It’s the Climb

I did a thing. 

Better said, WE did a thing, because I can't think of many others who would climb Pico Duarte, the highest peak in the Caribbean, with me. 

L to R: Tirzah (LAC Regional Team), me, Ashley (PR). 

Everything I had heard/read about the hike indicated it was intense and wasn't wrong. I ran 10k this morning, as I do multiple times per week, but "the climb" kicked me in the pants; my quads and calves didn't fully recover until a few days after we finished. 

It wasn't just the climb that was rough; each of us had a hurdle along the way: 

• Exactly a month ago, Tirzah twisted her ankle walking in the neighborhood. 
• Ashley's direct flight into STI was delayed and then cancelled, so she wound up flying into Punta Cana and taking a pricey private shuttle halfway across the island in the middle of the night to get here in time.

And not one to miss out on the fun, 

• I got a flat tire on the way to Base Camp last Tuesday. 

I noticed a funny noise pulling into the gas station for a routine fill-up, so Tirzah got out to do a walkaround and broke the bad news to me. Thankfully, there's a gomero on every corner in these parts, so RD$350 and about half an hour later, we were back on our way. I just bought my tires in July, so they're still under warranty and I'm hoping the dealership will replace the compromised one for free. 

We got to Base Camp in the early evening, with enough time to get ourselves organized before walking the few blocks to Ramona's restaurant where we'd eat twice more by the time all was said and done. 

Carbo loading!

The vista from the balcony boded well for the next few days. 

Nighty night!

Hiking Day 1: La Cienaga > La Compartición | 18 km

Tirzah instituted the custom of taking daily morning and evening selfies. None of us had the energy to get out of our sleeping bags to pose after 11 hours on the trail! Side note: notice how bundled up we are. In the Dominican! None of us had cellular data to check a weather app, but I'd believe it was, quite literally, freezing.

The breakfast bell rang at 5:30 am at the same restaurant where we had dinner. All of us were pleasantly surprised to see Nutella for the rolls! Afterwards, we filled our hydration packs, stuffed the provided lunches in our backpacks, and set off. 

The first 4.6 km (to the first rest area, Los Tablones) were, in large part, deceptively flat. We started by crossing the same river that cuts through Santiago, the Yaque del Norte, and then paralleled it for a while. 

Why hello, red clay. 

And pines!

Pictures can't depict how unrelentingly uphill the vast majority of day 1 was. Of my 38,000+ steps, easily 30,000 of them were earned on a steady incline, steep at times, with lots of loose rock. 

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when we got to the blessed Promised Land of our camp for the night around 6 pm. I did, however, scarf down our hot soup amuse bouche. This was the view from the 6-person tent we shared. 

Dinner came later, around 7:30. The kitchen facility was a sight to behold - "guides" (a bit of a misnomer as these hardworking individuals doubled as porters and chefs) from multiple tour outfitters cooking over wood fires by the light of their headlamps. 

Hiking Day 2: La Compartición > Pico Duarte > La Compartición | 10 km roundtrip

Given the option to depart at 3:30 am for sunrise atop Pico Duarte, we declined, and I have zero regrets. Sunrise from the relatively short (~3 hours) walk there set the valley ablaze with color. 

We'd been told that the mules that carried our belongings - and Ashley, much of the time - couldn't do the final kilometer, so I was mentally prepared for it to be much steeper and more difficult than it was. You do, however, have to get on hands and knees to scale the boulders at the very top. 

At la cumbre de las Antillas (the top of the Antilles) with one of our guide/porter/chefs, Yoeli. 

Ashley and I on the way back down to Valle de Los Lilís, where we'd abandoned the mules. We basked in the sunshine there for about an hour and enjoyed what we thought was lunch. 

Only to find out there were tacos later! 

Having gotten back to camp in the early afternoon, we played cards (on a dominoes tabletop set atop a 5-gallon bucket) and had plenty of time to get to know some of our trail friends: 

• a British family with three sweet, talkative kids; 
• a Norwegian couple spending their Christmas vacation in the tropics; 
• a free spirited New Yorker who was down to his last can of beans and wasn't sure what his next stop was; and 
• a kind but stoic IT guy from Washington, D.C., who'd spent the preceding week at a resort in Punta Cana with his far less outdoorsy family. 

Hiking Day 3: La Compartición > La Cienaga | 18 km

Fancy breakfast before starting our descent in the dark (my headlamp was dead so I borrowed Ashley's). I have to confess I was [needlessly, it turned out] worried about making it back to Base Camp in time to make it back to the city by dark, so Tirzah and I BOOKED it. 

We had to pause to document the sunrise and views we'd been too beat to appreciate on the way in, but otherwise our longest break was ~10 min. for snacks (fresh pineapple!) at the Alto de la Cotorra rest stop. 

I promise you the last 1.3 km was longer than 1300 m, and I was ready to murder whoever put a hill just before the final river crossing AND stairs up to the parking lot, but we made it. I've never been happier to see Ashley. Tirzah and I made it in 7 hours on foot; she started later and still beat us on her mule. Without even changing clothes, our first order of business was a real meal - guess where. I was ravenous and therefore delighted to see the tuna pasta salad, rice & beans, and cabbage slaw Ramona brought out, and even more delighted when she reemerged with tostones and chicken. 

All three of us needed a minute to get unpacked, cleaned up, and reconnected to the outside world after the ~2 hr. drive home, but we regrouped for a PJ-clad Friday movie night...that ended midway through the movie at what had become our usual bedtime of 8:30 pm. I'll just say it: the hike was hard, physically and mentally. It's good to prove to yourself you can do hard things, though. I feel accomplished having conquered something outside my comfort zone that only an elite group can say they've done, and I did it with two amazing friends and sisters in Christ. An adrenaline-fueled Tirzah suggested we do more nearby hikes (but later told me "next year"...2 days away at the time, I might point out...when I indicated a sign for another one I want to do on the way home). Ashley learned she hates hiking. Then there's me. I don't have any more multi-day treks in mind, but my browser history can confirm that I was pricing hiking poles on Amazon Saturday morning...

Until next time, blessings in Christ!