Breaktime Funstuffs - Boiling Lake Hike

I've definitely been living it up over the break, and it's been great so far. The biggest event so far has been the hike to Boiling Lake I took with three of my buddies here at school.

From left to right, that's Broc, Ben, me, and Paul (Paul and Broc live in the same building as me, in the two floors upstairs). First, our landlord Marcus picked us up at 6:15 in the morning so we could ride with him down to Roseau. He dropped us off at the bus stop, which took us halfway to the village of Laudat, the village outside the trailhead. We started walking up the steep roads until we hitch hiked on the back of a local's truck, who was able to take us all the way to Laudat. When he dropped us off, we asked two ladies waiting for a bus if we were on the right path to the Boiling Lake hike, and they started yelling at us how we needed a guide until some drunk crazy dude came out of the bushes yelling "I'm a guide!" Wisely ignoring their advice, we continued on found the trail, and began our hike. At this point, we've already been pounding pavement for a good 30-45 minutes, and the real work hadn't even started. We hit the trail, marveling at all the sights around us (starting with Titou Gorge, more later), not too worried about the stairs in front of us. We knew it was going to be a long hike (according to one source, 8 miles from Laudat to the lake, going one way), but I had no idea how many stairs there would be. Nobody bothered to count, but there were easily thousands. Anyway, you start out on one side of a mountain, and climb up along the trail until it dips back down into a valley. We crossed this valley, walked over a small stream, and then back up another small mountain ridge. At this point we passed a few workers improving the trail, setting new logs into the steps for better footing. Once we reached the top of some more steep stairs, we continued to climb along the ridge of the mountain and were treated to some beautiful views (http://tinyurl.com/5woxnxm) as we kept climbing. Eventually, we reached the peak, with an amazing 360* view (http://tinyurl.com/3r6xmgx).

From here, we dropped back down over some more very winding and steep stairs, into a small canyon that lead into what is called the Valley of Desolation. Supposedly, this is the hardest area to get through properly, but you can see the trail continuing on the other side if you look straight across when you enter. We explored a little bit, getting up-close views of some of the smaller steam vents (http://tinyurl.com/6hf65ru), and carefully watching our steps over the hot rocks. We continued on, along a sulfuric stream further into the trail and down the valley, until we had to start climbing again after crossing yet another stream. By this time, we were joined by one of the stray dogs (Ben named him Cheetah) that was running around the trail; he ended up following us all the way to the lake and almost the whole way back to Roseau. After climbing a little further, we found ourselves above yet another valley. We dropped in, scrambled across the valley, and began our final ascent to the lake. We stopped just before the final push to catch a quick breather, and were impressed by the view and the spongy-feeling rock we were resting on. I explored it a bit, but doubled back after the ground started to get soft. Finally, we rounded the crest.

We crossed over the ridge to the fumerole where the lake sits, and immediately I was impressed. We had seen the steam from far off, but we weren't sure if it actually corresponded to Boiling Lake until we got there. We explored the plateau that lies above the lake, then stopped for lunch. After eating (and feeding Cheetah), Broc, Paul, and I decided to do a little free climbing and dropped down the cliff face to get an up-close and personal view of the lake.

Standing on the lake shore was an otherworldly experience. Depending on the wind, you could

see the lake in its entirety, as well as the gorge on the other side and the rest of the island plunging below. More often, the steam obscured most of the view, and at times visibility was limited to only a few feet ahead. The air was cool and wet until the wind threw the steam on you, turning the lake shore into a natural sauna. There were small waterfalls and pools feeding into the lake, and barely four feet from the boiling water of the shore were small pools of water no warmer than 50*F. The green of small moss and lichens mixed with the yellow hues of sulfur along the rocks, with no other vegetation growing that close to the shore. After plenty of pictures and video, we decided to turn around and climb back up the rock to start our hike back.

The way out was easier and faster than the way in, at least for me. We stopped along the way to take a dip in the sulfur spring pools we passed on the way in, and in the Valley of Desolation we stopped to grab some volcanic mud to cover our faces with. Most of the guides we saw had done the same, so we figured we ought to try it out.

Notice how Ben missed his upper lip. Gave me an excuse to set down my pack and go back to get some more mud, which was great because I was looking for an excuse to jump around the valley and put my new toe shoes to the test. After this, the hike back was uneventful, and much the same going out as coming in. When we reached the trail head, we stopped at Titou Gorge, another Dominican landmark filmed in the second Pirates of the Caribbean, and swam around. There were a lot of cruise ship tourists there at first, but they cleared out not long after we showed up and we had the river all to ourselves. We even climbed the lowest waterfall, and I attempted to stand under the next one up. It was too powerful, however, and I wasn't able to keep my footing for longer than a few seconds.

After swimming back out, we began our long trek back to Roseau, walking most of the way but catching two rides for a short distance, before Marcus got out of work and picked us up to take us back home. By the time we got back, we had walked over 20 miles and been gone for over 13 hours. One heckuva trip.