So, one morning, I decide to pack water and some lunch, put on my field clothes, and go on adventure alone.
Why alone? Because I'm not sure whether others that spend their working time at the forest will spend their off day hiking said forest. In my mind, it takes too much just to persuade. But by this post, I hope someday others will join me on my next hike.
All set, I depart at 8 am, following Mas Rendy trail. This trail was named after foreign researcher Randall Kyes, one of the earliest researcher at Tangkoko Reserve. about 300 m into the trail, I met a Sulawesi Bear Cuscus (Ailurops ursinus) that just started to climb from the ground. Even when it avoiding me, I still can see it up close. This animals is an endemic spesies of Sulawesi and nearby islands.
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| Wait, who are you? |
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| Oh, hai. I thought you were someone else. Wanna join me up there? |
Then I continue my hike up up and away, until I finally get off the grid. The mapped area only covers up to 1300 m distance from beach. Then, 600 m off-grid, I saw my first wild Macaca nigra. Because they were wild ones and not habituated to human researchers like the study groups we had, they ran away and takes position not less than 80 m and up on big trees there. This part of forest had numerous big trees, seeing one with more than 20 m height is not uncommon here. From the trees, those group observe me while making cautious vocalization. I continue following the trail.
The forest fire were eating up a good portion of forest, even on this area. Higher trees survive and green, but smaller one withered because the fire.
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| Withered area around the trails. The firefighters were working so hard they succeed minimizing the damage |
After a while following the trail, I found man-made structure. It was a sign for permanent transect for carbon count (whatever that is, I don't know yet). The sign said that I was 278 m above sea level. At this point, I didn't know how far I had stray from the research area.
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| The signboard |
I continue walk the trail until I hit a point that was marked as [1ig fig] on the GPS. The thing that I found there was an enormous Ficus tree. That was the largest Ficus tree I had seen so far.
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| Look at that thick trunk |
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| Up close. I never succeed to take a picture that shows how enormous it was |
The hike continues. Next place that marked on the GPS was labeled [Ficus minahassae]. Little did I know that it was a species name, not a place. So it was Ficus minahassae. This plant is the mascot fauna of North Sulawesi, bearing the local name Langusei. And this tree was way taller than the previous [1ig fig].
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| So tall |
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| An obligatory selfie. I'm not even sorry |
I continue going up the trail. There is still point marked [Big Tetrameles] and [Bigbolang]. Up there the microclimate start to gradually changed to mountain climate. The forest also start to resemble rainforest with mountain accent (go visit Mount Pangrango at West Java, you will know what I mean).
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| A more forest-like trail further off the grid |
My hike leads me to [Big Tetrameles] point. What I found there was shocking, but also sad. The point marks a giant tree, Tetrameles nudiflora, a plant from family Tetrameleceae. Sadly, the enormous tree was the victim of last forest fire. It was so sad to see a giant trunk lay down on it own ash...
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| Trunk opening near the root. I could actually walk there straight up |
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| Root size compared with my backpack. Biggest tree I've ever seen here so far |
Actually there is still marked area that I not yet visited, which is [woka] and [Big Fig]. But as the time clock past 11 am, I decide to go back to get a rest at lower area. I can't rest for long up there because I didn't bring my chair and the forest there was full of Gonone, a local name for some kind of louse that had nasty bite and left a lingering itch for days.
Next time, I'll go further and visit the [woka] and [Big Fig] points, also pass until get to flat area that can oversee all the Tangkoko reserve. For my next trip, I'll be delighted if anybody want to join. It was good to go alone, but it will be better if we had others to chat with on the way to relieve the tiredness...
Pos 3 Tangkoko, 7 November 2015
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