Captain Oba's Cave

With two new hikers joining us, we meet up at the CHC parking lot, ready to tackle Oba's Cave. Handy, Cutie, Chops, Dora, Marcia, Bruce, Yurie, and Capt. Charlie load up for the hike. The early morning air is cool and clear. We march up Navy Hill, passing the turn offs to Grace Christian, Whispering Palms School, and Matsurana, continuing up the unpaved uphill climb, until we reach the gateway to the beautiful forest trail. The forest is lush and green, with huge birds nest ferns, bamboo groves, and old growth trees undisturbed by storms.

Yurie, brave as Tarzan's Jane, having a taste of her very first hike, hops over a fallen bamboo tree.

The massive and tall bamboo forest dwarfs the hiker. From here we enter the valley of damp and slippery rocks and boulders, with our gloves and sure footing, slowly descend towards the cave. Handy fell only three times, and Chops once, a pretty good record. We follow the Xterra signs, all the while amazed at how anyone could "run" down this treacherous trail. 

Handy, Bruce and Yurie looking up at us standing at the cave entrance.

Dora carefully steps into the dark cave tunnel.

Everyone is equipped with lights for the pitch dark interior. The cave is carved out in a U shape, about eight feet tall, ten to twelve feet wide in some areas. It has three entrances/exits, with only one that is easily accessible. One has to be impressed by the undertaking, especially done in such a difficult environment.

Dora and Bruce taking a look at the alternate exit and deciding that it is too difficult to make a big jump across a gap between the cave and the ground.

Chops and Handy (who has just picked himself up) navigate gingerly over the moss-covered rocks. Notice the shiny wet rocks in the foreground.

A well deserved snack break

A small group photo just after we makes a descend down some large boulders. This and the following two photos are kept in small size, as they are blurry when enlarged.

Handy getting ready to follow the group downhill.

A fuzzy looking group of hikers at the end of the adventure: Bruce, Yurie, Cutie, Handy, Marcia, Dora, Chops, and Capt. Charlie.

All agree that this is a super fun hike.  A definite five-sneaker rating.

Banadero Trail 11/18/12

Happily we welcome Dora back to hike with us. Having been absent for months, Dora is quite happy too. 
This is our third attempt to conquer the Banadero Trail that goes from the Korean monument at Last Command Post up to the top of Suicide Cliff. Having failed twice, Capt. Charlie dispatches Master scout Chops as the advance re-con the previous week to re-discover the trail head. Her great height, long limbs and keen sense of direction succeed. 
An excited five-some gather at the LCP, walk around the Korean Monument into a tangle of bushes and branches and spot the first set of ribbons. The ribbons lead us toward the right, even though we are sure that the trail should be to the left. Nonetheless we push on and up.

All gloves on deck for hauling ourselves up the steep slope.

Cutie is keeping a safe distance from the person above, that is Chops, in case of loose rock slides.  Right now it is fairly dry, but birds nest ferns are in abundance.

A brief rest -

- by this cave. 

Finally we are able to see the proper trail, with some stone steps, and this lookout point. The water is blue, and the breeze is cool.

Concrete steps left over from the war still work well. Although we don't have real "seasons", leaves do drop during these fall months. 

Handy wants to make sure that this pink ribbon, glowing in the sun, is recorded for our blog.

It's hard to imagine we are hiking in a tropical island with this view of dried vines and crackling leaves. Peppy, aka Miss DeVine, had she been here, would not be able to pull any vines off the trees. 

A short distance up, Dora and Chops entering this tunnel of vines.

Along the trail is this concrete bench. Handy and Chops take a break with their precious hiking poles. CC encourages one of them to lie down and pretend to take a nap, but is unable to convince them to muck up their clothes. 

Near the top, a sad testimony of careless disregard for nature and environment.

Top of Suicide Cliff! A monument to honor several religions.

Fighting for the bag of Cheese Curls, Chops' favorite, but Dora has an iron grip on it.

Banadero Trail sign at the end (or the beginning) of the trail. It has partly fallen down. 

The only mushroom we discover on this hike. Quite unusual for rainy season when mushrooms should flourish in abundance. 

A fabulous view of the reef. 

This group of "crazy" hikers reclining in the middle of the road in order to catch the view of the ocean and the reef: Cutie, Handy, Capt. C, Dora, Chops.

We are always amazed at the beautiful view of the unspoiled hills and the ocean.

A dreamy look of Cutie and her umbrella.

Capt. Charlie does a few sit-ups at one of the circuit stations to wrap up the hike.

Although the hike is only 4.03 miles, it takes 3.5 hours. A five-sneaker hike.

Kimikaze/Autobaun on 11/11/12

With Handy sick, Peppy and Giggles busy biking, and everyone else unavailable, only the three lady Musketeers gather at the Go-Kart parking lot for our hike to Kimikaze Trail. We hear that the trail is pretty dry and passable. 
While the sky is still dark, Capt. Charlie, Chops and Cutie arrive at the parking lot. The sky is cloud covered and ominous looking. We head toward the old FEBC road for a long and steep climb.

Leaving Marianas Resort, the sky is barely lightening up as we trek up the road toward our first climb.

Up Ayuyu Drive, the FEBC sign is long gone, but the entrance to the old radio station is still well kept and welcoming.

We notice a bunch of these yellow tires arranged in a row. We figure they are some sort of exercise obstacle course. Upon closer examination, we realize that they are planters protecting infant flame trees.

Entrance to Kimikaze a bit overgrown. Sword grass taller than Chops and Cutie.

Chops and Cutie disappearing. The rest of Kimikaze is actually quite clear and dry. We have no problem going down the trail. Coming out at the end of the trail onto Kelabera, we decide to continue across the road into Autobaun. 

A new find on Autobaun. Probably previously hidden behind bushes.

Near the concrete foundation are these "pole holders". We don't know if they are for a gate or some other purpose.

A lone biker. This is the Tinian bike race weekend, so many of the bikers are there.

After finishing half of the Autobaun, we decide to turn back to Kimikaze, but not before we set ourselves up on the roadside for a snack break.

We log in 5.52 miles in 3 hr. 12 min.

From Beach to Beach

A happy reunion of the gang, or most of the gang. Peppy declines the hike as she has just returned from a business trip. Dora is not familiar with our meeting place, so unable to join either. We hope to reunite with her next week. For this Sunday's hike, we will start from Obyan Beach. Handy is the designated driver, with Cutie, they pick up Capt. Charlie, Chops, and Giggles at their appointed meeting places. We are excited to explore a new trail.
With at least three back-seat drivers, Handy is able to find his way and bounce on the potholed Naftan Road, then down the rutted Obyan Beach Drive to the parking lot.

Obyan Beach. Early morning quiet. Despite last night's thunder, lightning and rain storm, and a prediction of the same for today, the sun is out, the breeze is cool, and we are once again reminded of the beautiful island sceneries.

Very serious group of people, checking it twice, to make sure the shoes are in good shape for a "long and strenuous" trek.

After climbing up the coral road, we take a left turn onto this overgrown trail, entering the tunnel of pink-flower vines.

A close up view of the pink flowers. These are called Cadena de amor, aka Chain of Love, Hearts on a Chain, Coral Bells, Queen's Jewels, and Coral Vine.  A Femme Fatale of the plant world, as this beautiful flowered vine slowly covers and chokes the other plants to their death.

A short pause for CC to catch up and determine which direction to continue. There are several off-shoot trails that lead toward the ocean, but our trail parallels the main highway.

One of several unfortunate encounters. We are at a loss as to why people would destroy nature's beauty, unwilling to take their trash to the dump. 

We reach our destination, Ladder Beach. A new pavilion is being builtat at the top, overlooking the beach, probably for tourists and visitors. It looks fairly nice. We hope the old structure to its left would be dismantled and the grounds cleaned up.

A beautiful sight from the top. The white sands and the lagoon look inviting. From this view, the beach look surprisingly clean and without debris. We head toward the stairways (hence the name Ladder Beach), one to the caves on the right, and one to the cave on the left. We take the one on the left.

This cave goes in quite deep, offering safe and dry overnight camping space. This and the other caves are in fact a favorite camp ground for many people. 

Our first order of business is to dig into our snacks. Everyone takes CC's urging of bringing "lots of snacks" quite seriously. A wide array of goodies is spread out and we spend a considerate amount of time eating, chatting, and relaxing.

Although we grumble about various frustrating aspects of living on island, we all realize that Saipan is still a great place to live and we can enjoy quiet beaches, warm sun, cool breeze and good friendship.

The double caves on the other end of the beach with two archways. We do not explore these caves and just take the right stairway to return to the road.

The main stairway back to the parking lot and Ladder Beach Lane. 

Before we reach the Ladder Beach Lane, we notice a concrete wall in the boonies. After stomping through the bushes, we find a two-section walled-in structure of unknown purposes. Several guesses are offered, but no one knows the answer.  

Ladder Beach sign on fake wood.

Unnoticed on the way to the beach, we suddenly discover a collection of war time memorabilia on the left side of the road, on a gated property, including this machine gun that Handy seems determined to bring back to life. Strewn on the concrete floor are big and small bomb shells, containers, and machine parts. 

Giggles, Chops, Handy, and Cutie look like victors of a hard fought battle with their war trophy.

Another machine gun hidden in the boonie. Both guns are aimed toward the ocean.

Spent shells?

Very washed out coral road back to the Obyan parking lot.

The trail distance is only 4.36 miles, but we enjoy the 3.5 hours of easy hiking, and many new discoveries. It is a five sneakers for interesting hike, and a three sneakers for difficulty.