I did the trip with: 1L water bottle (refill at Ranger station both ways), energy bar & 2 bananas, hiking sandals, rain coat, long sleeved T-shirt, tank top & shorts. We took about 3 hours to get back to the trailhead. Going downhill is hard on the knees after awhile. It was very windy & very cold at the top! Fairly clear morning so we had a beautiful view & the hike down featured amazing views. From the trailhead to the peak was a little over 3 hours, we were all in average shape & paced ourselves.
Still managed the miss the narrowed trail, but found it after some searching, a sign here would be GREAT. Disappointing! Night 2, did the trail, renewed confidence with 2 other people from the guest house. Took 2 dead ends, there is no signage at all where the road narrows into the trail & ended up frustrated & turning back as I could find no info online as to exactly where I should be going.
I attempted the trek my first night solo with my headlamp & Jay’s dog.
I stayed O’Jay’s Guest House for 2 nights, about 3KM from the trailhead. What an awesome "bucket list" experience! On the way down the mountain, I realized that the top half of the trail weaves its way through heavy rain-forest canopy, although there were occasional breaks, when I could see coffee plantations, several valleys, ridges and mountains, as well as some coastline in the distance. After a few minutes, my body had cooled down from the hike and the cold really started to set in so I put my coat and winter hat on and waited for the sun to rise.Īs it became more and more light out, I realized that the shapes all around us, weren’t mountain tops, but were in fact clouds… We were above the clouds! That was a stunning surprise! As the sun slowly climbed over the horizon, we could start to see the surrounding valleys and distant mountain ranges, as well as Kingston’s twinkling lights below us near the coast. It was still dark and I couldn’t see much. Once we were passed Portland gap the temperature suddenly dropped again and we were there… At the peak 7,450 feet (2,270m) above sea level! It took us about 3.5 hours, taking only a couple of quick rest stops, to make it to Blue Mountain Peak. It was dark, with our headlamps providing the only light, so I didn’t see much of the trail in advance, rather I just put one foot in front of the other and kept moving forward – Basically focusing the light and my attention on the ground, so as to keep my footing. It was fairly steep at this point and I heated up quite quickly, so I peeled off my coat and was back to my usual Caribbean hiking attire of shorts and a t-shirt. We started the hike on a rough road that past a couple of properties and within a few minutes, we were on ‘Jacobs ladder’ - a long and lazy switchback dirt road with many ‘washed out’ ruts. We started the up-hill trek around 2 in the morning, so it was fairly cold – A first for me in the Caribbean. I’ve never hiked in the dark before, so this was a new experience for me. There were 7 of us in total, including two Rasta guides. I woke at 1:30am, got dressed, had a bite then went outside to meet the rest of the hiking group. The drive was slow as we ventured on some pretty rough roads to get there - All part of the experience! It was a 2-hour drive to a Rasta lodge somewhere in the Blue Mountains. The adventure started when I was picked up at the bus terminal in Kingston.
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