Michael: Volcan Baru

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Sitting out the rain
The small lemon and gray bird
Is perched on the wire.

Kimme and I, like most people, are creatures of habit. So to break things up we try to do a new adventure a month; either a new trail, or race, or trip, maybe even a visit to a dance studio ( We won’t be searching for dance studios any time soon.).

Really, our first few months here have seemed like an ongoing vacation where just about everyday was an adventure. But now going into our 4th month, we’ve kind of settled into a few favorite trails. There are, however, a few trails and places in this area of Panama we’d like to check out before we go back for a stateside visit. We haven’t been to either the Pacific or Caribbean coast and we haven’t been to the highest point in Panama, the nearby Volcano, that towers over the region at 3500 meters.

There are two approaches to the summit; the jeep road from the Boquete side, or the Western Trail from the Volcan side. We’re going to go out for a few hours on the Western Trail today. We have no expectations of making it to the summit. Today it would be foolish to even try as we’ve heard it can be pretty brisk up there and we don’t have the packs with the capacity to carry the additional layers we would need.

We’ve also been told that this can be a pretty tricky trail to navigate, which isn’t exactly our forte, so we’d be best off hiring a guide. But we always like to see for ourselves the first time out. We won’t get lost because we have no specific objectives. If we find the trailhead and walk for a few hours, we’ve accomplished today’s mission. We’ll also be sure to mark any trail junctions we come across to  make sure we know which way to go if we end up doubling back.

This also gives me a chance to try out my new trail shoes and vest pack. Give an initial sketch tomorrow of my first impressions. Tried my new road trainers yesterday and was pleased with the first break in run.

But now it’s time to fold the Disneyland Attraction like map up of the highlands of Chiriqui, hop on the bus, point out the little Waldo hiker guy on the map to our bus assistant and hope we don’t have to fumble around for too long to find the trailhead once they drop us off.