Boiling Lake Hike

This post is a little late, but it's one that I must write about!!!

Before the break, one of my very good friends said that she wanted to do the Boiling Lake hike here in Dominica! I'd never heard of it before and I said that I would like to do it too! So we planned for it, and wanted to do a kid swap day. That way couples could go with their significant other and enjoy the hike! Well, my friend ended up going home early and we ended up planning it for later in the break when she wouldn't be here anyway. THEN, Spencer got sick and Fi Dan kindly volunteered to stay with the boys so that I could go. Which worked out because my other good friend came along and her hubby ended up staying home with their kid. 

So the week that we were getting ready to go on the hike , I started hearing crazy things about this hike. Like that it takes 8 hours to get there and back. 8 HOURS. And that it's the 2nd hardest hike in Dominica. I was getting a little nervous, but I thought it would be ok.

So on Monday May 5, 2014, we left around 6 am and got to the head of the trail around 7:30. And so we started.

This is Stanley! (Our Branch Presient) Taran's hubby. I think I would still be lost in the mountains of Dominica if it weren't for his help! Thanks Taran for letting Stanley assist us! 

Me and Amber! We were each other's husbands that day. 

Oh....I look at this picture and I just think to myself, "JUST TURN BACK GIRLS!" 

We started on this trail and it was fun...for the first 10 minutes. Then I was dying! There were millions of stairs and the stairs just got muddier and steeper! 

Taking a rest. Amber and I were the slowest of the group.

It's beautiful! But it was painful getting there!

So the first part of the hike you are basically climbing the mountain. You are just climbing a man made nature stair the whole time. And you just feel like dying! Here we are at the top of the mountain.

The girls! Taran, me, Amber and Kate. :)

The 2nd part of the hike is climbing down the mountain to get to the OTHER mountain where the Boiling Lake is. This part was kinda scary because you had to basically mountain climb across apart of the mountain. 

Going down.....

down.....

down.....

down....

scootching down....

Stanley climbing down.

Here we've reached the bottom of the mountain...I think they call it "The Valley of Desolation"

It was so stinky due to the sulfur...like rotten eggs. 

Here we go again. They said the Lake was just up the mountain and around the corner....

Here's Amber...she's about done with the hike and we weren't even to the lake yet. 

The group left us....we just sat for a good 10 minutes deciding whether to keep going or not. 

WE MADE IT!

Boiling Lake...wow.

Our hubbies bought us the same snack. 

There it is...a boiling lake. 

Hiking back. I think I may have cried a time or two on the way back because I was SO tired. And my legs were shaking. Let's just say, I was not prepared for this hike! At this point I was wishing that I had volunteered to stay home with Spencer and the boys instead. I think Fi Dan would have enjoyed this hike a lot more than I did! Some of us even talked about someone falling down and breaking their leg so that they could helicopter us out. I thought it was a good idea so I said, "I volunteer as tribute!" Luckily we made it back without anything breaking....just really tired legs. 

We found walking sticks. 

My poor legs...dirty and dead tired. 

Our faces say it all...never again. 

We got back to the trail head around 4:20...so it took us close to 9 hours. LOL....longer than the 8 hours I had heard about. But I am just glad we made it back. 

We were SO happy to be in the transport and heading back home to our families!