Nahna Laud

 This past weekend a few of my fellow volunteers and I hiked Nahna Laud. Nahna Laud translates to "Old Mountain" in Pohnpeian. It is the second highest mountain in Pohnpei. We left early Saturday morning and met our guide Weltchin in the small village of Salapwuk in the municipality of Kitti. When we arrived Weltchin was asleep under a tree with a cigarette in his mouth. We woke him from his slumber and he quickly rallied the other guides that would lead us on our trek through the dense jungle. As soon as we embarked on our two day journey it  began to rain, and when it rains here it pours. The mountainous interior of the island receives approximately 400 inches of rainfall per year, making it one of the wettest places on earth. We hiked for a few hours and broke for lunch at one of the many waterfalls. Now hiking here is a little different from what I'm used to. There are no marked trails, and at some points it didn't even look like we were on a trail. Our guide was constantly cutting away branches and vines to continue our trek through the jungle. After a few breaks and about six hours of hiking we reached our shelter for the night. Our shelter was a large rock overhang on the side of the mountain about an hour from the summit. We set up camp for the night and our guides collected large fern leaves to use as bedding. We hung out for the rest of the afternoon, and we were treated to freshwater shrimp that our guides had caught on the way up. I retired to bed fairly early in the night but had a restless sleep, and for one of the first times I was actually cold in Pohnpei. I was awake at first light the next morning and we had a slow start to the day, not pushing for the summit until about 9 a.m. The final stage of the climb was the steepest part of the climb, and the most exhausting. We reached the summit in about two hours. The top of Nahna Laud was absolutely beautiful, I could see the entire east side of the island, and all the reefs that surround the island. We had lunch at the top and started our descent at noon and didn't reach the bottom until sunset. Nahna Laud was quite the adventure and I look forward to hiking it again sometime this year.