Bike & hike to Mt. Maitland | Grenada

As I mentioned in a previous post, when I see a mountain, I have to be on top of it. During our visit to Fort Frederick, I saw this very obvious mountain, which is close to St. Georg's and thus promises agreat view onto the city and the beaches. Its name is Mount Maitland and it can be easily recognized by the big radiomast on top of it, but they are not on the summit. 

The summit of Mt.Maitland in the background

After looking on the map of cariboutdoor.com, I planned the route and loaded it onto my smartphone. Of course I want to conquer the mountain without any help, it was the perfect tour for my rental mountainbike, especially since a dirt track reaches all the way up to the radio mast. My real target, of course, was the real summit of Mt. Mailtand. I was thinking, if there are mountain lovers on the island, there must be a trail along the ridge from the mast to the summit.

 I started at the Shell gas station at Lagoon road at 8 o'clock and fought my way up towards Mt. Parnassus.
The road is pretty steep sometimes but manageable. Only in the last third of the route, there is a very steep section. I got a good rain shower in this area, that helped me to keep cool and cycle the steep section.
On the dirt track, I pushed the bicycle most of the time. It is very steep and washed out. Not far from the mast, I locked my bike and started walking.
An hey, in the last corner I could see a path which seemed to go along the rich towards the summit. That's exacly what I was expection and hoping for. But first I went to the masts to enjoy the view. And it is really great! Have a look at the picture.

Point Salines, Quarantine Point, Grand Anse Bay and St. George's

The view towards the real summit of Mt. Maitland. It must be the one which touches the clouds.

Next, I started at the trailhead to approach the summit. It was very muddy and slippery but I think I was pretty lucky about the state of the trail. It was cutlassed recently. Still, at some places it was not obvious where to continue.
To my disgrace, I must admit that I did not reach the summit. What happened? There was lots of Scleria scindens a.k.a. razor grass on the way and I was wearing short pants. After about one third of the way, my legs were bleeding and thanks to my sweat, burning like hell. It did not make sense to continue like this for a longer time.
I have to come back!

The trail was in good condition in the beginning	Don't think this is the summit. It's still far and at this point I had to search for the trail.