Reef Bay Trail Hike

Today, I am attempting the Reef Bay Trail hike.

As I had mentioned in a previous blog, I joined the Freshwater Church women’s ‘hike, snorkel and devotion’ group. Women of all ages (teens to seniors) have been getting together once a week hiking various trails on island. There are over 79 trails on St. John, the island is mostly national park, but not all of them end up at water. I heard this was a pretty strenuous 5.3 km hike and it’s not really the hiking down to the water part, it’s the coming back up!(elevation 293 m)😅. But since I had been on many of the hikes with the women, I felt pretty confident I could accomplish it.

I really wanted to do this hike because I had heard I would be seeing some of the oldest and tallest trees on island and petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings) from pre-Colombian Taino tribes. Cool!

The trail starts off easily enough and we go past stone walls that had been built centuries ago for cattle grazing and the Danish sugar mill ruins.

As we walk along, we see deer, crabs and interesting flowers and trees. We come across the ancient Baobab tree also called the Tree of Life. It is believed the Baobab seed was planted by slaves brought from Africa (where are the Baobab tree originates from) as a remembrance of their homeland.

We finally make our way to the area where the petroglyphs are. In the rainy season, there is a waterfall which is spectacular!

There are many petroglyphs but the one in this particular picture features the symbol in the middle which has become associated with St. John and you will find it on pieces of jewelry and clothing sold on island.

The day is getting hotter and hotter and after 3 hours we finally make it to the beach. At this point, if we had been thinking correctly, we would have charted a 40 minute trip back to Cruz Bay on the Sadie Sea.

This was a bad mistake on our part because hiking back UP (900 ft elevation) is crazy harder than hiking down. Let me tell you, friends, I thought I was ready for this trail but I was not!!! I was huffing and puffing and took every opportunity when there was a rest stop to sit. When we got to the final end of the trail and the steps to go up to the road, I thought someone was going to have to drag me up😂😂😂

A week later one of our hiking buddies bought us all this sticker since a few of us vowed we would never hike that trail again!🤣

May you all have a blessed and Happy New Year!!!🌹