October Hikes

The following will be the October hikes for the Tinian Hikers.

For all hikes meet on Saturday at 8:00 AM at Grace Christian School

• October 13 - Hike to the Latte Stone site at the south end of Tachonga Beach. We will continue south of the latte stone site to look for some Japanese bunkers and an old American dump site from World War II. This hike should take about two hours.

• October 20 - Time to go look at a new area. On this hike we will go to Chiget Beach up by North Field. From here, we will follow the cliff line toward the southwest. I really don't know what we will find, since this will be the first time I have ever followed this cliff line for any distance. This cliff line is a result of a fault that runs from Tinian to Saipan. There is no telling what will be found along its base.

• October 27 - On this hike we will go hunting for the Latte Stone site at Long Beach. There used to be a trail that went to this latte stone site, but it has not been maintained for years, and most likely does not exist anymore. I hope to find the large latte stone set that used to be will back from the shoreline.

Again, if anyone has any suggestions for hikes, please let me know. Just leave a comment to one of my postings.

Lion's Head Hike - October 8, 2007

Six of us set off to Lion's Head this Monday, October 8, 2007, at around 7:45 AM. On the trip to Lion's Head were Mony, Stacy, Bruce, Leon, Dan and me. Lion's Head is a large rock promontory that sticks out over Marpo Valley, from one of the lower terraces on the Carolinas plateau.

Here is the group on our first rest break. In the picture from left to right are Mony, Leon, me, Stacy, Bruce and Dan.


The next picture shows us traveling through the jungle on the way to Lion's Head.


On the way to Lion's Head are a lot of remains from World War II. In many places the ground is littered with bottles and other items form the Japanese. We found many stone walls and other defensive structures built by the Japanese soon after the American invasion of Tinian. Below, Dan stands next to a broken glass bowl that we found on this hike.


Every time I climb Lion's Head it is a different adventure. The last two times I went up to Lion's Head, I had to only climb one 30 foot cliff. This time we had to climb three cliffs to get Lion's Head. One of the cliffs must have been over 50 feet high. In the following picture we are climbing one of the cliffs on the way to Lion's Head.


Below is a picture of Marpo Heights taken from the top of the second cliff.

After climbing the second cliff, we started to go slightly downslope through the jungle. I knew from past hikes to Lion's Head that we were suppose to stay level or go slightly upslope. So, I decided to climb a sour orange tree to get my bearings. From the top of the orange tree, I could see that we were one terrace below Lion's Head and about 100 yards northeast of it. We hiked over to Lion's Head with only one small break from the orange tree. As we arrived at the base of Lion's Head, we had to climb one last cliff of about 20 feet to get to it.

Below is a picture of the hikers on top of Lion's Head.


Lion's Head offers one of the best views of Tinian and Saipan. The following picture shows the Pina plateau with Saipan in the background.


This picture, below, shows the Mount Lasu area on Tinian.


The following picture is of San Jose village taken from the top of Lion's Head.



Lion's Head has another rock promontory to the east of it. This eastern promontory cannot seen from the Marpo Valley area of Tinian. The eastern promontory is slightly higher than Lion's Head.

The following picture shows Dan taking a picture of Mony and Stacy on Lion's Head, while Leon and Bruce start to climb up to the eastern promontory.


Leon and Bruce sitting on the eastern promontory, with Saipan in the background.

Me, Leon, and Bruce on the eastern promontory and Mony on Lion's Head.
The view south from the eastern promontory towards the Suicide Cliff area.
The following picture offers a good view of the eastern side of Lion's Head, with the Pina plateau in the background.
Mony and Stacy on Lion's Head with Marpo Heights in the background, taken from the eastern promontory.
Mony is getting ready to dive off Lion's Head. No he did not dive, but I wonder how Stacy's picture turned out.
After spending more then a half hour on top of Lion's Head, it was time to hike back to the truck. This time we only had to climb down two cliffs and walk over a lot of rocks.
As we walked over broken rocks, we spotted an entrance to a cave that I know I have not been in before. We threw some rocks in it and believe it to be fairly deep. I marked the location with my GPS unit and will have to come back to explore it another time. Below is a picture of the cave's entrance, looking straight down into it.



We finally make it back to the truck around 12 noon. Another good hike for all. Only three of us got stung by bees, me with the most, at least 12 stings. We all enjoyed the hike and the adventure that it provided. Lion's Head is well worth the hike just for the great viewpoint it offers of Tinian and Saipan.

For the next hike, I think we will take it a little easier. We will be going to the latte stone site at the south end of Tachonga Beach. While there, we will explore some Japanese bunkers and an old American dump site from World War II. Meet at Grace Christian School at 8 AM on October 13, Saturday.

I will be listing the next month's hikes soon. Do you have any suggestions of places you would like to go to or see? Please add them as comments.

Walking Tour of North Field

Sunday, September 23, six hikers had a fairly enjoyable walking tour of North Field, on Tinian. North Field was the largest US Army airbase, in the world, during WWII. Before the US Seabees constructed North Field, it was a Japanese airbase. Not much remains of the US installation, except the four huge runways and the parking areas for the B-29 bombers. From the Japanese period, there are ruins of many buildings, which is what we were off to explore.

The hike started at the old Japanese Command Post.


From the command post, we followed the road to the trail that leads to the old Japanese power station. Amanda, my daughter, is seen in the following picture climbing on the old water cooling tanks used to cool the power generators.


From the power plant, we followed the road past the Atomic Bomb Pits to the trail that leads to the old Japanese fuel bunker. One walks down a canyon until a massive doorway is seen. Inside the doorway is a huge building dug into the bedrock. Its full of burned out 55-gallon drums.


From the fuel bunker, we climbed the side of the canyon to get on top of the bunker. After getting on top of the bunker, we walked cross country to the bomb bunker. This was the most dangerous, but the most interesting, part of the hike. It was dangerous because of the numerous boonie bee (paper wasp) nest we kept encountering.


We also got to see the Tinian Monarch up close. It is a small bird that is only found on Tinian.

Making it through the jungle, we came out on the trail that leads to the old Japanese bomb bunker. On the trail there were many bird nests. During WWII, this bunker was blown up by the US bombing of Tinian before the invasion. It was just like the fuel bunker, when first constructed, but today it lays in ruins.

The picture above shows the doorway to the bomb bunker.

In the above picture, Stacy is standing next to the remains of the roof of the Japanese bomb bunker.

After the Japanese bomb bunker, we continued through the jungle toward the Atomic Bomb Pits. We came out on the road that goes around North Field, about an eighth of a mile from the Atomic Bomb Pits. It was a pleasant walk along the road from the Atomic Bomb Pits to our van parked next to the Japanese Command Post. Overall, everyone enjoyed this hike, despite the bee stings.

September Hikes

The newly organized hiking club on Tinian will be having its first hike next Sunday, September 23. We will be doing a walking tour of North Field. We will walk from the Command Post to the Japanese Power Plant. From the Power Plant, we will walk to the old Japanese Fuel Storage Bunker. From this bunker, we will go cross country to the old Bomb Storage Bunker and on to the Atomic Bomb Pits. After the Bomb Pits we will walk back to the Command Post.

To join us on this fairly easy hike, meet at Grace Christian School at 3:30 PM.

The next hike will be on October 8th, to Lion's Head. Lion's Head is a rock outcropping on the Carolinas plateau that overlooks Marpo Valley. It is a more strenuous hike, but worth it because of the great view from Lion's Head. Because of the nature of this hike, it will be limited to only 8 or 10 people.

Please call me at 433-0625 if you want to join this hike. We will be meeting for the Lion's Head hike at Grace Christian School at 7:30 AM.

The next monthly meeting will be on Saturday, October 13th. I hope to post pictures of the above two hikes by that time and more information about this hiking club.

If you happen to be visiting Tinian during one of our hiking days, you are more than welcome to join in.