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I wish I could remember how I met Jack and Janet. They were with the 1967 Peace Corps group that trained on Udot, in what was then Truk. I must have met them at some Peace Corps teachers' gathering because we all started out in then education area. Whatever the case, they invited me to spend the night at their beautiful Japanese-seeming home on the road that leads out to Sokehs Island. I mentioned our return to that property during the visit we made last year. The house was, of course, long gone, and is now replaced by the Palm Terrace, a lavish hotel and bar.
Jack was an inveterate hiker and still would be except that he has to go somewhat easy on his knee and hip replacements. When he was a Volunteer he made two marathon hikes--well, at least two--one of them around the island on the path that was left over from the Japanese era (the pig interstate) and the other up into the mountains of Net and down into the Sapwalap Valley of Madolenihmw. Here's how Jack described them in a recent email.
- Michuo Daniel and I left my house at 5:00 a.m. in the dark but easily following the road to Palikir. It got to be light as things became difficult. We took the shore trail even to the causeway part around Enpein into Madolenihmw and on through Uh to the start of the Kolonia road by the Dousoukele bridge. As it started getting dark we got to my house at 7:10. So: 26 hours and 10 min we walked pretty much non-stop. Of course, it's much easier today with the road and the short cuts!
- [The mountain trek] is hazier. I did it on my own. I had heard of the old Japanese road over the mountains. I believe it started on the Uh side of the Nanpil river as I don't recall crossing a river in land. The trail was very overgrown but became clearer in the mountains where the trees shaded out the undergrowth. The mountain did not seem particularly high at that point. With the overgrowth I could not see much. When I got into Madolenihmw, I just turned around and returned to Kolonia. I think the round trip was four to five hours.
- On another time Janet and I went by boat to Madolenihmw and walked back to Kolonia through Uh and Net. Jan found the single log bridges a challenge. The "road" was good in some areas where residents maintained it and a muddy mess in other places. It probably took six to eight hours.
Jack and Janet have lived near Honolulu most of their adult lives, and Elaine and visited them in 1988, after Elaine won a door prize that gave her two free TWA tickets to anywhere in the world. As we could not afford to actually eat or do anything at other international destinations
(besides sitting in the airport waiting for our return flight), we hit on the idea of visiting the Gillmars, and they generously accepted our self invitation. I wrote up an entire booklet on that trip, which was wonderful from the first minute to the last.
Traveling back to Pohnpei with Jack and Janet in 2013 was the best and only way for me to see the island again. My thanks again to them and to Loren Peterson for this wonderful opportunity to see Pohnpei 43 years later!
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