2011 MAN HIKE II (Merizo, 21 May)

There was was too much time between my last two blog entries, and my last blog entry was way too wordy, so let me do the complete opposite. I'll keep the words short and let the pictures speak for themselves. I never pass up the chance for a MAN HIKE: no real plan, men only, bare essentials (water and camera), and beer at the end. Last month the men of the Guam Crew decided to do a final Man Hike before Chris departed for his new assignment in Turkey.

Here are the men of the Guam Crew about to embark on our manliest MAN HIKE to date. (Left to Right we are: Chris, Shea ("Jasmine"), Jesse, Jed, Me, and James).

Like with all of our other man hikes we looked to a point in the distance and said we should go there. In this case it was the tallest mountain in sight.
The key to a good MAN HIKE is to get off the beaten trail and blaze you own path. For us that usually means barrelling through Sword Grass. It's very cumbersome, slow, and you are guaranteed to get cut up, but it is very MANLY.

We're not posing here; we have to get low in order to get through the grass. This was early on so we are still in good spirits and fairly clean.

Finally breaking through the sword grass is always a great feeling, and it gives you a renewed since of energy, even if you are facing a steep, uphill climb...BRING IT ON!

The view from the top is really what makes it worth it. You truly feel on top of the world. Of course once you get to the top, you eventually have to come back down. We opted to take a different route from which we came, and see just how far we could go.

Sword grass continued to be a problem, but we also dealt with the thick roots, a complete lack of trails, and less than 100% certainty about which way we needed to go. Despite what Jed might have told his wife, at no time were we ever lost, we merely opted for the longer route. Eventually we made it to the river bed and decided to follow the river out of the jungle. A couple of times we tried to get back up the hill, but the impossibly thick sword grass turned us back every time. The water was VERY refreshing, plus the trees provided some relief from the sun.
Of course, we weren't done once we hit the paved road. Because we had decided to go down a different way, we were no where near the car. Still, walking on paved road is much easier than through sword grass. Chris and I were the only ones that actually walked all the way back; these lazy bums waited outside a convenience store until we came and picked them up. We actually did, (aren't we nice?) No Man Hike is complete without the cold beer at the end. All in all our hike lasted about 5 hours. By the time we were done, we had almost no water, we were exhausted, and everyone had cuts on their legs and arms. Now that's what I call a Man Hike!