We spent almost 9 hours over this less-than-5-mile round trip and ran out of 2.5 gallons of water in my backpack. We also went through two thunder weather patterns during the descent and got soaking wet in the first one. Total elevation gain is around 3100ft! I think even without little kids it would still take me more than 6 hours to finish it in the same condition. We were the only group on that day doing this hike.
The hike started with dense tropical forests and bushes. Even at higher elevation, the bushes are still very bad, like much worse than my last trip to Edith lake in Yosemite
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
- starting with woods
- getting through bushes
Once going up to the ridge line, the trees are gone but the bushes are still there. We started really early so the heat was not that bad. It's very steep and slippery so some ropes are put on by locals without much maintenance. The roots of the bush helped a lot.
- going up to the ridge
- The view to the lagoon
- The view to the bay
- Narrow path on the ridge
- working on the ridge
Above 2500ft, we can see the whole island in all directions.
- near the top
- Surrounding peaks
- The north lagoon from the top