SundayHikers: Caving on Mother"s Day

To celebrate Mother's Day, five mothers show up for the Sunday hike, meeting with five fathers, two boys, and dog Boy, at the Camacho quarry gate. This hike is advertised as an adventure to discover "more caves than one could shake a stick at". Much excitement is in the air for the second Never Before hike in anticipation of exploring yet more interesting part of the island.

Boy waits patiently as the group gathers at the Camacho gate, Martha, CB, Chops, Rexplorer, Sparky, Efrain, Scout wait for Vlad, Shelly, and Miles.

The closed Camacho Quarry. From here, we proceed to the Sablan Quarry up the road and up the hill. The entrance to this quarry has a closed gate. We stop to figure out how to get to the other side.

Although a couple of the men, and of course the boys and dog are able to fit through between the bars, most decide to crawl under the gate between the gap of the gate and the road. Sparky rolls under and over.

Efrain slides sideway under and over.

Martha does a kneeling approach to get under and over. All is well with no hurt feelings or injured pride!

A short distance from the gate leads us to the quarry ground. The first big challenge is to climb up a big slope of loose gravel.

With everyone huffing and puffing, groping and sliding, but making it to the top, Chops is experiencing some difficulties. A rope is tossed to her to help, but it is useless. Notice another person behind her. It is Vlad. He has gone back down to give Chops a helping hand. To see the exciting sequence of this event, check out the Photo Gallery at the end of the blog.

The next challenge is the continuous climb up more loose gravel and rocks. Miles, Nemo, and PTShelly have no problem.

Finally a rope is strung along the cliff edge to guide everyone up and through some thick foliage. On the left is a cliff with a straight drop of great height. The rope keeps everyone on the trail. At the top of this climb, we reach the face of the upper cliff, and the first of many caves.

Numerous caves are found along the cliff. Some caves are deep, some shallow. Most of the caves have some evidence of war time activities. but all the caves have loose rocks and boulders on the floor, probably fallen from the roof from earthquakes?

Rexplorer and Miles in another deep cave.

A twisted and beaten up tin plate.

The trail continues to hug the cliff as we continue to discover more caves. The boonies are thick and lush, as we occasionally peek through the foliages to see the ocean beyond. Sparky is ready to find more caves.

Miles is able to handle the rocks and boulders with ease.

Rexplorer, still carrying the long roll of rope, and Martha stop to chat, while Miles and Vlad look on.

RExplorer, Martha, and Efrain find a lot of broken class, some pottery in this big cave.

Vlad finds a tin bowl and an unexploded bomb.

A cave with multiple exits.

Rexplorer exploring another deep cave.

Vlad and CC taking pictures through this window between two caves.

Another unexploded bomb wedged in the rocks.

A bullet found on the ground. All items are returned to the caves where they are found.

CB and Chops looking like wood nymphs. From here we take the downhill path. Soon we are able to see ribbons and the trail that leads downhill.

As we decide to stop and take a snack break, Rexplorer finds a very deep and long tunnel. He crawls partway in for a look-see.

Many hungry mouths enjoy the delicious snacks, in particular the big tray of gourmet cold cuts, olives and breadsticks brought by Vlad. Meanwhile Sparky takes off to explore the hill top. After we are sated with the snacks and well rested, we decide to follow the trail Sparky has discovered. It is a pleasant stroll through a garden-like trail, although there is no view.

An unusually thick moss grows on this rock. After we return from the garden stroll, we follow the ribbons downhill through some rough growth that requires some flexibility to get through.