Mt. Alava Through Hike

Previously, we climbed Mt. Alava along the ridge trail that starts on the east side of the ridge. Wanting to try to improve on the 7-mile out-and-back-hike, we decided to start the hike on the northeast side of the mountains and turn it into a through hike.

To do this we started at the trailhead that I had previously gone hiking along a loop through the National Park and for the Vatia Tide Pools. It"s a small turnout off the round inside the National Park with a little fale and enough room to park a few cars. From here we ran into a group of palagi who were headed down to the tide pools. We instead started taking the path up the hill.

The trail up the ridge is well maintained and makes for some easy hiking compare to most of what we have here in American Samoa. The National Park Service is good at maintenance and the trails see a relatively high amount of usage, so there's less overgrowth and underbrush to worry about on this trail.

Another nice feature of this trail is the first bit is through heavily canopied forest, but the trail rises fast and you quickly get up to the ridgeline and get to see some spectacular views looking out on the north-side of the island. The ridge is great for hiking you get breezes from all directions and it's some of only cool air you can get outside on this tropical island.

This shot is of Vatia Bay and the rock formation known as the cockscomb. The trail keeps climbing and soon you end up on the ridge that runs down the spine of the island, Pago Harbor and the south side of the island on your left and the National Park and the north-side of the island on your right.

At this point, the chest cold that had been bothering the prosecutor, who'd joined Sara and I for our coast walk, began to take its toll. She and her boy friend opted to down hike instead of finishing out the through hike. We were sorry to see them call it quits, but we did get to continue with her french cousin who was visiting the island. He turned out to be a hoot and we ended up making plans to hang out while he's on the island visiting and beyond.

The trail also throws starts to get steep along the ridgeline. Since it needs to follow the contours of the ridge, the hiking trail needs to follow the ridge line. The Park Service has installed cable and faux-wood ladders to made these sections passable. This leads to some interesting assents and descents as you need to clamber up and down the trail using both your hands and your feet.

The sketchiest section is right before the summit. The trail narrows to less than a yard wide.

Both side fall away vertically. It's a smooth dirt path, but there are enough lava rocks jutting out of the ground to make it interesting. This is a section of trail that is not for the weak of knees. Someone in our group, I'm not going to name names, almost had to crawl. I lent out my trekking poles and they were able to navigate it under their own power. But it was a slow 30 yards of hiking.

The top has some spectacular views of the harbor. The old cable car system, they had in place to service the navy radio towers, fell down in a cyclone years ago. But the landing at the summit makes for a great viewing of the harbor and Matafao, the highest summit on the island.

The down hike from the summit along the service road was less exciting. We'd done this trail before, it's smooth hiking except when it gets wet, then the road either gets really muddy or the steep sections get slick. Our down hike was pretty easy. Just some good conversation with the visiting Frenchman.

The last little bit of work was to get the cars we left at the trailhead. It took a bit of driving, but we were rewarded on our way home when one of the people we saw going to the tide pools at the beginning of the hike called us up and invited us to make burritos using some fresh fish that one of the National Park Rangers caught on his charter boat back from the Manu'a Island Group. Nice reward for on the loner hikes you can do on island.