Harlem Hike - March 8, 2008

On this hike, we were off to explore an area on the southwest side of North Field. On old maps, from World War II of the U.S. airbase at North Field, this area is labeled as Harlem. The engineers that designed the roads and layout for Tinian noticed that it looked a lot like Manhattan. So, there are roads and areas on Tinian that are named after similar roads and areas on Manhattan. We even have a Central Park on Tinian.

Seven of us set off to explore Harlem and the cliff above it. I had never been to the cliff above Harlem so this would be a new place for me to explore too.

As I drove down 8th Avenue, looking for the road for Harlem, I didn't see it at all. I soon got to the circle on 8th Avenue and knew that I had missed it. I did a loop around the circle and headed back south to see if I could find a way to get to the cliff near the Harlem area. I finally saw a place, along the road edge, where I thought it would be an easy hike through tangtangan forest to the cliff, and stopped the truck to unload everyone.

After everyone had gotten out of the truck, I decided to walk another 50 or so feet down the road to see if there was a better place to enter the jungle. As I walked down the road, I saw a better place to park the truck and decided to move truck. After moving the truck, everyone caught up with me. Right next to where I had parked the truck, there was a road that seemed to go through the grass, following the tangantangan forest I had thought about following to the cliff.

Below is a picture of hikers setting off to explore Harlem. I took this picture from a frame of a video that I had accidental shot with my camera instead of taking a picture that is why it is a little blurry. From left to right are Erica, Kimberly, Mitch, Judy, Masa, and Kaori, with me taking the picture.

Once I saw that the road going though the grass was paved, I was fairly certain that this was the road to Harlem. I was positive that we on the road to Harlem when I saw the large amounts of tar on the road. Below is a picture of one of the large tar pools on the road to Harlem. The tar is very hard after sitting on the road for over 65 years.

The road was overgrown with grass, and the grass was starting to get thicker and thicker as we followed the road. It was soon time to head into the jungle because of the thick grass. It is a lot easier to walk through the jungle than through a field of guinea grass. In the jungle, there were a lot of ferns growing under the tangantangan trees, as can be seen in the picture below. Also in the picture I am walking up hill. The top of the hill was very narrow and must have been an old road.

The roadway on top of the hill ended at a large metal tank, pictured below. Most likely trucks drove up the roadway on the hill to dump gravel into the tank, or other structure now gone, for the asphalt plant, which was at Harlem during World War II.

On one side of the tank was a narrow trough, which is pictured below, with Masa taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. In the above picture, the trough is on the right side of the tank.

On the other side of the tank was a large grass field. We stayed in the jungle to the right side of the tank. As we walked, I noticed a cliff just to our right. I decided to head toward the cliff. As we walked toward the cliff, Mitch noticed a wall running toward the base of the cliff. Below is a picture of the wall's end, the end farthest from the cliff. It had some large metal channel beams in it. These beams must have been about eight inches across.

Soon other hikers spotted another wall about 150 feet away from the first one, along the cliff. Below is a picture of the second wall. Again it ran from the cliff out into the jungle. Toward the jungle end, the wall formed a T with another wall. It looked like the two walls made up the edges of a compound, with the cliff being the back wall for the compound.

The walls were about a foot wide. Below is a picture of me standing on the wall that is pictured above. Again this wall had large metal channel beams in it, which I am standing in between.

We followed the cliff, which was by the walls, toward the east, but it soon ended. After walking though a some more tangantangan forest, we came to the cliff that was on the east side of Harlem. While following the bottom of this cliff, we ended up at a large field of grass. I decided to try to cross the grass field but it proved to be very difficult walking. That is when I decided to climb up the steep slope and back into the jungle. Below, in the picture, are Kimberly, Judy, Kaori, and Masa in the grass field, with me taking the picture just below the forest on the steep slope.

Here is a close up of Masa, Kaori and Judy in the grass. I am not sure if they are happy being on the hike or if they are ready to quit. At least Kaori is smiling.

Above the grass, the cliff was fairly steep. The two pictures below, show Kimberly and Kaori walking carefully along the cliff at about the same place, just before we rested by an umumu tree.

The red leaves, in the pictures, above are young leaves of the gulos tree (Cynometra ramiflora). These leaves contain the pigment anthocyanin. Anthocyanin may protect the young leaves from fungal attack, or from sun damage, because anthocyanin soaks up free radicals.

There were also a lot of bird's nest ferns, Asplenium nidus, growing on the trees and cliffs. Below is a picture of some of these ferns growing on the cliff.

The cliff we were following was very steep, and at one place I had to make a choice of either climbing up or down. I decided to go down. In the picture below are Kaori and Masa climbing down the cliff.

After getting to the bottom of the cliff, I saw that I had made a mistake and that we should have gone up instead of down. So, we had to climb up the steep slope again to get to the base of the upper cliff line. As we got to the top of the slope, we found a small cave/shelter that had two broken bowls in it and a few shoe souls. Below is a picture of one of the bowls.

As we walked along the cliff's bottom, I noticed a hole in the ground under a rock, pictured below. Most likely this is a hole that was dug by a coconut crab. We also found a second hole a few hundred feet from the first one.

While we rested, a Tinian Monarch, Monarcha takatsukasae, came in close to watch us. I was a little too far away to get a picture, but Mitch got a good one of it. The Tinian Monarch is only found on the island of Tinian, in the Mariana Islands.

We also found some cup mushrooms growing on the leaf litter.

A little further along the cliff, there was a tunnel or cave visible in it. After going through the opening, we emerged in a large room that had a tall stone wall protecting its main entrance. Below are Masa, Kaori, Judy and Kimberly standing in the cave.

Below is another picture of the wall the protected the main entrance of the cave.

There was a lot of stuff on this cave's floor. In the picture below are an old metal pan, bottles, wooden planks and other artifacts. We left everything behind, in case a future archaeologist wants to study this area.

The picture below shows a closeup of the wall that protected the cave.

At the base of the wall was an old ammunition case, pictured below. It most likely held rounds for a small canon.

Right at the main entrance, near the stone wall, was an old rusty pick. In the picture below the pick is toward the left side of the middle of the picture, and pointing straight up and down.

As we walked along the bottom of the cliff, I noticed a large rock below us. It looked like it might have an opening in it. I climbed to the bottom of the rock and saw that it was a shelter that was used by the Japanese during War World II, which is pictured below. It was raised about two feet above ground level and could also be entered from the back. Of course, Mitch and Kaori had to climb all the way through this rock shelter, form the back entrance to the front one.

The cliff started to die out, so we headed up the slope to see if we could find more of the cliff line or not. On the way up, I happened to get some large spines in my shoe, like the ones that I had gotten on the Tachonga hike. After getting to the top of the slope, the cliff had disappeared and it looked like we would have to cut our way through a lot of vines and weeds before finding anything. Since it was getting late, I decided it was time to head back to the truck.

As we walked down the slope, we encountered the spines again. This time we found the source. It was on the roots of a plant growing in the ground. After consulting with Carmen Farrell, I found out this was a wild yam called nika in Chamorro. With a little research, I found out that this yam is called Dioscorea esculenta var. spinosa. One article, which I found, called it the 'devil yam.' After seeing the spines on the roots of this plant, I see calling it the devil yam is very appropriate.

The following picture shows a closeup of the spines from the nika plant. We all had to stop to pull the spines out of our shoes. They are about an inch and a half long.

We went almost straight down the slope on our way back to the truck. Because of the recent rainfall, the ground, and the leaves on it, were wet and slippery. At least four of us fell on this hike because of the slippery conditions and steep slopes.

The picture below shows about where we ended the hike along the cliff line. It was by the ironwood trees, gagu, at the top of the cliff. Just before where the ridge drops down on the left side of the picture. The trees at the top of the cliff are about 50 to 60 feet tall, just to give you an idea of how high the cliff was.

After crossing the field in the picture above, we entered the tangatangan forest. It appeared that we were walking on an old road. It was fairly flat, about wide enough for a large truck to drive on, and covered with gravel. As we followed this old road, there were a lot of hot peppers to pick, so we made a lot of rest stops for picking peppers.

On the side of the road, we found an old collapsed tank. This meant that we were getting near the asphalt plant, if not there already. Below is a picture of the tank, covered with vines.

The picture is taken toward 8th Avenue, about where the truck was parked. As you can see, it is grass forever. I did want to go through that grass because of how difficult it is to walk through it. It is very difficult to cut; it is taller than a person; and most of the time you have to fall on it to push it down to make a trail.

Finally the road ended in a large field of grass. We dropped down to the edge of the road, where some tangantangan trees grew. There was a little shelter down there with some metal drums in front of it, as shown in the picture below.

I took a look at my GPS, while we rested, and realized that the road we had followed in was about 75 feet to the south of our resting place. With encouragement from the other hikers, I set off by myself, through the grass, to look for the road. I had to cut through about 50 feet of grass, luckily it has been burned last year and was not too thick, to get to the road. After finding the road, I went back to the others and led them out to the road. As you can see in the picture below, Mitch was real happy to be back on the road!

After leaving Harlem, I decided to stop at the SeaBee Monument. The SeaBee Monument is dedicated to the 107th SeaBees, one of the main U.S. construction battalions on Tinian during World War II. It is where 86th Street meets 8th Avenue. On the monument is a map of Tinian as it appeared during the U.S. buildup at the end of World War II. I am pointing out Harlem to Masa on the map in the picture below.

The main reason why I stopped at the monument was because of Kimberly. She is from New York and I thought she would enjoy see the names of the streets and areas on the map. Below is a picture of all of us standing by the monument, except Mitch, since she is taking the picture.

This was a fairly interesting hike. I wish there was less grass at the Harlem site. I have to wonder what else was hidden by the grass, especially after what we had found on the edges of the area.

Now for the bonnie bee count. It was none. I did almost walk into a nest, but as I saw the bees fly around me, I got away from it fast before I got stung. It was hidden behind some vines and was not visible until we got around the vines. That was the only nest we saw. Because of the rain that had occurred the night before the hike, I did not expect to find many nests.

The next hike will be Lion's Head above Marpo Valley. This is always a good hike with a great view of Tinian and Saipan. I have done this hike in under two and a half hours with two people. With a group, it usually takes about three and a half hours. I enjoy this hike a lot and want to do it one last time before leaving Tinian. We will meet at 8 AM, on Saturday, March 15, at Grace Christian School.

Everyone Is Welcome On These Hikes.

Lake Hagoi - March 1, 2008

On March First, seven of us set off to explore the area around Lake Hagoi. Lake Hagoi is really not a lake, but a marsh. It does have some open water in the center, but this water does dry out in extremely dry years. I have walked on the dry bottom of Lake Hagoi at least five times in the last 18 years. So, this means that Lake Hagoi will dry out about once every three years. I did not really expect to see Lake Hagoi because it is surrounded by large areas of Pago, Thespesia populnea, and tall reed (Karisso), Phragmites karka.

Below is a picture of Lake Hagoi today. This picture was taken by a friend of Mitch's as he flew back to Saipan.

On this hike, we hoped to find signs of the old village that used to be on the west side of Lake Hagoi. During Japanese times, Lake Hagoi was extensively farmed. I have seen pictures of Lake Hagoi with extensive rice fields.

By the way, Hagoi means lake in Chamorro. So we were going to explore the area around Lake Lake.

On this hike we had three new people, pictured below, along for the first time with us. First there was Kaori, on the left, next Lisa, and our first flat person, Nicole, next to me. Nicole is from the U.S. mainland and goes to the third grade. This picture was taken outside the Grace Christian School, before we left on the hike.

After everyone got into my truck, I drove them all to the North Field area. Once we got to the circle on West Avenue, we took a small side road toward the east. I was not sure where to stop the truck so as to start the hike. There used to be a dirt road that went from the road we were on to the west side of Lake Hagoi, but it had fallen in disuse because of the many typhoons we had since the road was last used. I ended up stopping at a place where I thought the old road might have been. I took a quick look around, but did not see the road. Even so, we all got out of the truck and headed into the jungle.

I tried to hold a straight course toward the north, but ended up going more northeast than straight north. We happened to come upon some large banyan (nunu) trees growing on piles of rocks. As we rounded the banyan trees, we found the remains of an old Japanese torpedo from World War II. Below are pictured the tail fins and propeller of the torpedo.

The torpedo was broken into three sections with the warhead missing. There was the tail section pictured above, and two air tank sections. The Japanese torpedoes from World War II used compressed air to drive them. Below is a picture of one of the torpedo's air tanks.

In the picture below is Lisa sitting next to the other air tank from the torpedo.

Below, in the picture, are some other parts of the torpedo that was near the air tanks.

After the torpedo, I tried to head more towards the west. I wanted to head toward the old village site, which was on the west side of Lake Hagoi. As we walked in the jungle, we came across a path that someone had cut through the jungle. This path was not here last spring, when I had previously been in this area. Next we started to see clumps of banana plants in the jungle, as pictured below. This meant that we had to be near some place that had once been used by people. Bananas need people to spread since they do not make seeds. I felt we must be getting near the old Japanese or Okinawan village we were looking for.

Just past the bananas, we came to a place were we could finally see the lake. The lake is just behind the group in the picture below. The lake is just pass the trees behind the hikers. In the picture are Nicole, Mitch, Kaori, Lisa, Erica and Judy.

Pictured below is a closeup of the tall reeds that border the lake. This picture is a closeup taken from the picture above.

As we followed the edge of that lake toward the northwest, we came upon a huge grove of bamboo. Below is a picture of the dead leaves of the bamboo covering the vines and small shrubs that grew on the edge of the grove.

The picture below is of the same place as pictured above, but it shows more of the surroundings with Judy and Nicole in it.

I had to cut a hole through the old dead bamboo stalks and vines to enter the grove. The picture below shows Mitch entering the bamboo grove through the hole that I had cut. Inside the grove it was fairly easy walking. I did have to cut a few dead bamboo stalks or break them by jumping on them, which is sort of fun to do.

Because the bamboo grove's canopy is so thick, there is not much growing on the ground, except for a few mushrooms. This makes it easy to walk through a bamboo grove. and the dead stalks are easy to break and get out of the way. All you have to watch out for are the small bamboo branches that have large spines on them.

I decided to leave the bamboo grove and head off toward some large tree that I saw west of the bamboo grove. As we walked toward the trees, we found the cleared path that we had seen earlier in the hike. There were also two large coconut trees that I sort of remembered from years ago when I used to visit this area. We really didn't find much by the coconut trees. So, we headed back towards the lake

As we walked back towards the lake, we came upon the largest kamachili tree,
Pithecellobium dulce, that I have ever seen. It is very difficult to take a picture of a tree this large in the jungle. Below are two pictures of this tree. It was huge and must have been planted before World War II.

As we got near the bamboo grove again, we walked across an old coconut trunk that had a lot of small mushrooms growing on it. These mushrooms are pictured below. There were a lot more mushrooms than I expected to see on this hike. Since it is the dry season, there are not normally a lot of mushrooms in the jungle. Of course, we did have a week of rainy weather just before the hike, which would encourage the mushrooms to produce fruiting caps.

We walked in the bamboo grove for awhile until it started to thin out into pago and tangantangan forest. Just a little ways past where we left the bamboo grove, we came upon an old cement tank. At least we think it was a tank. We really don't know what it was used for. In the picture below is Kaori, on the edge of the tank, looking into it.

Below is a picture of Nicole checking out the tank.

In the picture below is the tank and you can see that it is very near a grove of pago. This tank was about the only remains from the old village that we found. We did find an old Kirin beer bottle and some pieces of ceramics, but no other structures. This was a fairly large village, but it could have been almost completely destroyed during World War II, or heavily overgrown by the jungle during the more than 65 years since it had existed. This is why we did find much in this area.

Below is part of a bowl that we found. It was one of the two pieces of ceramics that we found on this hike.

Below is a picture of a small herbaceous plant that we happen to find in the jungle. It was about 2 feet tall with white flowers that were about 2 inches long. The flowers were really beautiful as can be seen in the picture.

We also found a few hot pepper plants, but not as many as we found on the Marpo Valley hike. Pictured below is the flat person, Nicole, picking some peppers to use later.

We also found a patch of snake plants. Since Nicole had never seen snake plants before, she had to stop and take a closer look at them with Judy.

On the hike, we happened to enter a forest of African Tulip trees, Spathodea campanulate. These trees sprout from there roots forming large groves, as shown in the picture below. Because a single tree can dominate an area because of the sprouts from its roots, it is considered an invasive species in many areas. They also have fairly soft wood and are easily damaged by strong winds and typhoons. That is why there is a lot of branches trunks on the ground in the picture below. These trees can grow to be 90 feet tall, but in the Mariana Islands, they rarely get over 40 feet high, because of typhoons.

The African Tulip Tree has large showy red-orange flowers, as shown in the picture below. These beautiful flowers are why this ornamental tree has spread from its home in central Africa to most tropical areas in Asia and the Pacific.

Just pass the African Tulip Tree forest, I saw some kapok trees, Ceiba pentandra. I knew that we were almost to the road that runs from Chulu Beach, one of the World War II invasion beaches, and North Field, because this is one of the two places where I know kapok trees grow in the jungle on Tinian.

Below is a picture of Judy, Nicole, and Kaori as they leave the jungle right next to the road mentioned above.

We followed the Chulu-North Field road to a road that runs on the east side of Lake Hagoi. Below is a picture of the rest of the hikers waiting for Judy, Nicole and Kaori to get out of the jungle.

The picture below is of the kapok trees that line the road from Chulu Beach to North Field.

As we walked along the road, we saw a sign that said that the Lake Hagoi area is a Mariana Common Moorhen (Pulattat) Sanctuary. The Pulattat, Gallinula chloropus guami, is endangered mainly because of habitat destruction. Lake Hagoi is one of the few wetlands in the Mariana Islands where this bird still nests. They build their nests in the reeds above the water and very few predators can reach them. I have been told by a biologist from Guam that the monitor lizard (Hilitai), Varanus indicus, can swim out to the nests and eat the eggs and young, thus endangering this species even more.

Just a short walk down the Chulu-North Field road, we turned down the side road that runs on the west side of Lake Hagoi. This road is not traveled that much and sometimes remains blocked after a typhoon, with downed trees, for months.

There are many interesting plants along this road and Nicole had to stop and look at a few of them. Below is Nicole looking at a payaya plant.

As we walked along the road, we noticed many stands of wild Canna growing beside the road. Most likely they were introduced during the Japanese period as an ornamental plant and have gone wild. I have seen two varieties of Canna on Tinian in the jungle, a red one, as pictured below, and a yellow one. They are usually found in areas that once had settlements.

Below is a picture of the Canna flower.
Mitch and some of the other hikers were interested in seeing Lake Hagoi, and since I knew a fairly easy way to get the lake, I agreed to show them the lake. Below is a picture of the water in Lake Hagoi. We had to make our way on a trail through the tall reeds. I had even taken my shoes off, just in case someone wanted to see the open water. But no one wanted to go any further than the water in the reeds, as pictured below.

Below is a picture of Erica on the trail through the tall reeds to Lake Hagoi.

After putting my shoes back on, I led the hikers back to the road and truck. As I was driving to leave the Lake Hagoi area, I decided to take the road that runs along the south end of North Field and to the circle on Broadway. This road had not been used very often and there was a lot of tall grass overhanging the road. I am not sure how much the people in the back of the truck liked this road, because of the overhanging grass, but I enjoyed the ride back.

On the way back to town, just before we reached the airport, it start to pour down rain. During the hike, we had had a little rain, but it stopped after a few minutes. What we entered was a downpour, which kept raining even after I dropped everyone off at the school. All I can say is on the way back to the village, I was glad I was driving and not in the back of the truck.

Nicole would like to say hi to all of the third graders back in her classes and that she really enjoyed her walk in the jungle.

I would like to thank again Judy and Mitch for the additional pictures I used in this posting.

As for the boonie bee count, it was only one, me of course. I got stung on the left hand while I was trying to cut a bamboo stalk to leave the bamboo grove the second time. We did see a lot of nests and I walked into one that was a foot off the ground. I had a lot of bees flying a round me, but luckily I did not get stung.

The next hike will be to the Harlem area on the southwest side of North Field. This was were the asphalt plant used to be located while the American's built North Field and the road system on Tinian during World War II. From the asphalt plant, I hope to walk to the cliff line near it and explore this area. I have never been to this cliff, so it will be a new place for us to explore. We will meet at 8 AM, on March 8, Saturday, at Grace Christian School.

Everyone Is Welcome On These Hikes.