Hiking Mt Qua Qua with the SO's

So last Wednesday the SO's hiked Mt. Qua Qua. It is the largest mountain on the island. It is 2,730 feet high and from the top you are able to see around the entire island. It was a rainy and dreary day. During the morning we had rain on and off before we left, so we were wondering what we were going to find ourselves climbing. When we got there we started at the base of the mountain where there is the Grand Etange Lake, which is a large crater. This picture does not do it justice. It is huge. I took this when we were almost the top of the mountain. We hiked with a pretty good sized group. I am so used to Dinwiddie where everything is pretty much is flat. God I felt so old with my knee hurting and trying not to have an asthma attack. Luckily Ashlee hiked with me. She is from Utah and is used to climbing up mountains for fun.
When we were hiking, it was very slippery and most of the group ended up falling on their asses at least once. Kinda funny to watch until it happens to you. At times the trail was less than 2 feet wide. Made it scary when you got pretty high up there with the rain and wind whipping around you. Definitely an adventure. Overall we ended up stopping about 20 mins from the top. As we were gearing up to go further two of the others came back and said that it got pretty tough looking ahead of us. So we turned back with them.
We got rained on some more throughout the trip back but we got some really nice pictures. When we got back to the visitor's center we were able to see a Mona Monkey. It was so cool to watch. I think that he was probably wondering why us humans were all around him watching him eat. It was cute to see the kids with the monkeys. Afterwards we sat down and ate our lunch.
While we were eating, it really started to pour so we were really happy that we turned around when we did. The rest of the group came back looking like a bunch of drowned rats soaked to the bone. I would love to go do it again when it is not rainy. The view is just incredible from on top of the mountain.