Mount Lamlam
I took my UOG summer class students to Mount Lamlam for an extra credit hike over the weekend.
For those of you who know me, you might already be making ominous sounds and widening your eyes preparing for an update about my struggle with that particular peak on Guam. For those of you who don't know me I won't bore you too much, but let me just say that me and Mount Lamlam have a history, a difficult, painful history of me getting lost on that hike. On a good day a hike up and down Mount Lamlam should take 2 - 3 hours depending on how fast you move. On a bad day it can take 4 - 6 hours. The extra times comes from the sword grass or bamboo being too dense that trails disappear and also can come from the fact that if your group is too large they get spread out and staggered along a winding, uneven and sometimes dangerous path slowing you down.
The hike over the weekend was no different, as close to 50 of my students and their friends showed up and this led to a long day of hiking, where nearly everyone ran out of water (from either not bringing enough and sharing with others), one student sprained her ankle, one student broke the soles off both of her shoes, we got lost in swordgrass once making a huge pointless circle, and several people, myself included ended up stepping into large cracks in the limestone, sometimes deeper then we were tall. About 20 turned back at the top and retraced their steps back towards Humuyong Manglo, but the 30 that followed me, ended up hiking for 5 hours most of it in the hot sun at the top of a mountain in the middle of oceans of sword grass, but also go the pleasure of sliding down the slope of Mount Lamlam, getting muddy and messed up, crashing into each other as they descended.
It was alot of fun. Here's some pictures from the hike.
For those of you who know me, you might already be making ominous sounds and widening your eyes preparing for an update about my struggle with that particular peak on Guam. For those of you who don't know me I won't bore you too much, but let me just say that me and Mount Lamlam have a history, a difficult, painful history of me getting lost on that hike. On a good day a hike up and down Mount Lamlam should take 2 - 3 hours depending on how fast you move. On a bad day it can take 4 - 6 hours. The extra times comes from the sword grass or bamboo being too dense that trails disappear and also can come from the fact that if your group is too large they get spread out and staggered along a winding, uneven and sometimes dangerous path slowing you down.
The hike over the weekend was no different, as close to 50 of my students and their friends showed up and this led to a long day of hiking, where nearly everyone ran out of water (from either not bringing enough and sharing with others), one student sprained her ankle, one student broke the soles off both of her shoes, we got lost in swordgrass once making a huge pointless circle, and several people, myself included ended up stepping into large cracks in the limestone, sometimes deeper then we were tall. About 20 turned back at the top and retraced their steps back towards Humuyong Manglo, but the 30 that followed me, ended up hiking for 5 hours most of it in the hot sun at the top of a mountain in the middle of oceans of sword grass, but also go the pleasure of sliding down the slope of Mount Lamlam, getting muddy and messed up, crashing into each other as they descended.
It was alot of fun. Here's some pictures from the hike.
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