Mon Bleu Forgetfulness

My latest adventure was one where my constant forgetfulness plagued me.  It all started on Friday 19th January when I hiked Mon Bleu with Roger Goldsmith and his wife; two Brit clients.  The hike started wonderfully , on the way to the summit we saw Orange billed Nightingale Thrush, Yellow Legged Thrush, White Throated Spadebill and Speckled Tanager, we all took lots of photos while I chatted about the natural history of the habitat, which moves from Lower Montane Rain Forest into Upper Montane Rainforest with its varieties of palms, tall tree ferns, massive epiphytic anthuriums all heavily covered with mosses and ferns.  The hike went very well until about 3/4 the way to the summit when the heavens opened up and it poured cats, dogs, frogs, cows and other random animals.  We were soaked very quickly.  At the summit we just ate a quick bite and turned right around and hiked out in half the time with little conversation.  The basic idea was GET OUT THE FREAKIN RAIN!!!   

When dropping Roger off at Rosa's, a host home in Brasso Seco I realized that I forgot my "brand new top-of-the-line Garmin GPS which can actually get great reception below a heavy rain forest canopy" at Mon Bleu's summit.  I decided to hike back right then, but God and as importantly my wife were against doing that as surely dark would come while on the trail.  Those who know me will know Lizy would not be happy about me going alone in the forest at night.

So Saturday I awoke at 3:30am to hear the rain pouring down AGAIN!  Cussin blue murder to think I have to hit the forest at 5am in cold rain, I then realize that its just a busted pipe!  Phew!  So I drive out to Mon Bleu and start hiking at 5:30am and the clouds are a thick soup with channa and pumpkin so I have to go slow as my head lamp can only show about 5 feet in front of me.  But again for those who have followed my adventures you know that's PLENTY!  My deal gets worse as I take my first drink of whats in my hydration pack.  It has yesterday's freshly made lemon juice mixed with today's green and red gatorade with names like icy zest.  As I suck I realize that what I have in reality is yesterday's now turning to alcohol lemon juice mixed with unidentifiable gatorades; fairly disgusting.  No chance at returning now, so I suck on it and squinge my face.   

The bonus came as dawn started to break I turned off the light and saw an amazing sight of the early light breaking through forest's dancing leaves and heavy trucks piercing clouds with Ent like fashion; it gave a real sense of primordial evolutionary soup.  Just breath taking.  I had to force myself to get back to my mission and hit the summit in 50 minutes, found the GPS exactly where I knew its was, then turned right around and hit the trail back. 

I ran out in the dawn's ever brightening light while getting very wet from dew soaked leaves and moss covered trunks.  It took just 40 minutes, a few cuts, bruises and one stab of an errant shard of a broken branch into my index finger that I could feel every irregular part of as I extracted it.  Back at the van I chatted with some dawn birders and bathed in bottle water and hit Asa Wright at 8am to collect a couple for a birding tour.