaches on the other side of the point?”   You would think I’d have learned by now that our walks are never little and that I should prepare enough survival supplies for at least a full days walk.     I let my guard down and only packed 2 quarts of water and a granola bar, forgetting the sunscreen and my hat back at the boat.    David and Trudy learned early on about our little walks and somehow always have something else planned when we extend the invitation to accompany us.   Our walks always start out with Michael and I sparing for what sort of a pace to keep.   He wanting to immediately work up a good sweat while I attempt to snap pictures of the back of his retreating head or him having to wait while I stop to examine some bit of new flora or fauna I find fascinating, allowing me just enough time to catch site of him before he sets off on his forced march pace again.    We always tease each other about how to best see the sites.   I move  quietly while his tactic is to not give any animals the chance to flee before he is on top of them.     Usually about an hour or so into the hike we compromise.    We made our way through the dense verdant growth along some wonderful trails that are maintained by the forest service here on Martinique.     The hike was lovely and took us along the rugged coastline of the south western end of the point.    There were some beautiful beaches on the windward side of the Island.     We expected there to be very little foot traffic along the trail as this is the off season.   We have not seen many locals taking advantage of their trail systems.    This was the exception.   An exercise group of mostly ladies were enjoying a brisk walk and gave Michael a run for his money with their pace.     We caught up with them on a beach on the other side of the point where their workout routine was continuing with other exercises and stretches.   They invited us to join them, or so their pantomimed French would indicate, and so we spent a few minutes doing deep knee bends….etc  before proceeding on our on our extended (little) walk.   We looked at the posted trails map we came to at one of the beaches and saw what appeared to be a trail or a road that would take us from a beach further along and then across the peninsula in a circle back to St. Anne where we began.    We had no idea if this was really the case as all of the descriptions were in French but we took a chance and headed in the direction indicated.     Our journey took us across a number of amazingly different ecosystems.   From lush verdant forest , along palm lined beaches , we crossed a plank walkway across a salt marsh where some local children were fishing for crabs.  We then found ourselves walking across an old lava flow area that provided some rugged, starkly beautiful scenery down to the ocean.   Once we reached the beach where the road or trail was supposed to be we cut inland and found ourselves on a gravel road that traversed acres of beautiful private cultivated fields and pastures full of well fed cream colored cattle.   We stumbled back into St. Anne and picked up a paper trails map from the tourism office.  Perhaps we should have done that before leaving, not that it would have discouraged us as it too was all in French.  As we were leaving the office we could hear someone practicing a piece of music on a piano……the song was Henry Mancini Theme from the Pink Panther……I must have had too much sun because I was half expecting Inspector Clousaeu to appear and declare ” I will prove to the world that Maria Gambrelli is innocent…….of the crime!” We dragged ourselves back to the dingy and to DD.   We calculated our little walk for the day at 20km or about 12 ½ miles.   Even being as ill prepared as we were, we fared pretty well.  I improvised some shade for my shoulders by tucking a couple of Sea Grape leaves under the straps of my shirt and although I looked a bit funny I was better protected.  Nothing a little Aloe Vera wouldn’t soothe.   At least I found the right combination of shoes and socks to wear that day and suffered no blister problems from this.  As the gentle waves rocked us to sleep that evening with scenes from the Pink Panther Movies playing in my head….. I could almost hear Clouseau singing “Ooohhh, sixteen chests on a dead man’s rum/Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of the chest/Drink to the devil and some for the rum/Hooooooooooooooooooooo!”  The sun must have gone to my head!

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USVI

bearcruzer

May 23 – 30th

Arrived in St. Thomas and spent one day restocking a few meal provisions and picked up a couple of fans from Budget Marine that Michael will install in our cabin to make it more comfortable to sleep.   We enjoyed a meal out with David and Trudie and in the morning parted ways to head over to St. John making one stop for fuel and topping off our water.   Persephone has an excellent weather window and so will travel on to St. Martin.    We motored across to St. John and picked up a mooring off of Honeymoon Beach.     The moorings have been installed by the Park Service to help protect the reefs within the marine park and boats are required to use them within the parks boundaries at a nominal $15.00 per day.    We were greeted by a number of laughing gulls who had no fear of humans and found Mighty Mouse to be a comfortable perch.   After enjoying their company we hopped into Mighty Mouse and headed to Cruz Bay.   It had been 5 years since we were last here and we look forward to meeting up with many of our friends.  We walked around the town commenting on the things that had changed and those that hadn’t.     We stopped into Connections where we talked with Syd and Karen.  They had been awaiting our arrival and thankfully the part for our windlass that we ordered a couple of weeks ago to be shipped to them had arrived the day before.  It will be good to have a working windlass again and no longer have to haul the anchor up by sheer muscle.    We were invited to participate in the Friends of St. John, Beach to Beach Power Swim this weekend but with an entrance fee of $40.00 per person we opted to volunteer to help out instead.    We contacted Michael’s good friends Chris and Elsa Angel and met them for a wonderful Greek dinner at the Tamarind.   It was then that Chris told us he was competing in Foxy’s Wooden Boat Regatta over on Jost Van Dyke this weekend and that he could use some crew.    We had already promised that we would volunteer and help with the Swim, but I could see that Michael was chomping at the bit to get to race with Chris.   I suggested he and Chris head over for the race and some manly bonding time and I would remain on St. John and keep DD going while he was away as well as enjoy some girl time with Elsa and fulfill our promise to volunteer for the Swim.    We spent the next couple of days tracking down and visiting with our St. John friends,  surprising some, i.e. Jan and Lance by appearing at their by appearing at their businesses or in Terry (Sloop Jones) case slipping through his garden gate and up the path behind his home/studio.   We also enjoyed a wonderful Lunch at Skinny Legs’ with good friends Cindy and Paco Ward.   It has been wonderful reconnecting with old friends and an added delight when after lunch and while waiting for a squall to pass we met new friends Belinda and John and ended up spending the rest of our afternoon and evening sharing their company on the last evening of their vacation.   They had their own adventure when they ran out of gas on the way back from dropping us off in Coral Bay.   Welcome to the cruising lifestyle you two, where the unexpected happens and challenges us to draw on our wits and keep a sense of humor while working whatever problems we face usually in remote and exotic locations.    Mike and Chris headed out Friday (unfortunately without the camera) aboard Chris’ 37ft wooden Trimaran Rafiki to compete in the Regatta.    On Saturday,  I met up with Elsa and their dog Phinneus and enjoyed a wonderful hike to some old Danish Ruins.    An afternoon storm came up and I had left the Mighty Mouse on the beach.  I had set her anchor well above the tide line but when I returned that evening I found the wind and waves had caused the anchor to drag all the way to the waterline.  She had been pummeled by the rain and waves and was swamped.    It took me ½ hour of pumping to get the water out of her before I could head back to DD.    Lesson learned.    Tie off to something solid when leaving the dingy for any length of time.     I woke early Sunday morning and met the other volunteers on the beach to help set marker buoy’s and pick up water and station my dingy to distribute water to the swimmers.   We ended up with extra volunteers so I rafted up with the Whitback brothers an amazing couple of young entrepreneurs with a wonderful gift for boat building.  Check out their boat and website.   www.blacksailsvi.com.  We swapped stories, handed out water, and shouted encouragement to those making the long swim and then joined the swimmers and other volunteers on the beach for Lunch and the Awards Ceremony.    Mike and Chris sailed back from Foxy’s with a respectable 2nd place just behind Angelfire,  a 52ft Trimaran and regaled us with stories of their weekend of racing.  We enjoyed a final dinner with Chris and Elsa who were hoping we could stay a few more days, but as always we must keep pressing south toward Grenada and out of the path of potential big Storms that are predicted to come this summer.

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