ADAM HAYDOCK

I was able to get a couple days off of work due to the "extreme" conditions, so I took Brandon out to Starved Rock State Park to learn how to ice climb. We got to Starved Rock and signed in to go to Lasalle Falls which is a 20ft beginner route. Both days we were outside for 6-7 hrs in -10 degree weather but it wasn't too bad if you layer up clothing and maintain good circulation.  We hiked over to the location and after about an hour, we were able to get to the frozen waterfall. 

I took the lead which was good practice for me and so I can set up a tope rope for Brandon. I was able to get up and over the falls, rig a tope rope, and rap down while cleaning off the falls as I made my descent.

Tonti Frozen waterfall Starved Rock State Park

Phil Goldman Climbing Tonti Falls Starved Rock State Park

Adam Haydock About to Climb Tonti Falls Starved Rock State Park

Adam Haydock Climbing Tonti Falls Starved Rock State Park

 last day in Puerto Rico and it sure has been one amazing trip!! This last excursion was not anything short of awesome. The years previous I have traveled up the Rio Sabana to the Trade Winds rail to El Toro and down the Rio Cubuy to PR 191. I have gone up the Rio Blanco to the Rio Icaco to the pipeline trail, and this time I wanted to summit the Rio Prieto from the pipeline trail as well as descend down the Rio Sabana to the confluence of the Sabana/Cubuy rivers and ascend up the Rio Cubuy to old PR 191. This cascade hike was no joke! We got dropped off at the end of the road on old PR 191 and walked to the trailhead where the Rio Sabana and PR 191 meet. We followed the pipeline trail all the way to the junction of the Rio Prieto and the pipeline trail which included a 40ft waterfall and a old ladder that we had to climb up to reach the top of this first waterfall. We make it around the rusty lockjaw infested ladder and climbed up the shady ladder to the top where we could see the main waterfall. This waterfall can be seen from the road and was one of the biggest waterfalls I have seen in Puerto Rico.

We make our ascent to the base of the falls and we start staging our routes to where we will be able to station ourselves and review the next pitch.  We did climb in the falls but mainly climbed to the side of them which allowed us to avoid some slippery handholds and places to set anchors.  I climbed up the first segment taking great care not to slip and making sure I had contact at all times as this was between 30 and 50 degrees up.  As we are going up, Laura took a sliding tumble down to the bottom but along the way she had time to think to turn herself around and slide on her butt and stop on a rock with both of her feet.  Nice job!  I decided it was time to rope up and belay her from the top so I meat anchored myself with natural backup anchors and got her up safe, little by little. 

Eventually we made it to the last portion of the falls and was able to scramble over that carefully so we didn't take a sliding tumble over 100 ft to the falls below.  I used natural anchors and meat anchored myself to safely get us to the top of the Rio Prieto.

It really doesn't look like we did much but it bit off a chunk of our day working up this cascade to the rim while making sure we were not breaking any legs and running into any flash floods.  People have died on this route and other routes due to exposure by rimming themselves or using poor judgement so we made sure we were careful and we did it.

We came back down to the pipeline trail and made our way back to the dam on the Rio Blanco snapping a few pictures of the old railroad that was used to bring materials to build the dams for the towns in the valleys below us.

The Navy also used the Pipeline trail for a place to run with heavy packs to the end and back when they operated out of Culebra in the Vietnam era. 

We get to the dam and have lunch along with some down time away from the river systems.  Afterwards we proceeded to descend the Rio Sabana from the pipeline trail to get to the confluence of the sabana and the Cubuy.  We got into the sabana and encountered 4 pockets of waterfalls, some were 40 ft on a 60-70 degree slope which had to be navigated around through the jungle.  Some falls had to be jumped over and some had to be jumped into so we slid down and jumped past the hydraulics at the bottom of the falls into eddy pools to re orient ourselves.  We lost our bamboo walking sticks along the way too.

Finally we make it to the Rio Cubuy Sabana confluence and take a swim in the river pool below. Afterwards, we decide to ascend the Rio Cubuy back to the road so we could walk back to our car and head to the hotel for the last night in Puerto Rico.  We scrambled and bouldered over rock until....

What the hell is this thing doing here?!? who put this massive multi drop waterfall in the way? I have never seen or heard anything about this thing!  what a surprise it was for us.  We continued on and slowly made our ascent by climbing up and around the boulders in the cascades stemming and scrambling our way to the top.  Finally we make it to the top!! Nice view and what an amazing waterfall to come out of.  That was an epic end to our most amazing trip of amazing caves, cascades, desert islands, ocean swims, amazing friends, great people, earthquakes, cults, weird animals, and just an amazing time.  My best time in Puerto Rico ever.   I want to thank the landowners, our friends, and all the great memories we had experienced on this trip.  It will never be forgotten and I am looking forward to coming back out to Puerto Rico very soon!!!!!!

The day before we got round trip tickets from Fajardo to Culebra and back to Fajardo so we can make sure we had a spot on the ferry boat. We arrived early and parked our car at the parking lot that they had set up for travelers to the islands. Eventually, we made it on the ferry and got to the island in good time. The atmosphere was different, a lot more chill and slow unlike the craziness Puerto Rico can be at times. We got to Flamenco beach and set up our tent in the back section thinking this was going to be the quietest place to camp but not so much, we found that this was not the case.

We set up the tent and within about 20 steps, we were on the beach overlooking the crystal clear blue water with our feet in the fine white sand. There were coral reefs just off shore that provided some decent snorkeling but the best snorkeling was on the other side of the bay. We walked to the east side of the beach in a west to east direction and went beyond the sand,  over the rocks,  and around the bend. I noticed blue contours and pockets of coral just off shore.  We stopped and got in the water for a little snorkel into these reefs.  Now,  I am not really one to "want" to go snorkeling but I see a reef right in front of me so why not check it out.  I get out there and...WOW...Immediately I see brain coral, Star coral, Yellow and Blue Tangs as couples and schools, Trumpetfish, Stonefish (dangerous), large Parrot Fish, Durgon, Angelfish, Wrasse of different species, Boxfish, Jacks, and so many more.  There were sea fans, ferns, coral, and sponges peppered through out the reef.  I was impressed.  This was the best next to shore reef snorkel Ive been on.  I remember some dives being just like what I saw and all I had to do this time was free dive to get a good look at everything.  I was really impressed with that!!

 We made it to Tamarindo Beach for some snorkeling fun and had a relaxing lunch.  We went back the way we came, went to the preserve, and back to the grassland section to snorkel.  We found a giant sea cucumber, starfish and a large Lobster.  I was really surprised to see the Lobster but it was a type of Lobster that either didn't show its claws or didn't have any. We went back to the beach and rented a golf cart to drive around the island.  Yea a golf cart!!! It was a nice addition to the day as we just can't stand still and we got to see more of the island including St. Thomas from the other side of Culebra. Super awesome!!

 Culebra is an amazing place to visit and its worth a trip in itself for a nice long weekend of relaxation and snorkeling fun.  We get back to Puerto Rico and set up camp for the last night and the last event,  The waterfall cascade hike!  We went to visit some waterfalls when we got back to Puerto Rico where we could jump off rocks and swim in swimming holes which was fun but then, as we were driving to the top to go to another swimming hole,  some chick was walking down the street with a handgun in her hand.  It looked a little thick to be a real one (maybe a BB gun) unless it was a .45, but it was a handgun for sure.  It's just not a good look to see someone casually walking down the street holding a handgun like she is holding a can of coke right where we are suppose to be parking our rental car, ya know.  Regardless, we table sided that brain photo and proceeded on with our day.

El Yunque cloud forest dwarf plants

 So in the middle of the night I heard something running around the tent, we were hundreds of feet up on a ridge and I have never seen any dogs or cats roaming around from the neighborhood below where we were camping at.  So there is something running around and all of a sudden it runs right into the tent and into my foot! I jumped up and grabbed my knife! "What the fuck was that"!?! It wasn't a hard punch into the tent but it was very mysterious to say the least. It might have been a mongoose or an iguana, but I am just sure, and it may never be known what it really was. We woke up early so we could go get ferry boat tickets to Culebra a day early and get to the north district for a hike. I wanted to check out the La Coca trail which is suppose to be a bit more rustic, waterfalls, and the only trail I haven't been on. We get to the trailhead and I noticed a lot of broken car window glass on the ground which is not a good look for me so we decided to summit the mountain via the El Yunque Trail which will take us to the cloud forest.

El Yunque Trail Puerto Rico

 We started up the gravel trail which made it a hell of a lot easier to hike up rather than bushwhacking and slogging our way through plant debris and mud.  We noticed the weather change as it got a bit cooler and the trees started to shrink and get smaller.

El Yunque Cloud Forest Puerto Rico

El Yunque Cloud Forest Puerto Rico

It was a beautiful view as the clouds haven't quite rolled in yet so we had a window of opportunity to see the ocean to the North, East, and South of us.

El Yunque Cloud Forest Puerto Rico

The trees were dwarfed due to overall lack of sunlight and the wind was blowing with consistency which I imagine made these plants grow the strong branches that they have.

El Yunque Cloud forest

El Yunque cloud forest

Eventually, we made our summit to the top of the El Yunque trail and the clouds started to roll in with a hard drizzle of rain that followed. As we were a the top, I was thinking about how we were in a massive water cave with previous world class caves before that, and now we are on top of a cloud forest mountain.  This really put Puerto Rico into perspective for me as to how this island has so much diversity in terms of biology and geology.  I love this island!!

El Yunque cloud forest

We started to make our descent back to the clearing to catch more cloud action blowing past us.

El Yunque cloud forest

We made our descent back to the car enjoying the hike and watching the chance in weather with the plants around us.  Earlier in the day we got our tickets to go to Culebra for a couple days so we were really excited to be changing it up a bit and enjoying some R and R in a remote and beautiful desert island.

FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157640085189756/

We noticed the cut banks where water had recently raged through which created a path for us that made it easier to reach the entrance of the cave.  Soon after, I look out to the 500-600 ft cliff face and notice the cliff starting to surround us.  That is when we noticed the entrance to the cave.

It was like a 6 lane highway going into this massive entrance.  This is one of those caves that remind me of some caves that I have read about in Asia, maybe a bit smaller but this one was the biggest cave I have ever been through. 

We kept going deeper into the cave allowing the ambient sunlight to light our way as we crossed over the river taking a mental note of the colors on the wall. Beautiful.

We noticed hundreds of bats flying at the top of the ceiling which was amazing to see but the smell of the fresh guano and the fact that we got shat on multiple times rang my histoplasmosis bell, so we keep moving and stayed in the water where it didn't smell so bad.  We could see the exit from the entrance but it took us 45 minutes just to get to the other side of the cave.  The water got deeper so we started swimming in this river noticing the high ceiling and the active flowstones pouring water around us.  As we got closer to the exit,  there were waterfalls to the side of us which made this place look like a fantasy land  Absolutely breathtaking!!

When we exited the cave, we got to a little rock bank where there was another small cave to swim through with waterfalls pouring over the entrance!!

 This place did not even seem real, It was like a place out of the movie lord of the rings.  The small cave had these waterfalls pouring over and flowstone around it so we starting swimming through and we found the river blocked by logs that prevented us from continuing through.  I attempted to clear the logs but we decided to turn around and climb over the wall through the jungle and come out the other side.  After scaling the wall, we walked down a path that seemed to be where other people walked to avoid that log jam, we were able to walk down a spring that was blasting water which was flowing over to the other side of this small cave system.

 The original entrance was just an amazing site to see and I will never forget how well the sunlight was able to illuminate a good portion of the entrance.

 We also got a chance to see what the locals call "El Radar" which is the largest radio Telescope in the world but from what I understand, the Chinese are about to build a bigger one.  It was easy for this to be built as it is situated in a sinkhole. We grab some dinner on our way to the El Yunque but right about the time we get to the jungle, darkness settled in so setting up the tent and hiking up the 200 ft piece of mountain to get to the ridge was just a bit more interesting but the morning views from the ridge are amazing.



Laura  and Andy at the entrance of Cueva Dos Ojos

 

We make it up the hill and talk to the landowners about what we are going to do. We continued down into the jungle with some indicators to where Dos Ojos was located. After about 45 minutes of mogote hiking we made it to the impressive entrance of Dos Ojos.

 It was more impressive from the inside looking out but I really enjoyed this cave. Once we were able to scramble our way down to the bottom of the entrance, Flora went off to work on her project while Laura, Andy and I went in the other direction. We past impressive old flow stone drapery covered in fine popcorn textures. The ceiling was at least 50ft and the passage provided breakdown and huge flow stone structures to climb around.

 

Soon after we made it to the end of the cave which had some more impressive flow stone drapery formations.

 

Afterwards we turned back and went the other side of the cave where Flora was working. I decided to stay back near the entrance to catch some of the noon sunlight that was shining into the cave, lighting up the formations. 

 

I continued back to see what Flora was working on and there were about to wrap up with what they had going on so I came back out and got some more pics of what was around us and of everyone exiting the cave.

 

We wanted to get over to larga in good time so we packed up and got ready to go.

 

 We continued to orient and re orient ourselves to get to Cueva Larga. Along the way, we passed Cueva Dugon and I was impressed with the entrance this cave had which was situated on a wall of a large sinkhole. Next time I'm coming back here. After a few minor mis orientations, and a strange "monkey" sound,  we found Rolf and the entrance to Larga 

 

Larga had an interesting vine covered formation entrance that you walk in between the formations to get into the cave.

 Than you climb down formations to get to the massive..and I mean massive borehole passage. Tom miller surprised us by making a guest appearance which was nice to hangout with him and talk about some of the cave features and geology. Some of the pics didn't turn out so well and others turned out pretty decent

Rolf was working on some projects so I was able to help him document his work with a few photos for him which I posted on facebook.  I was able to get a pic of Rolf on the other side of a massive breakdown pile that got high carbon dioxide readings and was warmer than where we came from. 

There was a lower level where we went down into after Rolf finished up with his work and I was pretty impressed with the formations that were growing in this section.

We made our exit from the cave shortly after going through knee high sticky mud and sliding down a few mud hills in the cave.  After an educational speech directed by Flora about education, we proceeded out and through the jungle mogote landscape past the landowners house and down to Rolf's car.

No that's not Rolf's car but it was a car on the side of the road.  reminded me of what our rental would have looked like if we flipped the edge of the moss road in Florida Puerto Rico.

 FLICKR DOS OJOS: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157640092205605/

FLICKR LARGA: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157640092271195/