Let's Be Spontaneous For The Next 36 Miles

Yesterday at 0730 I decided to be spontaneous for one of the few times in my life and it turned out to be a great decision.

The original spontaneous plan was to ride my bicycle to Tumon, hike the coastline behind the Hilton, go see if I could find an overlook up on the cliff over there, and then ride my bike back to the barracks.

When the day was over, this is what had actually happened.


















I rode my bike to the cliff overlook first. It was way more awesome than I had hoped it would be. The old overlook sits right on the cliff face and the remains of an old cement railing are still present. This place would have been amazing to see when it was first built. If you hike passed the railing into the brush that you can see in the picture, the entire side of the rock was landscaped. Though mangled by weeds and other intrusive plants, the original landscapers ideas are still very present and the beauty still overwhelming. Even the side of the cliff seems to have been landscaped to a certain degree. As you follow the remaining railing to the right you find yourself on an old cement staircase.


















It follows the cliff as you descend down to, what used to be, another overlook much closer to the water. Though still beautiful, this place is no longer somewhere you would take someone to have a relaxing day. Now falling apart and covered in vines and trash, this place is probably only a brief glimpse of what it used to be. Maybe at some point in the future some passer by will not only realize its true potential, but also have the means to revive it. For now it remains one of Guam's numerous hidden treasures, slowly being lost to the memory of time.

After I left the overlook I rode my bike to the Hilton in Tumon. I stashed my bicycle in some weeds, since I don't ever carry a chain/lock, and then began my hike along the coastline. In the book, "A Field Guide to Caves and Karst of Guam" it mentions that there are some caves along this coastline. I was hoping that the tide was low enough to make it to some of these caves.




















Luckily for myself, the tide was very low. Along the way I found many small caves, still being created by the beating waves when the tide can reach them. There were two larger caves, but nothing extraordinary that would cause for a post of their own. The coastline that I hiked along was immensely beautiful. Much more so than I had expected. Usually the Guam coastline is filled with trash and debris from years of the military and individuals dumping their trash everywhere. But in this case, probably due to the tide that reaches to the cliffs when it is high, there was almost no trash at all. What I was left with was a completely natural view of Guam's coast and the ocean beyond that. Guam is the first place in the world I have been where hundred foot cliff walls continue directly to the ocean.




















Along the coastline I did find what I am almost one hundred percent sure is the fossil of a large clam. I have found two large clam shells and taken pictures of smaller clams and this is exactly what they look like. The "fossil" is attached to the rocks only three to five feet above sea level. It wouldn't have been that long ago in time that this area would have been submerged year round. I believe the chances of this being a clam fossil are highly likely. I wonder how long ago it was that this clam lived?

When I had hiked back to my bicycle I visited Devil's Punchbowl again. Devil's Punchbowl is an extremely large hole in the ground. I am unsure how it was created, but it remains one of Guam's easiest to access and still widely unknown locations. From there I continued to GPO where I had a Subway sub and watched the movie "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". I hadn't seen any trailers for the movie but heard that it was good so I decided to watch it. It was a very good movie. I would probably go see it again. While I was waiting for the movie to start I decided to go to Borders and pick up a small book that I can scan through while I waited for the movie to start. Forgetting I had to ride my bicycle over ten miles to get back to my barracks, I ended up buying four books. Almost as soon as I had purchased them, the realization of what I had just done occurred to me. Now I had to go buy a backpack so that I could put everything in it and wear that while I rode my bicycle back. It is a nice backpack though and I also bought some new socks at the same time so I'm not to disappointed with having to purchase the backpack anymore. The socks feel amazing and I have been in need of some new pairs lately.

After I left GPO I recovered my bike from yet another weed stash and rode back to the barracks. All in all it was a completely unplanned day that turned out extremely well. I was very happy that I made the original spontaneous idea to get out for a while. Now looking back on it, I can't think of any better way to spend a day and rack up thirty six miles on my list of achievements.

What we overlook...

I have been becoming increasingly upset with the current state-of-mind that the majority of the world’s population is in. Since the movie “Avatar” was released we have seen certain changes in people, but not the type that I would have hoped. I’m sure there are those out there that have been moved and touched by this movie in regards to our planet and its current state, but not like I would have hoped. Instead we have countries renaming mountain ranges the “Halleluiah Mountains” after the movie. People committing suicide because they know that this world will never be as beautiful as Pandora. But this world IS as beautiful as Pandora and in my eyes it is more so.

There is so much of our planet that gets over looked every single day. Do people realize that it is only within the last millennia that mankind has stopped relying solely on planet Earth? Just 1000 years ago the world as a whole was still completely green. I’m not saying that people didn’t inhabit the land or that they didn’t cut down trees and build homes, obviously they did. But they led lives which did not consume more then was required. They led lives that took only that which was required. Every day mankind redefines what it means to be a mass-consumer.

Am I saying that I would rather live in a world that is based on only possessing the essentials that one needs in order to survive? Not at all. Whether due to the fact that I was raised in a consumer society or the fact that I enjoy living comfortably I’m not sure, but I don’t think we need to try and reinvent the hunter/gatherer lifestyle. I do think though that we should start to honestly look out how much we consume and take from this planet without giving anything other than trash and pollution back. This planet still has so much potential. But if we do not see this and act soon, it may be too late to do anything to save that potential.

Avatar showed the people what this world was like before we tore down the “restricting” walls of nature. Every time that I go hiking I marvel at the beauty of this planet and the serenity that being alone in the wilderness can bring. Everything from the Ant with internal body parts that must be so small our brain can’t even fathom it being alive to the Great Redwoods and the Himalayas that are so massive that they make us feel like specks, this world is just begging for us to stand in awe. Yet day after day people live in their cities made of cement and stare for hours at fictional characters living out completely fictional lives, and these people are happy. They are content with the lives in which they have created for themselves. There are actually people that have lived their entire life in large cities and do not understand what would be so fun about hiking a mountain. What will their children think of the wild areas still left in the world? Will there be any hope for this world if we continue on the way we are?

Many people do not think that humans, small as we are, could ever have any major impact on this planet, but we can. Think of the world as a living, breathing organism. Every day people get sick. A virus that is smaller than the human eye can even see gets into our bodies, spreads, and causes chaos. These little tiny things that we can’t even see can cause our bodies to shut down forever if they are not strong enough. If these little things called viruses can have this effect on the human body, what effect can the human body have on planet Earth? There are currently over 7 billion of us shifting around on the planet’s surface. Consuming. Polluting. Destroying. How long before we really start to see the outcome of all we are doing here?

Take a good long look at planet Earth sometime; it’s what we overlook every single day.

Catacomb Underground River

Named for its spider web of tunnels, and not bodies, this underground river was "discovered" by myself today at the Naval Magazine. I put the word discovered in quotation marks due to the fact that at one point in the cave there are names carved into the wall. The last one that I can see is from 1995. But while it is evident that people at one point knew of and explored this cave, I don't believe anyone remembers it is there anymore. It is not referenced in any books that I can find and the path to it is completely overgrown.

From the entrance to the exit the river crosses 500 ft in a straight line. I have yet to measure the actual tunnel length from entrance to exit. I found the exit first and began hiking through it. It went on for quiet a while and eventually got larger and larger. I then turned a corner and was staring at jungle and the small river flowing in. The entrance is around 12 ft wide and 9 ft high.



Very cool!