This weekend, Josh and I and a friend from church, Lonnie, decided to take a hike recommended by our trusty guidebook, The Best Tracks on Guam. The hike is entitled Waterfall Valley, and it supposedly leads the way to five “outstanding” waterfalls. Well, our trusty guidebook let us down this time. We did the entire hike without realizing that we had passed a single waterfall! What the book fails to impart to its readers, is that this hike is to be done at the end of the rainy season, 
when there is actually water to fall in the waterfalls. Apparently, these “outstanding” waterfalls dry up when they are not inundated with rain. So, while we did see some pretty scenery, our great waterfall adventure really turned out to be a great disappointment!
We couldn’t just go home after that—we were primed to see and swim in some waterfalls! So, we decided to give our guidebook a second chance, and we skimmed through it to find another hike involving waterfalls. We did find one, and we decided to give it a go. It was entitled Inarajan Falls (Inarajan is a small village in the south of Guam), but it was really the subtitle that convinced us to go for it—The Best Waterfall in the Western Pacific. Surely, the best waterfall in the Western Pacific wouldn’t dry up…would it? We were rather dubious after our recent disappointment, but we figured at the very least we’d get some exercise! So, off we went…
This was a rather lengthy hike (5 miles, to be exact!), so we had plenty of time to ponder the possibility of another dried up waterfall. This line of thought was exacerbated by the fact that much of the hike took place through red hillsides known as
The Dust Bowl. (Cornthwaites, think Hume Lake…our feet will never look clean again!) We continued on, however, and found some reprieve in the crossing of several rivers, the Fintasa River, the Nelansa River, and the Topony River. (Personally, I would have been tempted to call them streams, and this only increased my fear of a dried up waterfall!) We also passed a lone caribou, a beautiful hillside of palm trees, and a rather overgrown collection of latte stones. Finally, we reached the Upper Inarajan Falls. The best part of this waterfall was finally sitting down to rest and have a snack! Now, don’t get me wrong, there was water and it was falling, and it was even quite pretty, but I can’t say it was worth 2+ miles of hiking through the dust. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our rest, put to bed some of our fears of dried up waterfalls, and pressed onward. Finally, we reached Inarajan Falls, and we were thrilled to discover that it was well worth a 2.5 mile journey! It was rather difficult to access, as you had to shimmy down a slippery 50 foot plunge with only the assistance of a well-placed rope, but it was definitely an experience worth having. Standing at the base of the falls truly felt like standing in a tropical paradise! And, of course, standing in the falls was extremely refreshing. 
(Our feet never seemed to get any cleaner, but at least we were able to cool off!) The water pressure was fairly intense, so it was almost like getting a free massage…we could have stayed there all day long. (I have a hunch that at the end of the rainy season you won’t even be able to get into the waterfall itself because the pressure will simply wash you over the edge of the cliff…we’ll have to check that out!) Anyway, after some welcome relaxation, it finally came time for us to pack up and pack out, so we took a few more pictures, and off we went.
We thought our journey back would be fairly easy (after all, we weren’t worrying about dried up waterfalls anymore!), but we were oh so wrong. Lonnie and I were the unfortunate recipients of some rather uncomfortable blisters from our shoes, so when an old Chamorro man bounced by in a pickup and asked if we wanted a lift, we gladly accepted. He wasn’t going to the same place we were, but any time off of our feet was greatly appreciated, and he said he would drive us as far as he could before he began going a different direction. Unfortunately, this small kindness began our downfall. When we got out of the truck, we couldn’t quite find the right path…and in fact, we didn’t find it for another hour or so (emphasis on so!). We’re not really sure what happened, but we were quite lost. Now, we were not lost in the sense that we had no clue where we were, but lost in the sense that we had no clue how to cross the savannah of very sharp sword grass to get back to where we wanted to be! Ultimately, we decided to bite the bullet and just cross the savannah. It couldn’t be that bad, right? WRONG! Sword grass is very true to its name, and I hope I never encounter it again, at least not in shorts. The sharp grass was bad enough, but we also encountered marsh so deep that Josh actually disappeared to his waist at one point. That wasn’t going to make for quick going, so we tried a different route.
This route included a rather icky, stagnant river that was only to be crossed by swimming. It was better than wading through the marsh, but only barely. So, we tossed our bags across the bank, took the plunge, and scrambled out of the nastiness as quick as possible. We then continued to fight the sword grass until we finally reached our own trail. The only good part about this addition to the hike was that we didn’t have to worry about encountering random poisonous snakes or other critters in the marsh, river, and sword grass. Guam is almost completely free from such predators (that would explain the infinite number of toads that live in our neighborhood, but that’s another story for another day…).
So, in conclusion, we hiked, we played, we got lost, and we survived. Just another day on our tropical island!
when there is actually water to fall in the waterfalls. Apparently, these “outstanding” waterfalls dry up when they are not inundated with rain. So, while we did see some pretty scenery, our great waterfall adventure really turned out to be a great disappointment!We couldn’t just go home after that—we were primed to see and swim in some waterfalls! So, we decided to give our guidebook a second chance, and we skimmed through it to find another hike involving waterfalls. We did find one, and we decided to give it a go. It was entitled Inarajan Falls (Inarajan is a small village in the south of Guam), but it was really the subtitle that convinced us to go for it—The Best Waterfall in the Western Pacific. Surely, the best waterfall in the Western Pacific wouldn’t dry up…would it? We were rather dubious after our recent disappointment, but we figured at the very least we’d get some exercise! So, off we went…
This was a rather lengthy hike (5 miles, to be exact!), so we had plenty of time to ponder the possibility of another dried up waterfall. This line of thought was exacerbated by the fact that much of the hike took place through red hillsides known as
The Dust Bowl. (Cornthwaites, think Hume Lake…our feet will never look clean again!) We continued on, however, and found some reprieve in the crossing of several rivers, the Fintasa River, the Nelansa River, and the Topony River. (Personally, I would have been tempted to call them streams, and this only increased my fear of a dried up waterfall!) We also passed a lone caribou, a beautiful hillside of palm trees, and a rather overgrown collection of latte stones. Finally, we reached the Upper Inarajan Falls. The best part of this waterfall was finally sitting down to rest and have a snack! Now, don’t get me wrong, there was water and it was falling, and it was even quite pretty, but I can’t say it was worth 2+ miles of hiking through the dust. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our rest, put to bed some of our fears of dried up waterfalls, and pressed onward. Finally, we reached Inarajan Falls, and we were thrilled to discover that it was well worth a 2.5 mile journey! It was rather difficult to access, as you had to shimmy down a slippery 50 foot plunge with only the assistance of a well-placed rope, but it was definitely an experience worth having. Standing at the base of the falls truly felt like standing in a tropical paradise! And, of course, standing in the falls was extremely refreshing. 
(Our feet never seemed to get any cleaner, but at least we were able to cool off!) The water pressure was fairly intense, so it was almost like getting a free massage…we could have stayed there all day long. (I have a hunch that at the end of the rainy season you won’t even be able to get into the waterfall itself because the pressure will simply wash you over the edge of the cliff…we’ll have to check that out!) Anyway, after some welcome relaxation, it finally came time for us to pack up and pack out, so we took a few more pictures, and off we went.We thought our journey back would be fairly easy (after all, we weren’t worrying about dried up waterfalls anymore!), but we were oh so wrong. Lonnie and I were the unfortunate recipients of some rather uncomfortable blisters from our shoes, so when an old Chamorro man bounced by in a pickup and asked if we wanted a lift, we gladly accepted. He wasn’t going to the same place we were, but any time off of our feet was greatly appreciated, and he said he would drive us as far as he could before he began going a different direction. Unfortunately, this small kindness began our downfall. When we got out of the truck, we couldn’t quite find the right path…and in fact, we didn’t find it for another hour or so (emphasis on so!). We’re not really sure what happened, but we were quite lost. Now, we were not lost in the sense that we had no clue where we were, but lost in the sense that we had no clue how to cross the savannah of very sharp sword grass to get back to where we wanted to be! Ultimately, we decided to bite the bullet and just cross the savannah. It couldn’t be that bad, right? WRONG! Sword grass is very true to its name, and I hope I never encounter it again, at least not in shorts. The sharp grass was bad enough, but we also encountered marsh so deep that Josh actually disappeared to his waist at one point. That wasn’t going to make for quick going, so we tried a different route.
This route included a rather icky, stagnant river that was only to be crossed by swimming. It was better than wading through the marsh, but only barely. So, we tossed our bags across the bank, took the plunge, and scrambled out of the nastiness as quick as possible. We then continued to fight the sword grass until we finally reached our own trail. The only good part about this addition to the hike was that we didn’t have to worry about encountering random poisonous snakes or other critters in the marsh, river, and sword grass. Guam is almost completely free from such predators (that would explain the infinite number of toads that live in our neighborhood, but that’s another story for another day…).So, in conclusion, we hiked, we played, we got lost, and we survived. Just another day on our tropical island!
1 comment:
Inarajan falls looks amazing! I always wanted to check out the Waterfall Valley, care to give me some directions? WHere does the trail start?
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