Sunday Afternoon Stroll

Stroll maybe the wrong word...hike, sweat, climb, sweat, walk. Yeah, that's more like it. Stephen took me up to the Nimitz Hill area (that's the hill/road he likes to ride his bike up and down and up and down...and this area is where he's been mountain biking before) for a Sunday hike.

We parked pretty close to what I'd call the top - just a few hundred feet lower than all the TV towers on island that occupy the peak. It was a rocky, but slippery narrow path down to an amazing waterfall, from which Stephen pointed out where he hurt his ankle a few months back while I was in CT. We then had to use a series of ropes to get down closer to this spot of hurtful memories, during which I rolled each of my ankles once though I could still walk on them so no harm no foul. The waterfall looked even cooler from below - though the water at the bottom looked murky so no getting in it. It so weird, from up the hill by the towers you couldn't see the waterfall, just hear its little roar coming out of the valley that is lined with palm trees - very distinctively telling you where the water is. So from on top of a grass hill (and the grass can cut you here) we had descended into a tropical jungle area. Now it was more ropes and slippery clay areas that we needed to climb up to get back to the grasslands. Yeah, that's the point I almost had a break down, as I am sweating through all my clothes, the mosquitoes are starting to think I might be tasty, and I can't see the towers to know where the car is. But I kept it together and even impressed myself as I hauled my butt up some steep rocks/seasonal rain washouts with and without the help of ropes and Stephen.

Once again in the grasslandish area, we were on the easy part of the trail - the 4-wheeling area. We have the smallest Napa Auto Parts ever here, and there were so many of these people out 4-wheeling it up - I have no idea what they must spend on shipping, never mind the crap they install on those vehicles. We saw one jeep on it's side get righted as clouds of coolant burned off his engine - wonder if it will ever leave Nimitz Hill now that he started the engine upside down? It sort of made us sad, because these guys keep taking over the hiking and mountain biking trails which widens them and makes then pits of mud. There are so many trails out there and the trails after a good rain, re-level themselves in a way, that you should be able to not need new trails for your 4-wheeling. But to each their own, I guess.

After Stephen ran up a few hills to figure out the way out, we got back to the car and road home. All in all a great hike, and I'm just proud to say I did it. Never hiked anything like that in Connecticut or anywhere. Bonus was bumping into a guy in the parking lot with a nice road bike when we got back. There are other bikers on Guam!