Submitted by Andrew Evans on the 2019 winter session program in Dominica sponsored by the Department of Geography…
On Thursday of this past week, we were mentally preparing for one of the hardest hikes of the trip, Morne Diablotins. Thursday night, we all volunteered to help out at a wildlife organization to remove an invasive species of Cuban tree frogs. While we were heading over, we mentioned to the driver that we were hiking Morne Diablotins in the morning. He told us that the trail still had not been cleared after Hurricane Maria so it was impassable. I was pretty disappointed to hear this because I was ready for the challenge and wanted to see the view from that mountain knowing I had accomplished it. We had to break the news to our professor and he figured out another hike that we could do which was significantly less challenging.
The next day we got up early to do this other hike. It started out fairly easy on a flat, well cleared trail. Later, as we continued, the trail got smaller with some fallen trees. At one point, we jumped over one of the tree trunks and there was an 8 foot python hanging out on the trail. It’s not something you really expect to see, but it was amazing to see it in its natural habitat. Shortly after that, a few of us towards the front of the group heard a scream in the back. One of the other students slipped as he was stepping over a log and impaled his hand on a stick. He was bleeding and we ran back to help him and one of the girls had a first aid kit and helped bandage him up. This was going to prove to be a challenge now as the trail was getting very steep with a lot of mud and he only had the use of one hand. I and one other student decided to stay back with him to guide him down.
The most challenging part came at one section of the trail where you needed to grab onto a rope to move down. It took a lot of team work and strategy between the other student and I to get ourselves down while helping him. We decided that I would stay above him to grab his arm and support him if he started falling, and she would determine the best path down for him to follow. It was both mentally and physically exhausting, because we had to do this for about an hour and a half. It’s one thing getting yourself down safely when you only have to worry about yourself, but when there’s another person to help it becomes so much more. We slowly, but successfully, got him through the rest of the trail. It was a tiring, yet rewarding experience, because I was able to make sure that he made it down safely because we are all here for each other.
