Cobb Gut Hike

Hiking two days in a row! Oh joy! When you're down to the last couple weeks and many people are thinking of heading back north, suddenly there's a lot going on. I wasn't sure I'd make it today after doing Reef Bay yesterday, but it was easier than I thought. 

Gut hiking is not like trail hiking.

 St. John is mountainous with steep valleys. When it rains water seeking its lowest level flows down the hillsides creating a temporary mountain river called guts or (Danish) ghuts.

Water gushes down these valley rivers taking soil with it, leaving behind a rocky and boulder strewn pathway. Along side the guts plants grow large and abundantly in the rich soil and out of the caves and rock cliffs. The gut environment is jungle-like and tropical. These are challenging hikes. Once you're in the pipe there is often no way out, the sides of the gut can be two stories tall of perpendicular rock and your only choice is either going forward or back the way you came. It's a constant rock scramble, finding footholds and sliding on your butt.  You have to be creative to find your way over the waterfalls, pools, downed trees , to list some obstacles. Lots of upper body, arm and hand work.

At the Top of a Waterfall

Taking a Break Before Going Down

Su-Part-Mountain-Goat Leads the Way

With me today was George, Don, Bob, Su, Tom, Steve and Bruce.  The first part of the hike was the bushwhack down the hill to the gut itself. We followed Bob and his clippers through an area called "The Womens". The story goes when the slaves revolted in 1733, some of the Maroons (escaped slaves)  made a village there. While the men were otherwise engaged fighting for their lives, the women stayed behind gardening and making a home. We found  many garden terraces. Who knows? Maybe it's true.

Don brought a rope to rappel down one of the waterfalls but it turned out we didn't have to do that, something for which I am really glad. The most trying part of the hike was the short shower we got at the beginning. The rocks became slippery and treacherous. I was nervous not knowing if the next step I took would send me flying, like it soon did Steve. I was holding on to tree trunks to keep from going down. It was a relief when the rocks had dried by the time we got to the series of falls.

No mishaps - a couple slips onto butts, a rusted machete was found left on a rock sparking speculation (why and how?), Christmas Bush (we'll know tomorrow who touched it), one wasp nest (avoided).  We came upon three goat skulls, one decomposed goat - just hair and bones. Not good thoughts - if they can't do it......

There was a charcoal making pit, stone walls, some kind of stone dam or corral and an old road to nowhere.

Almost 3 hours later, we came out at the end of the gut on the paved road near Salt Pond beach. We waited ten minutes thinking to catch the bus but it never came. HA! Don actually thought it would! We then walked the ½ mile to the Tourist Trap - a roadside bar and lunch place where we had drinks and we looked pretty much disgusting - red, sweaty, unfriendly.... I think I was the worst because partway down the gut I'd gotten snagged by a plant that had hundreds of small, black, sticky, barbed seeds. These seeds stuck in my hair, the same as burrs will, and dug themselves deeper and deeper into my braids until my hair was matted and I was headed for dreadlocks. Su and George worked at removing them but my hair was getting torn out and more snarled. To stop the process from worsening, I tied my braids into bunches. To protect my face from the sun I tied my bandana around my head. It's a wonder we got served.

Bruce's wife picked us up and we had lunch at Miss Lucy's. By then we're getting irritable, at least Su and I were, not only because it took them an hour and a half to bring us our food but because the day was getting on and we wanted to get on home. At least I did. 

At Miss Lucy's. From L: Tom, George, Don, Bob, Bruce, Sharon, Steve, Su

Serious bunch without our kallalloo soup, roti and fish fry.

But it was a great exploration into a forgotten area of the island that you can't see any other way. Can't wait till next Thursday when we do it all again! I will sleep well tonight.