I just got back from a trip to Tahiti and Moorea. On Sunday, August 31st, I hiked Mou’Aputa.

According to local legend, the 30-foot hole in the top of the mountain was caused by a spear piercing the mountain.

I started at 7:30 in the morning. The hiking trail begins through a residential neighborhood, so you can park anywhere along the main island road.

Here’s a link to the activity on Strava. It was quite a steep hike, and since I hadn’t done any hiking recently, I maintained a very slow and steady pace on the way up. https://www.strava.com/activities/15654698923

Here’s a picture from when the hike first starts after leaving the local neighborhoods.

On a short detour on the way to the top, you can visit Vaioro Waterfall, which is shown below.

One of the things that was different from most of the Washington hiking I’ve done before is that this is jungle terrain. The dense jungle is unlike anything I’ve hiked before.

Most sections of the hike before the ridgeline were through dense forest, and the middle half of the hike followed a riverbed.

There was even some pretty interesting foliage along the way. This one, for example, has square leaves!

Here’s a picture from when I first started hiking along the ridge to the top of the mountain.

Here’s a quick selfie with the view of the mountain and ocean below. Once you reach the final ridge to the top, it becomes very steep. There are steep dropoffs on each side of the trail as you follow the ridge to the top. About half of the ascent required ropes to assist the climb. The AllTrails description advised against hiking this trail when it rains because it becomes muddy and slippery. Just my luck - it rained for 20 minutes right as I was getting to the top. This turned all the mud very slippery. I decided to turn around at this point even though I was only several hundred feet from the top. If the terrain was anything like the steep sections I’d already climbed, it would have been almost impossible to get back down safely in such slippery conditions.

The way back down was pretty miserable. It was so slippery I slipped and fell 4-5 times. My boots, hands, and shorts were covered in mud by the time I got to the bottom. The descent was even slower than my ascent because every step needed to be calculated to ensure I didn’t lose my grip. If I were to do this hike again, I’d definitely make sure it was on a completely sunny day with no rain. I’d also bring some spikes for my boots to get more traction in the mud.

Even though I didn’t make it to the top, the views of the valley and ocean made it worth it!