Day 16
Today we hiked Mt. Mutunte. And Oma was nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to this. Oma only left me with a bit of mud and slightly tired. Mutunte left me covered in mud, sweat, blood (though nothing more than minor scratches), blisters, bruises, very sore, and with an intense feeling of satisfaction. This Floridian has climbed a mountain, and the Grand Canyon has been replaced as the most difficult hike I’ve ever done.
When I woke up this morning I wasn’t quite as sore as I expected to be. At least, not until we started the hike, and that was even after stretching. Because this was expected to be a difficult hike, the students were allowed the option to opt out. I considered the choice, but then knew that I would regret it if I didn’t go. So four people chose to stay, and myself, 8 other students, Julian, Nemiah, Luke, and Carlos prepped for the hike.
And it was insane. It was even more humid than yesterday, there was rotten breadfruit all over the trailhead, sometimes Luke had to forge a trail for us, other times we had to climb up practically vertical mud walls using ferns and roots to pull ourselves up. We were walking though trees, climbing over or crawling under fallen ones. There were fields of ferns taller than us and so thick that we couldn’t see the ground even when we were on the trail. The wildlife was a bit more abundant than yesterday even. We could hear doves and Micronesian Pigeons, and once we were at the summit there were fruit bats and red headed birds I didn’t know the name of.
On the way up we did some more surveys, with the last one being at the top in the cloud forest around 550m. This time the view was even more spectacular, we could see the airport at Tafunsak as well as the island’s high school and college.
The hike back down was considerably less enjoyable. There was a lot of sun and no wind at the peak, so it was hardly restful, and during the hike back people were stumbling all over the place, tripping over roots and sliding down muddy slopes. At least in the end we all made it back, a bit bruised, slightly scraped, and very tired.
For our last day in the field, we sure managed to go all out.
When I woke up this morning I wasn’t quite as sore as I expected to be. At least, not until we started the hike, and that was even after stretching. Because this was expected to be a difficult hike, the students were allowed the option to opt out. I considered the choice, but then knew that I would regret it if I didn’t go. So four people chose to stay, and myself, 8 other students, Julian, Nemiah, Luke, and Carlos prepped for the hike.
And it was insane. It was even more humid than yesterday, there was rotten breadfruit all over the trailhead, sometimes Luke had to forge a trail for us, other times we had to climb up practically vertical mud walls using ferns and roots to pull ourselves up. We were walking though trees, climbing over or crawling under fallen ones. There were fields of ferns taller than us and so thick that we couldn’t see the ground even when we were on the trail. The wildlife was a bit more abundant than yesterday even. We could hear doves and Micronesian Pigeons, and once we were at the summit there were fruit bats and red headed birds I didn’t know the name of.
On the way up we did some more surveys, with the last one being at the top in the cloud forest around 550m. This time the view was even more spectacular, we could see the airport at Tafunsak as well as the island’s high school and college.
The hike back down was considerably less enjoyable. There was a lot of sun and no wind at the peak, so it was hardly restful, and during the hike back people were stumbling all over the place, tripping over roots and sliding down muddy slopes. At least in the end we all made it back, a bit bruised, slightly scraped, and very tired.
For our last day in the field, we sure managed to go all out.