St Vincent – May 31, 2006
Our next stop is the island of St Vincent and it is at its south end that we go ashore and put into action one of the more foolhardy ideas that has ever popped into my frequently off camber mind. A guide book of the island says that it’s possible to climb an active volcano, called Mt. Soufries (Mount Sulfur in English, the name a hint what lies ahead), using one of two paths, called harder and easier by the author. I fail to note that the word easier is not a synonym for easy, and so trouble ensues.
The hike is three and a half miles in length, challenging but less than 18 holes of golf. Could be fun, something I’ve not done before. It also ascends in that length about 3000 feet, and that is the hard part. Though I have climbed every mountain Florida has to offer, I am unprepared for the up-ness of this trek. It doesn’t help that the narrow trail winds through a freaking rain forest. At the half way mark, I flay myself prone across a bamboo bench gasping for air, my legs turned to jelly. As I pray for deliverance, the guide announces with sadistic pleasure that the next half begins the climb upward. “Begins”!!
Nearing the top, I can advance no more than 5 or 10 yards without having to stop and heave my lungs in search of tiny doses of oxygen before continuing. The last quarter mile or so takes us across fields of loose sediment. Now out of the forest, we are in the clouds with wind gusts to 40 knots and visibility limited to 20 yards or so. Finally, at the summit we peer into a crater with sheer walls rising 1000 feet from its floor. Thanks to the heavy clouds, there is no view of the surrounding countryside. Sitting there trying to resume normal breathing, freezing in the clouds, exhausted, utterly spent, I think to myself, “Now that was a damn fool thing to do. I’ll stick to beaches and cold beer from now on.”