Blue Mountain Pt. II

2:00am came very quickly this morning but what came even more quickly was 1:30am. I am happy to report that it was not my anxiety which woke me up 30 minutes before my scheduled alarm but rather the need to do something about all the water I drank before going to bed. Having answered the call of nature, I returned to my bed and tried to fall back asleep but wondered what the point would be. Would an extra 30 minutes really make a difference? I didn’t want to get up and start milling about and then wake up my companions so I simply lay there with my eyes open letting my mind work at a mile a minute.

Am I physically able to do this? I’ve never tried anything like this before. How hard could it be to hike a trail?

I have heard stories of how easy it is to get lost in these mountains. What the hell would I do if that happened? Could I really survive in the mountains if I had to?

If I collected a whole bunch of coffee beans, roasted them and saved them, I could probably save myself a whole bunch of money. It might not taste as good as other coffee but it’s the principle of the matter, right?

Someone had explained the reason the coffee is so good from Blue Mountain and how the whole system here works. The coffee beans grow on plants all over the mountainside and various estates exist at various altitudes. The higher the altitude, the more prominent and wealthy the estate and as a result, one particular estate (obviously located high up and with a vast swath of land) is the preeminent coffee here. You cannot buy it in stores, only at the estate and when any high falutin’ head of state comes to Jamaica, this is the coffee served. However, the way the mountain hike was structured, we would be going nowhere near anything like this. No, we were destined for backwoods and trails no wider than me, which isn’t very wide.

At 2:00am we all woke up and spent 20 minutes gathering our things before heading up to the bunk house. Before going to bed we had arranged for Vinny, an old Jamaican with a gray beard and few teeth, to have some coffee ready for us; a sort of jolt to send us on our way. Upon arrival at the bunk house we encountered a group who had just driven in from Montego Bay with plans to camp in the mountains for the weekend. Our conversation with them stirred Vinny out of his sleep and when he came down; he offered to make it saying it would, “soon come.”

“Vinny,” we said, “everybody in Jamaica says, ‘soon come.’ We need the coffee in five minutes.”

“No, mon. It take longa dan five minutes.”

“Forget it. We want to start walking.”

Our plan was to start the trail as soon as possible and summit by 5:30am; 6:00am at the latest. We were looking at a vertical gain of roughly 3000 feet and needed to do it in four hours. The actual distance to the summit was just less than six miles and seemed easily doable and so we started, us and the newly arrived group we had just met.

Fortunately for us this group had done the hike before so they knew the way to get started. Armed with flashlights and decked in rather light clothes (it was around 70 degrees when we started) we started up a series of switchbacks they call “Jacob’s Ladder.” There are 11 in total and they are fiercely steep, not to mention gravely and riddled with deep puddles. Had it not been for the flashlights and some quick maneuvering it would have been ugly early.

It took us about 30 to 40 minutes to get through the switch backs, longer if you include the 10 minute rest we took half way through them. Early on we noticed that the trek was going to be difficult for one of our crew so we carried their pack and did what we could to make sure they weren’t left behind. I was the first to carry the extra backpack and it turned out to be a blessing because it helped balance out my own backpack which, thanks to the added gravity, was having a field day with my shoulders. This extra weight helped keep me more upright.

Once the switchbacks ended the path began to narrow and soon we found ourselves following a trail which was sometimes exposed to the night sky and sometimes covered with a canopy of branches, leaves and vines. The moments when we could see the open sky were amazing; it was as like a million diamonds on a blanket of velvet. Whenever we stopped to rest we tried to do so in an open area so we could see the heavens. As the trail went on we sometimes saw different constellations and from them were able to ascertain which side of the mountain we were on and in which direction we were facing. We came to the half way point of the walk around 4:30am, a place called Portland Gap which was a good sized clearing that we could make out in the bright light of the moon.

The moon turned out to be a tremendous asset during the hike. In the open parts of the trail we were able to turn our flashlights off and see all we needed to see and it was odd to think of myself being able to clearly follow a path in the middle of the night with nothing but the moon to light my way. Though one of our group continued to experience difficulty, is was obvious no one was getting left behind; but I began to suspect that at our current pace, reaching the summit before sunrise might not be in the cards for us. We pressed on now that we were properly watered and snacked, and the opening of Portland Gap quickly gave way to a covered, slippery, dark, rocky and somewhat spooky trail. At times we could tell that a wrong step to the right or left would have us succumb to gravity in a way that would, well let’s just say it would put a damper on things.

Shortly into the second half of the hike half of our team forged on more quickly, still holding on to the possibility of making it to the top in time for the sunrise while two of us stayed further to the back. As things went forward the vertical gain began to increase and certain points became instantly steep which slowed us down greatly. As the trail pressed forward the canopy of trees and growth thickened which increased the slickness of the trail and its rocks. As 5:00am approached I concluded that getting to see the sunrise from the top of the mountain was definitely out. I began to become angry.

It was something I had wanted, something I had set my sights on and knew was in my grasp and now the sudden disappearance of it left me feeling betrayed. I stewed in this anger for about 3 minutes and then came to the realization of two things:

1. It’s not like this is the only sunrise I will ever see, God willing. There will be others.
2. I hold in high regard the chance to support people as they attempt to accomplish their goals and often the accomplishment of a group far outweighs an individual one. To quote my favorite line from the movie Little Miss Sunshine, “No one gets left behind!” (If you haven’t seen the movie, do yourself a favor and get on the good foot.)

Sunrise continued on as we continued up. I could see on the horizon clouds going through phases of orange and red; mountain ridges gaining more and more definition and stars fading away with every passing minute. The trail became better lit and eventually flashlights were put away. The peak of the mountain loomed above our heads, it was clear to see where our final destination lay and by this time I had managed to pull something in my right knee so every step was a painful one. Putting weight on it to push off and continue upward had me wincing every few seconds and we were only 500 feet from the top.

We pressed on and came around a corner which put us on an exposed side of the mountain and whoosh! A gust of wind came out of nowhere pressing my sweat-drenched clothes against my skin causing me to call out to the Almighty to ensure she was awake. 50 steps later I found myself at a clearing; the summit of Blue Mountain with the sun only a few degrees off the horizon.

6:34am. Success!