Michael: Western Trail Timeline

The cacophony
Of afternoon bird whistles
Signaled the rain’s end.

May 15, 2015

Today I’ll present a timeline with a few brief comments of the Western Trail hike to Volcan Baru we did this past Tuesday. We would love it if any family or friends would come and join us on a future hike to the peak. This will give you a glimpse of how you’ll spend your day.

The day before: Layout your gear, nutrition, and clothes. Test it out. My hydration pack bladder had a small leak that required patching; kind of a pisser but better to find out beforehand than on the trail. And far better than my own shrinking bladder beginning to leak, which probably isn’t too far away. 

5a.m. - Wake up, eat, dress, go to the bathroom, write and relax.

6:30 - Leave. Ran into neighborhood brother and sister, maybe 8 or 9 years old, in their school uniforms also headed to the bus. We raced to the bus and the old man surprised his younger competitors again. The boy and I smiled at each other several times on the bus and I believe we’re both hoping we’ve created a friendly rivalry.

6:45 - Stop at parque to transfer buses, get coffee and chocolate, eat my small cornflake and honey cookie.

7a.m. - Start up the farm road in Nuevo Bambito to the trailhead. Flat, slightly up hill walk on a beautiful country plain.

7:30 - Hit a junction in the road and head left. We jogged this section to the trailhead sign.

7:45 - Hit the large sign marking the beginning of the off road trail that begins slightly downhill before becoming a single track trail heading into the woods.

8a.m. - 1k and the end of the flat trail.
8:20 - 2k and we’re going steeply uphill sometimes grabbing on to roots to climb up.
8:30 -  Run into small camping area.
9:00 - 3k.
9:18 - Myriad of trees with fine witches hair moss draped over the branches;     magical.
9:40 - 4k; It’s either getting steeper, higher altitude, more fatigue or all three     because we’re slowing down.

10:30 - 5k; We’re no longer in the woods but out in the open. The footing     changes from a comfortable red hard pack, to loose volcanic sand and     rock. We’re on all fours at times and adjust our estimated time to the     peak given the changing conditions and how slow we did this     kilometer.

11:30 - Arrive at large flat camp area under the very visible transmitter     towers near the peak. The peak is marked by a large white cross.
    We followed a trail around the camp for a short distance before     doubling back and resuming our trek up the Western Trail.

11:50 - 6k.
12p.m. - Hit the junction with the jeep road that skirts around the towers         before descending into Boquete. It’s beginning to cloud over so we     descend a little bit before taking a Snickers/Mars Bar break.

12-2:15p.m. Jog the 13k jeep trail to the trail’s end at the junction of the     ranger’s station and the paved road in Volcancito. At points, the jeep     road was more of jeep tunnel with very tall dirt walls on either side.     We wondered how we’d get by a vehicle if it was on it’s way up. I     figure there must be some kind of gentleman’s agreement about     driving on this road, like only go up in the morning then wait to     descend until afternoon, but I’ll have to talk to a tour guide to find out     what the exact protocol is.
    We walked 2k on the new pavement surrounded by coffee plants with     jasmine like flowers before a very young and friendly bus driver     stopped for us.

Around 3p.m. - We stopped at Romero’s grocery store in Boquete for some     snacks that we ate while waiting for the bus into David. We arrived in     David at about 4:30 and hopped on the Cerro Punta bus.
6:30 - We had vegetable fried rice and I had a pineapple batido ( a fruit/milk     shake) at     Mary’s Restaurant in Volcan.
7p.m - We take a taxi home.

Another great adventure and long day of travel here in Chiriqui, Panama. Kimme’s seems to be a lot more excited to get out there and do it again, than I am. I can see maybe twice a month, though I am dreaming about variations of this trip and wondering about how much I could cut the time down if I pushed it.