Chiget Hike Cancelled - November 10, 2007

I had to cancel the hike to the Chiget cliff line today because of the rain. It is now 9 AM and we have had 1.42 inches of rain since midnight last night.

When I got up I was worried because I had heard rain most of the night on the metal roof of our apartment. It was a gray wet morning, but I had hoped that the sun would burn off the morning rain clouds as it sometimes does. The first thing I did was check the weather report for Tinian. It did not look good. Here is the report from the National Weather Service on Guam.

Today: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 87. South southeast wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

When there is a percentage for a chance of precipitation, that means we will get rain!

Next, I looked at the weather satellite picture and it looked even worst than the report. The mass of clouds in the middle of the picture is right over Tinian and Saipan.

Anyway, I got ready to go on the hike since it looked like it might be clearing a little. I drove into San Jose Village to see if any one was going to show up. As I drove to town, the rain became even more intense.

So I sat at Grace Christian School watching the rain. About five minutes after 8 AM, I decided to drive over to Dan's and Ariuka's apartment to tell them I was going to cancel and just to talk. As I started to turn around, I saw Dan and stopped. He was soaking wet and then I saw Ariuka standing next to him. We talked for awhile, while I watched Dan get more and more wet. Yes, I told them I was going to cancel because it was too dangerous to hike along the cliff line with the rain and wet conditions. It was just too easy to slip on the wet rocks.

Below are some pictures of my front yard with the rain coming down.


The next hike will be on November 17, Saturday, to Lion's Head. This hike was arranged for the Upward Bound students at NMC-Tinian. Of course, as always, everyone is welcome on this hike, even if you are not an Upward Bound student. For more information about Lion's Head see the October 8th hike.