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The trail to Freshwater Lake (L'Etang) starts near the village of Laudat at an elevation of about 2500', located on the south-central portion of Dominica. The hike to this Lake is easy and follows a flat grade that runs along side a hydropipeline. In the adjacent photograph, Margaret is following our guide, Irving along the pipeline. This trail runs in an west to east direction along the southern flank of Morne Macaque (Microtin), which has a maximum elevation of just over 4000'.


Freshwater Lake as pictured to the right is a man-made lake that was created through the construction of a low-earthen dike and lies at the base of the east flank of Morne Macaque. This lake was constructed to provide a source of hydropower for the island. This is a very picturesque area, the grey rocks in the foreground are covered with lichens. From here the trail skirts the west side of the lake and then follows a stream northward that lies along the base Morne Macaque. The water in this stream runs clear and cool except for occasional hot water seeps from the rocks above, where the water is orange colored from the high iron content. Along this trail is secondary vegetation where we observed several of the Island's rarest hummingbirds, the Blue-headed Hummingbird, which is found primarily in the rainforest.

The trail becomes a path that gradually ascends the northeast flank of Morne Macaque and leads to Boeri Lake. The photograph to the left is a view looking back across Freshwater Lake. Steep portions of the trail are being improved by the government with steps which also help to control erosion. As the elevation increases, there is an increase in epiphytic vegetation, the largest ones being bromeliads. Coincidentally, you will begin to here the sweet music or whistle of the rainforest bird called the Rufous-sided Solitaire, in the thrush family.
Paul Griswold Howes wrote the book entitled "Photographer in the rainforest" in 1969. The rainforests of Dominica are a featured chapter in this wonderful publication. Mr. Howes describes this bird as follows:
"We were often charmed in the rain-forest by the Rufous-throated Solitaire, Myadestes genibaris, known to the natives as the Siffleur de Montagne, a bird found only in the islands of Jamaica, Hispaniola, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. It was my favorite Dominican songster, a softly gray-plumaged thrush with a rufous throat, foreneck and posterior underparts, and with its white outer tail feathers, white chin, and white lower eyelids, a distinctively marked, and delicately built species.

Listening intrigued as its whistles issued from the forest depths again one day, I had written in my field note book:

The Mountain Whistler does not appear to descend in these forests below 1000 feet. In the forest where we are it is heard or seen on nearly every walk, and its calls and songs vary greatly. Sometimes one hears a series of gorgeously clear, ascending notes sounding through the green halls, as sweet and liquid as those from a silver flute. Again, they will be less perfect, even slightly out of key, but pleasing nevertheless. I like to hear it best when all else is silent and nothing stirs, and the voice then issues from some deep and distant gorge or canyon just at evening, and before the shrill piping of frogs and the harsh locust chorus takes over. It is then that it seems to fit the environment as at no other time. It makes one feel the joy of the open and the tonic of a mountain world. One feels in addition, that here is the ideal setting of Nature, something I believe almost everyone pictures more or less vaguely in his or her mind. When one finds the perfect setting and the perfect bird inhabitant together, the resulting song seems somehow to be just what one had hope to hear." By mid-morning, clouds began to form over the center of the Island. by the time we reached Boeri Lake, there was intermittent showers. Irving and Margaret have reached the end of the trail overlooking Boeri Lake, at elevation 2800'. Irving carried several grapefruits on the hike and this location split open the grapefruits and shared pieces with Margaret and I. This was very refreshing and there is no grapefruit as sweet as those grown on Dominica. In the morning, we forego our usual cup of coffee for fresh squeezed grapefruit.

Boeri Lake is an old caldera which has become flooded and is approximately 117' deep. The rocks around the shoreline are very slick and dangerous to walk upon.

We retraced our steps down the trail and stopped at Roxy's for lunch. From here Irving took us to the nearby Titou's Gorge. The water in the gorge is cold but the swim upstream ends at a waterfall. A float downstream on your back, provides for spectacular views of the walled gorge and the rainforest trees above. At the exit of the gorge, there is a hot water spring available which provides a great contrast to the cold water. At this location is the Titou hydropower station. The pipline from Freshwater Lake above, decends down a step hillside as pictured here, to run the turbines in the facility.