Yes, this is a hiking blog, but you have to get to St. John first, so my crew and I did it in style on a 44′ charter sailboat from CYOA charters on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.
Tony, John and Angela
This is the first full day of the sailboat charter and my sister, Angela, her husband, John, and I are going to do a little hiking in the national park on the island. We started out at the park’s visitor center where we got a map of the trails and filled our water bottles. This is the Caribbean, so it’s hot and humid. We’ll need to stay hydrated.
On the trail
The target was a trail that went from sea level to 720 feet. The trail ran along the coast Overlooking Caneel Bay where our sailboat is moored. Surprisingly, the trail was quite steep, rocky and had its share of roots. This will be a good warmup for the Appalachian Trail, which I’ll be on in a little more than two weeks. We progressed up the trail quickly. The trail is very well maintained with a lot of switch backs to make the climb longer but easier. It also had a lot of trees and vegetation on it, so we couldn’t see the bay below us until we were almost at the summit.
We finally reached the summit and we’re treated to a spectacular view of the bay and our boat. After hanging around awhile enjoying the view and cool breeze, we headed back down the trail to Honeymoon Beach. A nice refreshing dip in the water was just the right answer to the hike.
Heading back down the trail
Eventually, we got back on the trail for a short hike back to the town and the end of today’s hike.
