North Cliff Mt. Lasu Hike - February 9, 2008

On February 9th, eight of us set off to explore the cliff below the Shinto Shrine on the top of Mt. Lasu. We were going to explore some previous sites (see the January 26, 2008, hike), but continue along the cliff to the north and west in to a new area.

In the picture below, the hikers, Masa, Mr. & Mrs. Takeuchi, Mr. Aoki, Erica, Judy, and Mitch, get ready to start the hike. Of course everyone wanted to ride in the back of my truck to the shrine on top of Mt. Lasu. I think the ride to and from where the hikes start is part of the fun, but I really don't know since I have to do the driving.

We first visited the Mt. Lasu Shinto Shrine. In the picture below Mitch, Mr. Aoki , Mr. & Mrs. Takeuchi, and Masa are enjoying the view from the cliff edge behind the shrine.

After a brief visit to the shrine, the group climbed up on to the radar hill, next to the shrine. While they went to the top of the hill, I had to go back to the to the old Japanese sign for the shrine to get my machete which I had left on the ground. After joining them on the hill, I asked if they want to see the base for the radar antenna. They all said yes. So we climbed down the west side of the hill to look at the radar's base. In the picture below Mr. Takeuchi stands next to the base plate for the radar antenna.

After visiting the shrine, we headed along the ridge, to the south, to an old road that goes below the cliff top. We followed the road until it was easy to leave it and follow the bottom of the cliff. Near where we had left the road are the remains of an old crane, pictured below.

From the crane, it was a short walk to the remains of the radar antenna. It is really hard to get a good picture of the antenna and I tried to take a video of it, which is below, but it does not do it justice. You really need to see the antenna in person to appreciate it. I have been planning a posting on this blog just about this radar and will do it soon.

I think the thing pictured below was the mount which held the radar antenna, but I will have to look more closely at the picture I have of the antenna from World War II to be sure. This mount was just past the antenna's location.

After leaving the mount, pictured above, I got a little confused and kept on getting too high on the cliff, almost near the top. So it was up and down, with some back tracking, until I decided that we had to go way down the slope. It was a fairly steep slope, but not too bad, as you can see in the picture below. At the bottom of this slope, we found an old wall that was not too high (maybe two feet high) and very long (50 or more feet). It was most likely pre-World War II, but I am not certain.

After getting to the bottom of the slope, we walked only a little ways before we had to climb back up to the cliff face. At the cliff face, we followed it to the north. In the picture below is Masa next to a large shell near the cliff. There are a lot of these shells at the base of the cliff and you get very used to them after awhile.

Just past the shell in the picture above is a cave that is full of 3-inch shells with one larger shell, as can been seen in the picture below. There are more pictures of this cave and the window cave posted on the January 28th hike.

Right next to the shell cave is the window cave. This cave has two windows built into the cliff's face and a third window in a large stone wall across its entrance. The picture below shows Mr. & Mrs Takeuchi and Mr. Aoki in the window in the stone wall.

The picture below show Mrs. Takeuchi looking out through the window in the stone wall.

Below are Judy and Masa entering the window cave.

At the window cave everyone took a break and lots of pictures.

When in the jungle, I usually try to follow marked trails. It is a lot easier than having to cut a path through the jungle. Most of these trails are made by coconut crab hunters, but others are made by people doing surveys. The U.S. military usually has archaeologists and biologist surveying the different areas of Tinian where they might do future training. These trails are usually marked with surveyor's tape or blazes on the trees. The shell below is one of the strangest trail markers that I have seen.
Pandanus is common in the jungle and I try to avoid large patches of it. Below are Mr. Aoki and Masa next to a small pandanus tree that shows off the pandanus prop root system real well. These roots are covered with spines. On this hike there was only one large patch of pandanus that we had to go through but it had a trail already cut in it.

As we walked in the jungle, we came to some fence posts made out of old train rails, most likely from the Japanese sugar train rail system.

Near the fence, above, was an old water tank, as shown in the picture below.

The picture below shows a closeup of the water tank that is pictured above.

Next to the water tank were some large cement structures, most likely foundations for large machinery. They had at least one inch mounting bolts in the concrete to hold something large down. The picture below shows one of these cement structures.

After the water tank, we kept following the cliff line but did not find much. It was fairly open and easy to walk through, except for some vines, as can be seen in the picture below.

We reached a place where the flag markers we had been following seemed to go every which way. I decided to have the group take a rest, as you can see Masa and Mr. & Mrs. Takeuchi doing in the picture below. While everyone rested, I went off to explore. I headed down the slope to see where the flags went. Finding nothing of interest, I decided to continue along the cliff line.

As we followed the cliff, the terrace we were on became narrower and narrower. At one point, we took a look over the edge of the cliff that was growing below us, just to see where we were. After looking carefully out into the distance, I saw the shoreline of Saipan. It was to the far right of our location. This meant that we had rounded the corner of the cliff and were headed west, with North Field below us.

At this point, I decided that the terrace was getting too narrow. Besides it getting narrow, we had not seen any thing of interest for awhile. So, I started to look for a way down the cliff that had grown up below us. It must have been over 50 feet tall. After a very short time, I found a path that I thought we could take safely to the bottom of the cliff. In the picture below Masa is helping Erica down the last part of the cliff.

As soon as we got to the bottom of the cliff, we started to find more shelters and caves that the Japanese had used during World War II. Below is Mr. Aoki in front of one of the shelters that the Japanese had dug into the cliff. From here we headed toward the west a little bit, following the cliff, but the undergrowth was getting heavy and we were running out of time (everyone was thinking about lunch). So, it was time to head back toward the shrine on the top of Mt. Lasu.

As we followed the lower cliff back to the shrine, we found a fairly large cave that was dug into it by the Japanese. In the picture below Masa is entering the cave.

The picture below shows everyone in the cave mentioned above.

We did a fairly quick walk back to the shrine. As we walked back, Mitch asked if we could visit a tunnel that I knew about south of the shrine. I said of course and set my GPS to find it. I had planned on trying to find the cliff side of the tunnel, but we ended up at the crane that we had seen at the beginning of the hike. At that point, I decided to use the road to get to the top of the cliff and follow ridge on the top of the cliff to the tunnel.

The tunnel is not easy to find and you really have to know what you are looking for. The tunnel's entrance is hidden behind a berm of earth. Since I have been to it a lot, it was no problem finding it (I also had a GPS position for it). In the picture below is Judy in the tunnel's entrance walking toward the exit.

The picture below shows me walking down the steep slope that is the entrance for the tunnel.

The picture below shows everyone getting ready to walk out of the cliff side exit for the tunnel. This exit is even hard to find because of the forest and the pile of rubble that makes a very large steep slope below the tunnel.

Right next to the tunnel is a second cave dug by the Japanese. Since I had been to this cave many times, I decided to rest, as can been seen in the picture below, as everyone else explored
it.

After exploring the cave and tunnel, we went back through the tunnel and followed the ridge line back to the Mt. Lasu Shinto Shrine. The picture below shows Judy on the trail right before it comes out at the shrine.

After quick walk down the grass path that forms the lower part of the shrine, we were back at the truck.

At the truck, everyone took a quick water break before loading up for the ride back to town.

This hike was interesting because of the shelters, structures and caves we found from and before World War II. The pace was a little fast because I was also exploring a new area and wanted to see what there was. But everyone had a good time and really enjoyed exploring.

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

As for the boonie bee count, it was only one. Erica got stung in an area where I had seen bees but no nest. There may have been a nest and that is why she got stung. We did see a few nests on the hike, but I had thought we had avoided them.

The next hike will be in Marpo Valley area. We will explore an old Japanese rail station from before World War II, when they farmed sugar cane on Tinian. After exploring this station, we will head north, trying to follow the old rail road. I hope to make this a short hike because of the Hot Pepper Festival this weekend. As always we will meet at 8 A.M. at Grace Christian School.

Everyone Is Welcome On These Hikes.

February 2008 Hikes

The following are the hikes for February. I am starting to run out of ideas, so if anyone has any place they would like to explore, let me know, please.

As always, all hikes meet at 8 AM at Grace Christian School on Saturday.

February 2, Saturday - Hike to the Latte site above Long Beach. This is one of the Latte sites on Tinian. On this hike we will visit sinkholes, short latte stones, and the main latte site. This will be an easy hike through tangantangan secondary forest. Be prepared for boonie bees.

February 9, Saturday - Mt. Lasu upper cliff line. We will drive to the Shinto Shrine at the top of Mt. Lasu. From here we will drop down below the cliff and follow it to the north and west. We will see the old Japanese radar and window cave on this hike (see the January 26 hike for pictures). After visiting the window cave, we will continue to explore the cliff line pass where I have been before. Depending on the time we finish or the group's desires, we may explore the foundations for the old U.S. Navy hospital.

February 16, Saturday - Marpo Valley Hike. We will explore an old Japanese train station near the asphalt plant in Marpo Valley. This is one of the best preserved stations I know of from this period. From here we will continue north until we reach the back road to the airport. I am not sure what we will find pass the railroad station.

February 23, Saturday - Hunt for the Latte site near the Tinian Shrine by Carolinas Heights. We will try to find the latte site again near the Shinto Shrine above Carolinas Heights. We tried to find it last month but were not successful (see the January 5th hike). I hope that we avoid the pandanus and most of the cliff's on this hike.

Everyone is welcome to join us on these hikes.
Just meet at Grace Christian School and be prepared to hike.

Tinian Shinto Shrine - Janurary 5, 2008

On Saturday, January 5, four of us set off to try to find the latte stone site near the Tinian Shinto Shrine. One of the first problems we had was getting a vehicle to get to the starting point. My truck was in the repair shop, so someone else needed to provide a ride. Judy had walked to the meeting place at Grace Christian School, and she does not own a car. Mitch and Erica showed up walking, but I asked them if they could provide a ride. They said yes, and we had to wait while they went home to get their car. After Mitch got her car, we loaded up and headed off to the Tinian Shrine.

The Tinian Shinto Shrine is the best preserved shrine on Tinian. It is just above the Carolinas Heights subdivision, but if you go the normal way to this subdivision, it is a little hard to find. Below, in the picture, is the sign at the shrine. Just behind the sign is the torii gate for the shrine.
There is a Japanese name post for the shrine near the torii gate, but according to Mitch, the sign is most likely not from this shrine. She thinks it is from a shrine that was in the old Tinian Town, which is now the current San Jose Village. I can't remember the name Mitch used for this shrine, but she was certain it was not named the Tinian Shinto Shrine.

(Just got a comment from Mitch, see the comment section to this posting, that says that the name of this shrine on an old Japanese map is Sumiyoshi Shinto Shrine. The Tinian Shinto Shrine is near the current church in San Jose Village. The base of the torii gate can be seen near the road that runs on the south side of the church.)

In the picture below are Erica, Mitch and Judy about halfway from the torii gate to the house at the top. The current house is made of cement, but when I first came to Tinian, in the early 1990's, the house was made of wood with a beautiful copper roof. Termites slowly ate the earlier house until it collasped.

While I was at the shrine, I marked its location on my GPS unit, just in case I happened to get a little confused in the jungle, which is easy to do. In the picture below, I am typing in the name for the shrine waypoint into my GPS unit. As for getting confused, when I first came to the island of Tinian, I happened to visit this shrine. I was fascinated by the jungle and decided to just walk a little ways into it to see what it was like. It took me over an hour to find my way out again!

As we headed off into the jungle, we followed a coconut crab hunting trail. It went through a lot of coconut palms with coconuts all over the ground, which you can see in the picture below. The trail was fairly easy to follow, but it soon ended in an area that was overgrown with vines and weeds, which I really did not want to travel through. So we turned around and headed back towards the shrine.

As we followed the coconut crab hunting trail, before turning back, we came upon the vine flowers we had seen on the Mt. Lasu trip. In the picture below, you can see two of the flower bunches and part of the vine they are growing from.
As we left the trail, we headed up the slope, which was fairly steep. There was one place that was really slippery and I had to help the other hikers up it. Below is a picture of me, Judy and Erica heading up the slope. It was not too bad of a hike up, except that it was steep.

In the picture below, you can see Judy and Erica climbing up the slope near the top of the cliff line.
The next thing I knew, we were at the top of the cliff. Below is a picture of the top of the Carolinas Plateau from a spot near were we had climbed cliff (not a real climb, more sort of a very steep walk up).
On the way to the cliff, we came across the saprophytic plants that we had seen on the hike to Mt. Lasu. In the picture below, you can see that these plants come in two color varieties, a red and white variety. While at Mt. Lasu, we only saw the white variety.
We followed the cliff line to the north. As we began to follow the cliff, we came upon several openings that allowed us to get great views of the village or Marpo Heights. Below is a picture of one of the openings with the village in the far distance. Below this picture is a zoomed picture of the village from the same location.

As we hiked along the cliff line we found a lot of stone walls, caves and defensive shelters that the Japanese had built during World War II. In the picture below is Erica helping Judy down one of the rocky areas near one of these WWII Japanese shelters.

In one of the shelters, we found the soles of shoes, as can be seen in the picture below. I have seen shoes in other shelters and caves on Tinian before. I really don't know why shoes were left in these areas. They might have been left behind when bodies were dragged out of these shelters or caves during World War II, but I really don't know.

In another shelter/cave we found what look like two electrical motors or generators and a hitch of some sort. They are visible in the picture below.

Here, in the picture below, is Judy climbing over a downed tree's roots that led into another shelter area. As you can see from Judy's appearance the hike was very strenuous with a lot of ups and downs. There were a few times where we had to turn around because the vines got too thick or the cliff was too steep.

We came upon an area where there was a huge overhang about 30 or 40 feet above us (see the picture below). At the base overhang were a lot of Japanese shelters. We followed the cliff line which led into a flat area with more shelters and caves.

Below is a picture of a six-inch shell that we found on the way to the shelters mentioned above, past the overhang. Someone had set it upon its base and it was also covered with vines and weeds until I removed them to walk past shell.
Once we got up into the shelter area above the overhang, I thought we would have to turn around, since I didn't see any other way down the cliff. I did a little exploring just to the north of the shelters and saw a small stone wall. Behind the stone wall was a tunnel that dropped down below the cliff. In the picture below you can see Judy entering the tunnel.

Beside the steep slopes, cliffs and loose rocks, the hike was also fairly hard because of the vines and pandanus plants. In the picture below, along with some of the other pictures in the hike posting, you can see some of the vines we had to work our way through.

In the picture below I am working my way around a pandanus plant. They have saw edged leaves and spines on their roots. I still have a small cut on the bridge of my nose from one of the leaves. I really did get tried of the pandanus leaves on this hike.
After the tunnel, we decided that it was time to head down to the road that I had spotted below the cliff we were on. The hike down was fairly hard and we had to climb down a few cliffs to get out. But, we also did find a few more interesting Japanese shelters on the way down.

As we neared the bottom, just after climbing down a fairly difficult cliff, we met someone that lived nearby. He had been out working on his farm and heard voices out in the jungle. He went to investigate and found us. Judy and I are talking to him in the picture below.
A short walk from where we met our guide out, we were out of the jungle and near his family's house. We asked him to take a picture of us as we ended this hike. In the picture below are the very tried hikers, Erica, Mitch, me, and Judy.

We didn't find the latte stone site on this hike. The best guess for its location is in the middle of our hike. I belive that we ended up circling it. According to the person that we met just before getting out of the jungle, the latte site is back toward the shrine. I will have to come up to this area by myself and see if I can find it. I can usually travel faster and easier through the jungle by myself.

As for the boonie bee count, it was only one, me. I got stung a total of six or seven times on two different occasions. I happened to have gotten stung below my left eye and had to put some Sting-Eze on it real fast. The Sting-Eze got rid of the pain and I think it even helped to stop the eye from swelling up too much. I did get stung once, a long time ago, on my upper lid on my left eye and it swelled the eye shut for a few days.

As always, I would like to thank Judy and Mitch for some of the additional pictures in this posting.

The next hike will be to the south end of Tachonga to visit the latte site there. We will also look at some Japanese bunkers and maybe explore a little bit more south from the bunkers. This is a fairly easy hike. The most difficult part is when we walk near the shoreline. For more information about this hike see October 13, 1007, hike. This hike will be on Saturday, January 12th. We will meet at 8 AM at Grace Christian School.

Everyone is welcome to join us on these hikes.