A lesson learned

So today I officially went on my first hike in Dominica. Sure, I've done trips where there have been some hiking, but pretty short ones (~30 min). My idea of hiking is 2-3 hrs. worth of hiking. That's what I'm used to from back home. 2-3 hrs. is essentially 5-8 miles in NC. Granted, it's pretty darn flat, so it's not that difficult, just long. So today was my first long hike since I've been here. I hiked the Capuchin to Pennville Trail, which is like 8 km (or 5 mi for all you non-metric folk). Now, in the guidebook this hike is rated a 2 out of 5 (in my mind I was actually thinking it was a 1 while we were on it and I was about to go ballistic on the writers!), where 1 is the easiest and 5 being most difficult. I had asked around and people said it was a pretty easy hike. I've now learned that all these scales and opinion are REALLY RELATIVE!! This was not my idea of an easy hike (not what I had imagined at all), but I definitely wouldn't call it difficult either. It was a moderate hike. All in all, there were parts that there were a lot of hills (especially at the beginning), but the last 1/2 was more even or down-hilled mostly (which really helped). We completed the hike in around 3 hrs (maybe a tad bit longer). If we didn't have to wait for a few REALLY slow people in our group, we definitely could've done it in 2-1/2 hrs easy. The guidebook (if you're wondering which one I'm always referring to, it's Bradt's Dominica) says guide is recommended...well, I think it should be required! At some places its pretty well marked, but there are numerous forks and ultimately the trail is pretty covered and hard to see. I had thought that I would only need one time and then I could remember the way, and that's totally not the case (sorry Matt, when you come down and if you want to do the hike, I'll find us a guide!). Also, it just so happened that it rained the majority of the time (downpoured at one point). This is typical in Dominica and I figured that it probably would rain, especially since it had been raining off and on since the night before (that's okay, we really needed it!). By the way (tangent coming), people never cease to amaze me. One of the guys (obviously one of the two we waited on) actually brought an umbrella on the hike. I'm sorry, but you're in the elements in the middle of the jungle...live a little! Anyway, this in my mind was supposed to be one of the easy hikes here. I was using it to gauge my ability to go on the harder hikes that are around (Boiling Lake- which is rated 5 and is 3 hrs each way, etc). So I think the lesson learned here is that there's no way that I'd survive the Boiling Lake hike, so I should just kiss that option good-bye. I might try a 3 hr. level 3 hike, and maybe if I'm ambitious a 4, but only if it's less than an hour. Not all people's minds (and bodies) have the same idea of easy!! I'll let you know the next hike I partake in!