Kat Sack here! Sometimes Katastrophic Sackrilege to the running community, but most definitely The Mountain Lioness to those who follow and join my adventures. I currently call Tallahassee, FL home. The mountains are my favorite place to be and explore but given my location, I dive into other types of rad places too!

I created this blog as a personal project to document my adventures. Photos are great, but I love text describing more of the story and to recall what I have learned. I am no expert at outdoorsy activities, but I learn as I go! If you end up here, I hope you can get something out of it.

My original focus was on backpacking, hiking, camping, kayaking, and mountain biking. I have thus shifted the scope as I discovered my love for National and State Parks. I have the National Parks Passport and the Florida State Parks passport which have allowed me to discover places I originally would never have seen. Now I write about national monuments, history, run-cations, etc.

At some point I hope to dive into personal growth as well with topics including self-sufficiency and improvement, turning boredom into adventure, steps to heal my body and mind, and overcoming social adversities.

Life is an adventure. Go outside. Pay attention to all that is around you. Get lost in the moment. Everything has a story. Listen for it, even if you do not speak the same language.

Año Nuevo en Puerto Rico: Bosque Estatal De Río Abajo - Cueva del Agua

Photo Credit: Robert Hodgen

Bosque Estatal De Rio Abajo - Cueva del Agua

Año Nuevo en Puerto Rico - 2017 a 2018 después de Maria

31 Diciembre 2017



Summary:


Link to Main Post of the Trip: Año Nuevo en Puerto Rico: 2017 a 2018 después de Maria

 Link to my time in Arecibo prior to Río Abajo: Un Día en Arecibo - Poza del Obispo y Arecibo Observatory [Coming Soon]

As I examined Puerto Rico in Google maps before the trip, I noticed a large forest near Arecibo Observatory. With further research, especially thanks to Puerto Rico Day Trips, I was able to learn more about what Bosque Estatal De Río Abajo [Río Abajo State Forest] has to offer. Information was minimal but thanks to these posts, I was able to gather the information I needed:


I also knew not to be super optimistic about being able to access the trails and caves. The island was going through restoration from hurricanes Irma and Maria still, and I had a feeling more remote trails like this one would be last priority. I saved the GPS coordinates to my phone since I wouldn't be able to depend on cell service. For Cueva del Agua --

  • Front Entrance - where there is a gate normally blocking off the road
    • (18.3307, -66.706683)
  • Cueva del Agua Trailhead - on the road past the gate with a sign marking the trail
    • (18.329123, -66.716129)
  • Cueva del Agua
    • (18.323697, -66.716364)

Here is my Strava map. I forgot to turn off my watch before we started driving so ignore the part where I was apparently walking really fast on the road.

The Gear:


  • Sony A5100 Mirrorless Camera + Adobe Lightroom
  • Asics Running Shoes [Now Retired]


The Story:


After an exciting day of exploring Arecibo [Coming Soon], it was time to get lost in the woods! I hadn't really looked at any of the locations or coordinates since before arriving in Puerto Rico. I knew how to get to the campground/parking area and also that one of the caves had a trail marker that was about a Boy Scout Troop doing trail work. 

Tunnels of bamboo - the first of many!

On any other time in Puerto Rico, there is a barrier up that says do not cross this. There was also supposed to be an area to park, but we didn't see that either. We decided to keep driving whether or not we were supposed to.

We arrived at this sign post! It is indeed a Boy Scouts of America sign indicating that there is a trail.

We made our own parking area, assuming that at this time of day it wouldn't be a problem. There was also enough room for other vehicles to get by.

It didn't take long to hit our first obstacle. In all seriousness though, look how clear this trail is.


I loved all of the greens and the occasional fun vibrant colors trickling in.

We arrived at this badass bamboo tunnel. I'm assuming that it had recently fallen over and had been cleared out to make way for hikers.


These stalks are massive!


More pretty wildlife to photograph. I had read that this forest was a good place for bird watching and has some unique species, but we didn't get to see any. So I took pictures of all the awesome, vibrant plants!


The Mountain Lioness in her natural habitat
Photo Credit: Robert Hodgen




Well the time came where the trail was no longer beautifully cleared out. This mess of bamboo was not as fun as the bamboo tunnels. I was already impressed with the state of the trail already, so no complaints about it not being all done. We decided to travel around the right of the pile. It was difficult. We couldn't find much that resembled a trail. 


But at least there were some more cool leaves and plants. We thought trying to get to the other side of the bamboo to continue on the trail would be straightforward. It wasn't. Like at all. But it was definitely our mistake.


At this point we were desperate so we saw this slope of mud, and I decided to crawl down.

It definitely wasn't a cave. So I crawled back out.


I pulled out my phone to pull up the coordinates of the caves. I looked up Cueva Alta first and it was still quite a ways away. I searched Cueva del Agua next, and it indicated that it was only 100 or so feet away. We trudged on through the bamboo. At this point I was determined, so I was going through quickly trying to find anything that resembled a trail. We were almost at the brink of totally giving up.


The obstacles eased up, and I spotted the orange marking tape on a tree that had a pretty well cleared trail. I called to Rob that I had found the trail. We could sort of see each other through the vegetation, but I could not remember what complicated route I took to navigate to where I was. Since my phone was telling me the cave was just a few feet away I followed the trail a bit to see if I could find it quickly. After all, the day's remaining sunlight was not on our side.


I got ahead of myself and kept following the trail instead of waiting for Rob to catch up. I got excited when I saw this creek and knew it had to be close. The trail was so easy to navigate now that I was practically running with excitement.


Then I saw this bad boy! So here is Cueva del Agua, or Cueva Agua, I'm not totally sure which since I have read it both ways. There were some crazy awesome formations and also some running water in the back of the cave.






Super rad ceiling!




Rob made it yay!



Get Dirty
Photo Credit: Robert Hodgen


Spiny plant



We couldn't linger too long because the sun would begin to set pretty soon. We were determined to see if there was a trail we missed going around all that bamboo so our hike back would be easier. Sure enough there was. You see the picture of the tree that has TWO ties of marker tape. Yea, that's the one we missed and made our lives much harder. Looking at it from the other side though, it was a lot less obvious.

We made it back to the car with enough daylight left and started driving out. The roads were rough, but at least we weren't lost in the woods.

We got back to the barrier. We already entered when we shouldn't have, so it was now time to park.

We found the campground. It was hiding behind a lot of fallen trees and everything that was cleared off the road. We never would have been able to park here anyway. Maybe that's why they left the road open. The other cave, Cueva Alta, is actually a brief walk from this area. Next time!


This was the type of road that we (aka Rob) were driving on pretty much from the highway to the trailhead at which we parked. Horses tied to the guardrails were a not uncommon occurrence.


I AM SO HAPPY WE GOT TO EXPLORE THE FOREST AND FOUND THE CAVE. I'm sorry Rob for leaving you behind! I promise I won't do it again! But I'm so glad you caught up!

Hurdles:


  • Not knowing what to expect. Turned out okay.
  • Didn't really see where to park, but that turned out okay too.
  • We didn't bring water or any kind of flashlight with us when we started the hike. Fortunately that turned out okay.
  • Missing the trailmarkers and making it much more challenging. We still found the trail again and made sure to not make the same mistake on the way back.
  • Racing the sunset, so we didn't get to explore quite as much.


Quote:



Relevant Resources


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Location: Bosque Estatal De Río Abajo, Utuado, 00641, Puerto Rico

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