Hiking and Petroglyphs: Colorado Springs School Day 8

St. John, USVI

Sofia O. ('23), Taylor H. ('23), Taylor H. ('24)

Early this morning, after our lovely breakfast of french toast casserole, we went over emergency protocols. We learned what to do and covered everyone's job in case of a man overboard, a fire, and abandon ship. Then we headed out on the dories to Maho Beach in Saint John, where we had a long day ahead of us. Saint John has a national park, and we planned to take a hike through it and land on Reef Bay. Along the way, there were several plaques containing details about trees, ruins, and fruit bearing plants. Some topics included: lime trees, mango trees, pineapple plants, and rum trees. Part of the hike was an old cart path dating from the 18th and 19th century. 

We stopped at the petroglyphs from pre colonial times made by Taino people, who were natives to the island. At the site is a freshwater pool, inhabited by dragonflies, gliders, and various freshwater creatures. We were given a journal prompt to draw one of the petroglyphs and write a story about it. Journal entries ranged from ninja stories, prophecies, to back stories of the people drawn in the petroglyphs. We also ate lunch before heading back on the trail. 

On the hike there were ruins from a sugar plantation and even a ruin of an old factory, some of the machinery still remains intact. The trail led to a beach called Reef Bay, where we spent half an hour swimming and cooling off from our 2 hour long hike. After dipping in the water, we started heading back on the trail we came from. It took about 2 hours to make it back to Maho Beach, and we were back on the Roseway in time for dinner. Our wonderful cook, Jen, made us chicken parmesan to refill us after our long day. After chores we ended the day with a movie night. We watched a highly requested movie loosely based on sailing, Moana.