Sound of Music

We are very happy to be able to hike the full Sound of Music again. This is the hike that circles  the base of Mt. Tapochao, from near the top of the mountain, to Chief Aikens Road, then the Sound of Music, then descend into a beautiful little forest that leads to the Savana, and Waserak Road. Eventually the road leads back to Mt. Tapochau Road. The last time we tried after the typhoon, we were only able to reach the SOM field, but not beyond to the savana and Waserak Road. This time the trail has been opened in preparation for the Annual March XTerra Race. With recent rainfall, a warning is sent out this time that Waserak may be muddy. Most of the deep puddles are created by the ATVs favored by tourists.
Our meeting location is, as usual, at the Coral Isle. However, several hikers express their plan to skip the uphill climb on Tapochao Road, and instead, will drive up and park at the entrance of Chief Aikens Lane.  

At 6:30 we gather at the Coral Isle, RedEye decides to drive up to Aikens Lane. Cutie, Sparky, Thor, Giggles, and CC begin hiking up the now almost paved road. 

Partway up, Dave joins us

Last week, when hikers are hiking on Tinian, there is a photo of hikers' shoes. CC throws out the challenge for anyone who can guess accurately the owners of the shoes will win a prize. Giggles takes on the challenge and correctly identifies all the shoe owners. So today when hikers reach the turn off (and waiting) point by Aikens Lane, CC presents Giggles with the prize of a stemmed blue bowl. Giggles is pleasantly surprised. As we wait, rain starts to drop. Those of us who are equipped with rain gear don them immediately. Those who are not equipped jump into the car to wait out the rain.  

Thor, Sparky, and Waldo wait in Waldo's car.

With rain comes fog. A car appears out of the fog, it is Mary and Linn coming to join us. In the car is Linn's sister-in-law Bridget who is visiting from Juneau, Alaska.

Finally rain stops, and sky clears. With a definite expectation that the group will disperse partway through the hike, we take a group photo while everyone is together: Thor, Mary, Waldo, Cutie, RedEye, Giggles, Sparky, CC, Bridget, Dave, Linn. From here we turn onto Aikens Lane.

The trail is quite slippery on the rocky surface. Most of the hikers move to the side or the middle and walk on the grass.

While the group stops and admires the view, Sparky continues carefully trots down the trail toward Sound of Music field.

The wind swept grassy field reminds us of the Von Trapp family fleeing from the Nazis on this "Tropical Switzerland"...

Is this Capt. and Maria Von Trapp and their seven children?

After the SOM field, we trek on the newly re-opened narrow trail down toward the Savana. As the trail becomes a little more steep and the footing less secure, six hikers decide to stop and take a look at the western coast, then turn to retrace their way back to the car. So Giggles, Thor, Waldo, Cutie, and CC continue through the beautiful forest trail, then onto the Savana. Before starting the circle trail on Waserak, it is snack time. Having emptied the snack packs  from RedEye and Sparky, the five hungry hikers enjoy the large stock of snacks that is enough for eleven people!

Waserak is, as expected, muddy. Here Thor stops to empty out a couple of rocks in her sandal.

The bamboo forest has taken a beating from the typhoon, although most of them still remain standing.

Some of the culprit ATVs that gouge out the dirt road. The drivers soon return, apparently never get out of the vehicle to enjoy the view!

The same van that has been here for at least four years. Each year it becomes more rusty and  broken. 

One of several of the big puddles. Thor makes her way on the side. Fortunately the morning is cool and the long uphill drag back to Tapochao Road is almost pleasant. After a short downhill, we are back to the car, completing the circle hike.

This is the route around the base of Mt. Tapochau. Although there are nine markers on the map, the actual distance is less than five miles. It is still a very fun hike.

Tinian Adventure

To expand our hiking territory, Sunday Hikers make a historic sojourn to the neighbor island of Tinian. Taking advantage of the 12th Annual Pika Festival, we combine hiking and celebrating this unique "Hot Pepper" festive event to kick off our plan of going off-island to enrich our hiking experience. If this one is successful, who knows what other destinations we can conjure up in the future to satisfy our curiosity and adventure spirits. 

Ten eager hikers sign up for the ferry ride over on Friday evening. We meet at Charlie Dock at 5:30 p.m. for the 6:00 p.m. departure on Super Emerald Ferry. This is a special ferry schedule for the festival, for regular passengers and a number of bikers with their mountain bikes for the race on Saturday. 

On top deck ready to take off are RedEye, Sparky, Peppy, Giggles, Rexplorer, Thor, Mary, Linn, Cutie, and CC. Bikers are sitting around as well, anticipating a "rough" ride over.

A close up look at BSI yacht. 

The ferry ride over is, as expected, a bit rough. CC, having taken Dramamine, is too busy and drowsy holding on to take any photos. Part way down the coast of Saipan, approaching the channel between Saipan and Tinian, the white caps become more aggressive, and we get tossed around a bit. Then a downpour drives us under the partial cover, as we quickly put on our rain gear. The sky is dark and cloudy. The rain finally stops as we approach closer to the Tinian coast. 

Although the distance between Saipan and Tinian, from shore to shore is only five miles, but from port to port the distance is 26 miles. Hence when we reach Tinian dock it is nearly 9:30 p.m.  We are definitely happy to see Edwin, our guide from the mayor's office. He is a hiker, explorer, fisherman, farmer, and very knowledgable about Tinian. We are fortunate.

We head over to JC Cafe for a late dinner. Sparky, Thor, and RedEye patiently wait for their food. The cafe is packed with customers. We eat a very late dinner. CC decides to pack her fried chicken as take-out.

Saturday morning we meet at the grand entrance of the Dynasty Hotel lobby for our hike. 

The hike begins right off from the hotel on a nice meandering path through the garden.

Walking path along the beautiful shoreline. The morning is cool and breezy. Tinian is not affected by the two typhoons that has decimated Saipan. Trees and plants are healthy and nice.

We leave the paved road and enter this boonies trail. It is well-kept and relatively clean.

Soon we leave the cleared trail and step into the boonies. Here we see an ancient Chamorro

 mortar (Lusong).

A great find of Ancient Chamorro Latte Stones still standing, the capstones are on the ground. 

Between the Latte Stone Gate, Back row: Peppy, Sparky, RedEye, Edwin the Guide, Rexplorer, Mary, Linn. Fron row: Cutie, Thor, Giggles, CC. 

Edwin shows and explains the spiny roots of a wild yam plant. 

We can hear the water from the trail that parallel to the shoreline. We take a short detour to see a retaining wall used as a loading dock during the war.

Who will take the challenge of "Guessing the Shoe Time!"? A small prize for the winner...

Another side trip to the water frint. Giggles, Cutie, Thor, and Peppy gingerly make their way down the sharp coral rocks. 

From the jagged coral rocks, we see a nice little cave that sends out a plume of sprays with each onslaught of big waves.

Everyone is busy doing something on the coral rocks. Careful steps are taken to avoid injury.

We have planned to continue onto the road for our return trip, but Edwin informs us that it is a long way to the road where we could walk back. So instead, we decide to take a rest, eat snacks and turn around back the same way. Giggles brings her favorite cake to celebrate our first ever off-island and Tinian hike. Notice the fried chicken from last night. It is delicious.

In the middle of the boonies, we have a good time laughing, eating and sharing our joy with Edwin. He looks forward to our future visits!

Thor the Mermaid from afar!

Relaxed! 

We return and on the way stop over at Taga Beach. An amazing little "window" opening to the swirling water below. 

Taga is a favorite and a wonderful swimming beach.

Off to the Pika Festival. This booth is decorated with flowers and red chili peppers. Tinian's famous hot peppers (doni) grow wild in the boonies. Farmers pick them and make sauces and pastes for sale. During the festival, the most popular activity is the doni eating contest. There is a women contest, and a men contest. The first contestant finishing 100 tiny doni wins! Doni is definitely a product Tinian takes great pride in. Currently there is a concerted effort to prevent outside farmers from pulling the whole pepper plants for cultivation, instead of just picking the peppers. The motto is "Prune it, Don't Pull it!"

Beautiful arrangement.

Photo of Hikers with Executive Director of MVB Perry Tenorio, Acting Governor Hocog, and Tinian Mayor J. P. San Nicolas.

Tinian High School Honor Guards. After Alexis Hofschneider sings the National Anthem and the NMI Anthem, the guards perform their ceremonial exercise, before the official opening of the Festival.

Hikers enjoy the festival until time to head over to the dock to catch the ferry back to Saipan.

On the way, we make a quick stop at the House of Taga Park where this incredibly huge latte stones (15 feet) is the only one standing. Cutie gives a perspective of the size of the stone, as she stands next to the cap (tasa). The base (haligi) is down behind the cap. From the park we walk over to the dock where the ferry is waiting.

While waiting, Thor, who has brought along a bottle of red wine on the trip, decides it's time to have a drink and watch the rest of the passengers come aboard. Great idea to top off our fun trip. We all agree that we will revisit Tinian, hopefully soon.

XTerra Re-opens

When we hear that the XTerra trail has been opened by a group of bikers, we are ready to hike it right away. Calling attention to all the hikers, we plan a hike down the trail to the Hidden Beach on Sunday.  In late September, 2015, we have made an attempt to hike up XTerra trail which has been completely blocked by fallen trees and debris during Typhoon Soudelor in August. At that time the one-mile trail has taken us three hours to duck under, climb over, crawl through thick jungly logs, branches, and vines. Now that it is opened again ready for the upcoming XTerra Race in March, we are most curious to see what it looks like. 

Our new pre-hike photo shows CC, PTShelley, Miles, Waldo, Cutie, RedEye, Mary, and Linn. No one else shows up, so we start our trek.

The path is surprisingly open and clear. The bikers have done a great job, a tough job too. We are really happy that the kafir tree is spared. It actually has little buds that foretell a new crop of kafir limes in a few months.

The steep drop familiar to bikers. Miles hops down the slope nice and easy...

...while PT and Cutie take the slightly longer and gentler way down.

Looking behind us, we can see the homes on the ridge.

When others move ahead, Waldo decides to check out the clearing that leads down to the valley. On the steep slope, Waldo steps into a hole, he picks himself up and continues down to explore.

The group reaches the Camacho Farm where many dogs greet us. Decision time, whether to continue to the beach where apparently other tourists have left a lot of trash and other distasteful items on the beach, or find a spot by the side of this road to have our snacks. A consensus is reach that all should return back up the trail and have snacks and coffee at the Kosacks. 

A pretty little Chinese Hat mushroom all alone on the trail.

A thrashing and strange looking creature about 2.5 inches long attracts our attention. It twists and turns quite wildly as we try to figure out what it is. It stops just long enough for this photo.  On close examination, it appears to be inside a thin skin, and there is a face under it. Maybe it is a soon-to-be lizard? 

Linn, Mary, Miles, and Cutie enjoying a rest on the steps, while waiting for others to arrive.

PTShelley and RedEye making their appearance.

Snacks are passed around, while everyone enjoys the cool breeze, and waits for Rexplorer busy making espresso and cappuccino. Everyone agrees that it is a great way to rest up after the hike.

Relaxed, but someone is missing.

Waldo finally shows up, claims to have found nothing special in his exploration down the gully.

The hike is short, about 2.38 miles, but we are very happy that the trail is open for future hikes.  

Here Linn, Miles, PTShelley, Mary, Waldo, Cutie, CC, RedEye, and curious Sukha round up the happy group.