My First Real Hike on Guam, Okay, Really EVER~~~Part One!

So, Jake induced the Forced Family Fun card and said let's go hike to Sigua Falls. I first had to run the three older kids to get some cheap shoes. We planned to grab a bucket of KFC but Jake passed the turn so it was burgers and "chicken" from McD's along with bottles of Gatorade and water.

It was a very warm day.

This was actually pretty neat for me, because my dad used to go off-roading here. I remember, as a little child, sliding down these clay hills with my friends on our little bums.

This is the jeep my dad used to climb all the places where the big jeeps went. This is the jeep in which I learned to drive a stick shift. That is actually me in that jeep. Me, in all my tom-boy glory.

I don't know what city that is back there, but we are in the "wild" over by the Leo Palace.

 We kept seeing shoes along the trail. Or sometimes the soles of shoes. Some seemed like perfectly fine pairs.

Other than it being really hot out, so far the hiking was just walking.

As usual, I'm the last guy in line, and everyone else made it to the "half way point" before me, which just happens to be this old tank.

Of course, the first one to climb it is Harris. That boy is a climbing fool.

We busted out our lunch and enjoyed this resting moment.

Did I mention that it was quite hot out?

Soon, I was rested enough that my curiosity about the tank got me up. Isn't this totally cool?

We discussed what this tank's last moments may have been like based on the bullet holes and obvious impact points in the metal.

I wonder if there's anyone out there who really knows?

While I was up there on the tank we heard a helicopter coming.

They came right over to us and made a complete circle above us. We could see the uniformed guys up there. Why didn't they wave back at me?

There's my family. Talking about important stuff.

That's the engine block.

This is looking down from the man-hole on the top. My foot is actually in the front window. Directly beneath my foot is a flat rectangle. That is a pedal. It's huge. I can't even imagine driving with that giant pedal.

Here, you can see how well the stainless steel welding has held up for all these decades even as the unprotected steel around it is eroding. See the pock marks? We aren't completely sure if that's from airborne gunfire or later vandalism.

Wheel hub. Is it called a wheel on a tank?

On we go! We, not even our fearless (and yes he is literally fearless) leader, knew not what we were getting ourselves into. Do you realize how these "steps" were created? I realized. And it made me afraid. Okay, I know I'm always afraid, but c'mon, this is hard proof that there's a reason those shoes were left laying out there.

Even after just an hour, I felt like I was forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other.

This is for all you geology buffs.

Isn't this so cool? And it feels like rubber. It feels just like my phone case.

Bacon strip! When I said this out loud one of my kids very much wished, at that moment, for actual bacon.

Finally, we reached the lookout, which was one of the few landmarks on the map that Jake found on some guy's blog.

There's the falls. We couldn't see the bottom. We couldn't see how to get down to the bottom because of all the foliage. There was a trail to the right and a trail to the left. The guy with the blog didn't mention that there would be two. He said there would be one to the left. So, left it was.

 Here at the lookout there were pairs of gloves laying on the ground. Something told me that a very thoughtful person left them there for whomever would be passing that point. As I picked up a pair to try on, some of the kids got grossed out. I had no qualms. My life may depend on them!

This was when it started to sprinkle. This was also when the down-hilling got ridiculous.






Go to part two!