After meeting at 8 AM, at Grace Christian School, we drove to the island's public well in Marpo Valley. I usually park a little closer to the end of the road than I did this time. This time, I parked next to the bend in the road that was just pass the entrance to the well. As we got ready for the hike, another truck pulled in behind mine. It had Mony in it, and he was going to join us on this hike.
As we set off on the hike, I was surprised that we were next to a cliff, which came to within a few feet of the road. I don't remember this cliff coming this close to the road from my previous visits to this area. As we hiked along this cliff, there were a lot of shelters used by the Japanese during World War II. Below is a picture of one of these shelters, with two bottles in the bottom of it.
There were about 4 or 5 of these caves or rock shelters along this little cliff which we were following. Below is another shelter that is made up of several large rocks that are at the base of the cliff. In the picture, you can see another bottle on the floor of the shelter.
Mr. Sakurai, or Uncle Pedro as he likes to be called, who is pictured below in one of the caves, left offerings at many of the Japanese sites on this hike, as he is doing here. His father died here on Tinian during World War II.
Next to the cave pictured above was an old sledge hammer, which is pictured below. The dead leaves in the picture, with the sledge hammer, are from the bamboo grove that is very near this cave.
In the picture below is a cache of bottles that was near a Japanese shelter. Most of these bottles are beer bottles, but most likely they were used by the Japanese to catch rainwater, during the U.S. invasion of Tinian.
As I rounded some small trees near the cliff, which we were following, I saw the land crab, Cardisoma carnifex, pictured below.
About a quarter mile along the cliff, we came upon the old water pipe that ran from the old Japanese water well in Marpo Valley to the top of the Carolinas Plateau, pictured below. This pipe is about 18 inches in diameter. When I first started to hike in this area, trying to find a way to the top of Lion's Head, we used to follow this pipeline to the cliff. I had not seen this pipe for about 10 years. It was nice to see that it still existed as I remembered it.
In the picture below is the tree called paipai in Chamorro, Guamia mariannae. It is an common endemic understory tree in the limestone forest.
This tree is very similar in appearance to gulos, Cynometra ramiflora, and they are found in similar habitats. The way to tell them apart is to look at the leaves. Gulos has compound leaves made up of two large lower leaves and two smaller upper leaves. Paipai has a single lance like leave, as shown in the picture below.
As I was leading the group, I noticed a Tinian Monarch fly off the nest pictured below.
In the nest was the egg. I had thought that this egg, pictuced below, was laid by the Rufous Fantail, Rhipidura rufifrons. I will have to send this picture, and some other pictures, to a friend of mine, who did a study on the Tinian Monarch in the 1990's, to see if this is a Monarch's or Fantail's egg.
For about the first mile of the hike, we walked in a transition zone between tangantangan forest and limestone forest. After this mile we entered pure limestone forest. Below is a picture of Mony walking in the transition zone, just before we entered the limestone forest. The last half mile of the hike, just before Lion's Head, is in secondary tangantangan forest. The hike to Lion's Head is a little under a half mile one way, and with an elevation gain of about 500 feet.
One of the common trees in the limestone forest is the nunu tree, Ficus prolixa. Below are three pictures of an especially large nunu (banyan) tree. As always, it is hard to take a picture of such a large tree, since you can't get far enough away from it in the jungle to get all of it in a single picture.
Because of all the Japanese defensive structures in this area, the fighting must have been very intense during the U.S. invasion of Tinian. This was one of last areas the Japanese were pushed back into before their last stand on the backside of the Carolinas Plateau. So below is another picture of a large 6-inch shell, which are fairly common on Tinian, that we saw on our way to Lion's Head.
Below is a picture of a second nest that we came upon that had an egg in it. It is a little bit different from the first nest in which we found an egg.
The egg was blue, as shown in the picture below. As I said above, I will have to send these egg pictures to a friend of mine, and find out what she can tell me about them.
Another tree that is commonly seen in the forest is the tiger claw tree, Erythrina variegata. This is a fairly large tree. Below is a picture of its flowers, high up in the canopy.
Wild sour orange trees are very common in the forest. They can be found in both the limestone forest and the secondary tangatangan forest. Usually you will notice the fruit on the ground before you see the tree that produced it. Below is a picture of one of the oranges on the ground.
This wild oranges are very sour and locally are called lemons, even if they are much larger than a normal lemon. Below is a picture of the oranges still attached to the tree.
Finally, after the long walk in the jungle and climbing one small cliff, we made it to Lion's Head. Of course, it is easier now to find Lion's Head, since I have it position on my GPS and I have been to it six times since last summer. Below is a 360 degree video of the view from Lion's Head.
For this hike, the weather was perfect for going to Lion's Head. There were only a few clouds and a fairly steady wind. These weather conditions made it easy to see Saipan from Lion's Head, as show in the picture below.
Below is a picture of Mitch and Judy sitting on Lion's Head with Mt. Lasu in the background.
In the picture above, Judy and Mitch are sitting on a fairly flat area that is just below the highest point on Lion's Head. In the picture below are Mitch, Masa, and Mony standing on the highest point on Lion's Head.
To the east of Lion's Head is a second rock promontory. The picture below shows me sitting at the end of this promontory. This second rock outcropping is not visible from the eastern side of the island and is rarely seen. It would only be visible if you were in a boat on the western side of Tinian.
The picture below is toward the top of Carolinas Plateau, towards Suicide Cliff. I always enjoy this view. Suicide Cliff was where the Japanese jumped into the ocean instead of surrendering to the Americans. To the Japanese, it was better to commit suicide than to surrender, because there was no honor in surrender.
Below is Mony standing between Lion's Head and the second rock outcropping. He was trying to get pictures of me standing on the second promontory and of others walking out to it.
After visiting Lion's Head, we headed back to the truck. It was a fairly easy walk back because I could follow the track that my GPS created on the way up. Of course, it is very hard to follow the exact same trail back when traveling cross country. One of the things that we found on the way back was a fairly large stone wall, which is in the picture below.
Behind the wall was a deep hole or cave. In the picture below are Mitch and Mony seeing what is in this cave or hole behind the wall.
We came out of the jungle where I would have normally parked the truck to start this hike. The picture below shows Judy looking back at where Lion's Head is located. The yellow arrow is pointing at Lion's Head.
I wanted to just get in the truck and drive back to the village, but everyone else insisted on taking a group photo. Below is the group photo. In the photo, from left to right, are me, Masa, Kimberly, Judy, Uncle Pedro (in front of Judy), Mony, Mitch and Erica.
This is always a good hike because of the different things you see on the way to Lion's Head. I don't think I have ever walked the same path to Lion's Head and back in all of the times I have been there. Just because I parked in a slightly different place this time, we got to see many more Japanese shelters than are normally find on this hike.
As always, I would like to thank Mitch and Judy for contributing additional photographs for this posting. I will have to rely on them for the photos for the next hike, since my wife has taken my camera to Bali for a week.
The boonie bee count was one on this hike. I got stung on the wrist as we hiked back from Lion's Head. I think this was the only bee nest that we saw on the whole hike.
The next hike will be to the West Field area. This area is just to the north of the current airport on Tinian. We will visit the Shinto Shrine located here and look for the remains of the SeaBee compound that used to be in this area. I have explored a little bit of this area, but I really don't know what we will find, besides the shrine. Most of the hike will be through tangantangan forest. We will meet at 8 AM, on Saturday, March 22, at Grace Christian School.
Everyone Is Welcome On These Hikes.
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