Boiling Lake

Sunday, Ryan and I hiked Boiling Lake on a trip that was sponsored by the Wellness Club. One guidebook states that Boiling Lake is one of two places you 'must see' when you travel to Dominica. The other is Tralfagar Falls, which you'll remember we saw at the beginning of January. Don't worry! We are nowhere NEAR done exploring the island! There is so much to do here and I am so incredibly grateful that we are able to call this island home. We left yesterday morning about 6AM and returned about 7PM. It's an hour and half bus ride one way, and we had a huge variety of hiking ability in our group... and it's a hard hike so it took a long time.

For your learning pleasure, I looked up a few stats about Boiling Lake (something I did not do before we hiked, and I sort of wish I had, as the site advised packing a change of clothes to be left on the bus... that would've been nice). The hike starts out at Titou Gorge (1,690 ft) and climbs steadily from there for about forty-five minutes. Ryan and I were out front with the guides at this point and feeling pretty cocky. It was steep but doable and we weren't working too hard. It seemed like this wasn't going to be as bad as we had heard... we did learn our lesson later! I agree with the guide I found online... the walk back down this part seems to take FOREVER and it is one of the muddiest parts of the hike. The trail then descends SHARPLY to Breakfast River (and on the way back this uphill really makes you understand why this trail has made many people cry). Breakfast River is traditionally the first breakpoint, where you stop for a snack, because, as our guides warn, you will need it! The hike rapidly grows incredibly intense.

The second part of the hike, from Breakfast River to the top of the Valley of Desolation (and yes, that is it's real name and it is REALLY appropriate) takes about an hour. I have hiked a lot, and you all know that I've done a lot of horseback riding over varied terrain, and I have never seen slopes quite like this. According to the guide, from Breakfast River you climb steeply (and they aren't kidding) uphill to 2,500 feet followed by a steady southeast climb to 3,168 feet. And trust me, that peak was miserable. It was misty and windy and cold. The whole ridge and peak (and it turns out the rest of the hike to Boiling Lake) was done under the battery of these amazing winds. We estimated that there was a near constant 20 mph wind, with gusts up to 50 or 60 mph. The gusts could, and frequently did, push everyone back several strides as you fought against them. This photo shows how one of the hikers handled it... by using one of our guides as a tow rope! The guide was far more patient than I would have been. From the peak, it takes about 20 more minutes to reach the top of the Valley of Desolation.

I doubt if I will ever be in a place for which the name is more fitting for the rest of my life. The Valley of Desolation is just that... desolate. It's basically just a lot of scorched rocks (which give off heat) and pools of varying colors of HOT water. The trail gets a bit vague here, and crisscrosses the stream several times as you move down the Valley. The Valley itself is a bit hard to enter, since you have to slide down a steep, smooth rock... which sort of inspires the question of how the heck you're going to climb it on the way back. There is, surprisingly, some vegetation which grows there. You know it has to be hardy because of the heat, the wind, and the sulphuric qualities of the water. Passing through the Valley we saw a geyser or two and more hot springs than we could count. It was also a bit disconcerting to look back and see the slope you'd have to climb back up to leave the Valley of Desolation. Isn't that a nice photo? We really did climb that, although when I looked back and saw that, I joked to Ryan that he'd have to build me a house in the Valley since I didn't plan on leaving ever if I had to climb out that way.

As we were crossing the Valley, the rain hit. Remember how I mentioned that the winds were intense? Imagine rain hitting you at that speed. It was painful and loud and very hard to see... not to mention the fact that it's hard to rock climb (which was necessary on many parts of the trail) when the rocks are soaked! We were completely drenched in a matter of minutes, even though we'd been wearing our coats in an attempt to stay warm in the wind. It rained twice more on our trip- once as we hit the peak above the Valley on the way back and again when we were under the trees in the Rainforest. And despite what you may have heard, the trees do not block all the rain from hitting the ground.

From the Valley it's (obviously) uphill for most of the rest of the way. Our guides kept saying we were close, but they lied. Once we got to the Lake itself, there was nothing there. We stood on a ledge and looked at a lot of steam. I'm kidding, it was pretty cool, and when the wind blew the right way you could look down the cliffs (the lake was surrounding by cliffs) and see that the water really was boiling, which was pretty cool. The air itself was cool as well. We may be in the Caribbean but the air temperature in the mountains can still get pretty chilly... and we were soaked at this point. The elevation of the Lake is 2,640 feet. At one point, when the temperature of the water was measured, the water at the edge was about 90 degrees Celsius. They were unable to measure the temperature in the center, where the Lake is actively boiling. There have been fluctuations in the level of the lake... apparently at the end of 2004 it practically emptied! This also happened in 1887, 1900, 1971, and 1988. We were glad it wasn't emptied when we arrived! It would have been disappointing, and dangerous! Hikers have been overcome and killed by the sulphurous gases emitted from the emptied lake. Apparently after it empties, it takes a few months to refill, with some incredibly quick fluctuations in the water level and temperature while it changes. Here's a photo of Ryan and I happy but exhausted at the lake. If you look at the photo of the lake, you can see the bubbling water of the lake through the steam.

The hike down was faster, and took about 2 and a half hours. We stopped caring about avoiding the mud or trying to leap from rock to rock to cross rivers. We were already soaked, so why not get more wet? I won't lie... it was hard. I really struggled with my hip, and my left leg would shake whenever we stopped. But we did it! We're both pretty sore today, and I swear, our bed has NEVER felt as comfortable as it did last night. But we did it! On the way home we were saying we'd never do it again... but today we were talking about doing it with some friends! Maybe we're crazy! If you come to visit us and would like to hike it, make sure you bring clothes that you can ruin and good hiking shoes. You will need them.

At the bottom, we staggered out muddy, exhausted, sweating, and smelly and found a cruise ship group enjoying Titou Gorge. They were spotless and shocked at our appearance, but the good news was that some of the locals had set up tables to sell things to the people from the ships. They'd charge the students a third of what they charged the tourists for food and drink, so Ryan and I were able to enjoy a coke each. It was a good end to a good day!