Photo Friday--Backpacking Haleakala

May the Fourth be with you!

It's time for the final installment of photos from our recent trip to Maui (see here and here for the earlier posts). The "we" of the trip is the author, my husband, and our 20-year-old son. Sorry for the unmercifully long post!

The primary objective of our Maui trip was a 3-night, 4-day backpacking trip into and across the Haleakala crater. Lots of people dayhike from the rim down to the crater (though we didn't see all that many--it's not a trivial hike, involving typically about 11 miles and a 1000' climb back out of the crater). A few people each night use the 3 huts scattered around the crater, allowing them to eat and sleep indoors (and to carry less gear). Those of us who don't plan 6 months out get to carry our tents and do it the hard way.

We started by picking up our permit (free, but required) at the ranger station near the Park entrance, then driving all the way to the summit. That was well past our trailhead, but we wanted to see the view, if any. At the summit, we got none, but just below the clouds opened up to give us a glimpse of where we were headed.

Looking down into the west end of the crater

The weather cooperated reasonably well, and when we started our hike we could see what we faced.

We have to go down there. 1000' down, in about 17 switchbacks.

We made it down and across--and even back up a little!--to our campsite near the Holua hut. On this night, we shared the camping area with 2 other parties, but the remaining nights we were the only tenters. We set up camp, ate dinner, and enjoyed a subtle sunset before calling it a night.

In the morning, the sunrise was as advertised--spectacular.

Looking out through a gap in the rim toward the rising sun.

We eventually turfed Eldest Son out of bed, and got back on the trail. It was about 6 1/2 miles across the crater to our next camp, and since we'd mostly been biking, not backpacking, we wanted an early start and plenty of water in case it got hot (spoiler: it didn't. We carried way too much water).

The trail climbed through a band of very broken aa lava, and we detoured a bit to check out the silverswords, an endemic plant (and different from the equally endemic and endangered silversword on Mauna Kea). It was the wrong time of year to see them in bloom, but the drought-resistant hairy leaves make them a striking sight regardless.

Tiny hairs on the leaves reflect sunlight to conserve water, and give the plants their "silvery" look.

We gradually climbed up into an area of more cinders, making for a little smoother walking but also a little more work as the soft surface worked like sand.

Eldest Son (in red) and the author head off up the trail. And I thought the bottom of the crater would be flat!).

The terrain kept changing as we went, crossing endless cinder fields or lava flows from different times. The climate changed, as well, from the west end to the east.

Easy to tell the old from the new.

 Finally approaching the east wall, and it looked like the misty mountains in a Chinese painting.

The crater was a lesson in microclimates, since it was only 6 or 8 miles across the whole thing, but the weather could be very different one end to the other!

The Paliku hut was nestled under the rim, and surrounded by tall, wet grass (I'm pretty sure the grasses are invasive, but the rain is wholly native!). We got there in time for lunch, and selected a site near the hut and the trail to the outhouse, with a view out the Kaupo Gap. The sun eventually dried everything, until the evening dew soaked us all over again.

In the morning, we packed up the wet tents and headed back out, to return to Holua via the Kapalaoa hut, which I think has the best views of the three, but doesn't have a tenting area. If I were to do the hike again, I'd try to plan far enough ahead to spend a night in that hut.

A dry-looking morning. Heading back to the left of the small hills (we came in on the right).

The trail was a lesson in the different kinds of lava.

Ropy pahoihoi.

More pahoihoi. This might have been a lava dome.

Aa--the rough and broken stuff.

 It was also along in this stretch that we realized that we could see the summits on the Big Island (which isn't really very far away--30 miles across the channel, though it's farther to the peaks), though not very clearly--the islands do attract clouds.

We crossed a divide, and were looking back at the colorful end of the crater.  The contrasts of the red and dark cinders/lava made it a painted landscape.

All these cinder cones have names.

We lunched at the Kapalaoa hut, or at least snacked there. Every move was closely watched by one or more of the resident nenes. The nene (Hawaiian goose) is rare and endangered, with only a few hundred left, but you'd never know it around the Haleakala camps, as they have clearly learned that humans drop crumbs. Every one we saw was banded and well studied, I'm sure.

Nene pair for life, and most we saw were paired up. This one was either still single, or had lost his/her mate, because it was alone and thus all the more interested in us and our food.

Back at Holua, we got a prime campsite, and settled in before it started to rain. We even got our hiking clothes mostly dry. Despite the desert-like vegetation, the crater is a pretty wet place.

Tents make good drying racks, and clothes on top keep the sun from heating the tent so much.

By midnight it had settled in to rain, and it didn't stop. In the morning we took shelter in the rangers' stable (they weren't using it, and there was an area open to entry) to cook and eat breakfast out of the wet. That was a nice luxury! The temperatures were pretty mild, so it was a toss-up whether to wear rain gear or not. But the rain did offer a few nice touches. The rocks were extra dark, and the ferns extra green.

Final shot, climbing the 1000' crater rim in the rain. I did find that when we reached the rim, the higher altitude combined with exposure to the wind to make me wish I'd worn my rain gear. Live and learn!

Happily, the trial is wide and well made, to accommodate mules, so it wasn't scary even when wet.

That was about it! We got out in time to get lunch and showers (at the beach) before Eldest Son had to catch his flight home (we got an extra day, not having as far to go, and used it to drive back to Kipahulu from the south--so maybe there's one more set of photos to be had from this trip).

I'll leave you with one last picture, which I'm pretty sure is of a troll egg. Maybe this is where Gorg the Troll was born.

Okay, actually that would be a lava bomb.

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2018
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Photo Friday: The Hana Highway

Running a little late today! 

Do you have any idea how many photos you can shoot trying to catch the crashing surf at just the right moment? Editing the photos from our trip to Maui last month has been a challenge, to say the least. I'm still working on the crater, but today we'll drive the Hana Highway... in the rain (because it is a rain forest. Which has that word "rain" in the name for a reason).

For those who missed it, the first part of our trip (a day spent biking around West Maui; did I mention that we don't go on vacation to lie on the beach?) is here. The drive to Hana (and actually on beyond to the coastal part of Haleakala National Park at Kipahulu) was meant to be a recovery day.

We got an early start to beat most of the traffic. The narrow, sort-of-two-lane road to Hana has become a tourist destination, which is too bad, because the road would be perfect for biking if there were no cars! We knew starting out that the day would be wet, and while that made for some discomforts, our first waterfall stop, at Twin Falls, showed us one advantage. The falls were running fast and full (of mud).

Nature hard at work turning the smooth slopes of Haleakala into the deep fins of the West Maui mountains.

The rain only picked up from there, so our stop to explore the bamboo forest (and look for another waterfall) required full rain gear.

There's actually a trail there. Right by the pole.

 Our trail soon dead-ended in a swollen stream, but we found other routes through the bamboo (with some part of my mind wondering if we'd find our way back out).

A botanical garden was the next stop, where we were a little disappointed to find the focus was exclusively on plants from *other* parts of the tropics. Still, the Painted Gums (eucalyptus) were beautiful.

Of course, no exploration of the coast would be much good without shooting 1000 photos trying to capture the crashing surf.

Coasts like this are part of why we weren't lying on beaches and swimming in the Pacific. That, and the rain.

The route was also littered with little fruit-and-snack stands, and we had to try some of the fruits we'd never seen before. To our surprise (we are fruit people), we didn't like the star apples we bought here.

It might be the back of beyond, but credit cards are accepted!

After rounding the corner past Hana (the easternmost point of the island), the rain tapered off, and shortly after we got to the Kipahulu campground the sun came out, changing the feel of everything.

It's not easy to dry the footgear in a rainforest.

The next day was another waterfall day, including the 4 mile hike to a series of waterfalls in the park.

Start with the Ohe'o pools, and the falls between.

Still kind of damp and grey, but the rain here was obviously lighter, and the water is running pretty clear.

Up the mountain on a generally well-built trail.

The spouse heads up the trail.

Partway up, you pass the falls of Makahiku. Above those, another series of beautiful pools in the dark volcanic rock entices the hiker, but the signs warn you these are not safe places to wade, since the 200' falls are just below.

This is not a tree we would see at home. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm pretty sure it's sentient.

End of the trail--Waimoku Falls. 400' tall, and a very popular destination. We managed to enjoy it in solitude thanks to a very early start, but as we went down, we met a lot of people sweating their way up in the increasingly warm day.

I can't go anywhere without some flower photos.

Back to the coast, and all packed up, we went looking for one more waterfall. This time it was sunny, warm, and the water--unlike our Sierra streams--was cool, not cold. The route to the falls wasn't completely obvious, but we found it, and were able to get go for a little swim, and even to get dry, not something we'd been much for the last 3 days.

Alelele Falls

Back through Hana--and back into the rain, leading us to buy lunch from a food truck purely because that one had covered tables--and on to Waianapanapa State Park. Camping here felt odd at first--the camping area is sort of in the middle of everything, and during the day, people are everywhere so it felt a bit like setting up camp in Grand Central Station.  But we staked our claim, and I have to say the view was great, especially as the rain gave up and visibility improved some.

The intrepid author prepares dinner.

This was the place to go for mesmerizing surf.

The spouse, the son, and a random stranger try for the perfect surf photo.

Surf sequence.

Finally, it wouldn't be right to go without a photo of the sadly abundant mongoose. The mongoose is an invasive animal, brought (I think) in a misguided attempt to control the destructive rats that the ships had brought. Naturally, they find the native birds an easier target, especially the eggs of those that nest on the ground.

They don't hold still much to get a good shot.

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2018
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Photo Friday: Biking Maui

Leaving SF and all those clouds

To arrive in Maui with all those clouds...

Recently the Ninja Librarian and spouse traveled to Maui for a bit of a vacation. Being the people we are, it didn't involve a whole lot of lying around and relaxing. First thing we did on arriving was rent a pair of bikes for the next day, with a plan to ride around West Maui (58+ miles and 4400' of climbing, for those who want to know--actually a little easier than the ride we might have done had we been at home).

I'm going to give a shout-out to Krank Cycles of Makawao, because we didn't really get how the whole bike rental thing works, and showed up at 4:30 Saturday afternoon, figuring it would be easy to pick up a couple of bikes and be on our way. In fact, the place was busy, and the lone salesclerk/mechanic, Josh, ended up staying about an hour and a half past closing to ready a couple of bikes for us. So they get top ratings from us.

This guy was on the sidewalk in front of the bike shop. Definitely not an SF thing.

With bikes in hand, we were able to start about 7:30 the next morning from our hostel in Wialuku. The typical weather pattern gave us a good shower early in the morning, which stopped before we left.

Ready to start, atop a bike worth more than the whole trip cost. For three of us. Yow.

It sprinkled on us a bit early on the ride but the sun soon came out, though for the most part temperatures were mild. That was good, because I don't handle heat and humidity well at all.

The road the first several miles ran through what you might call the suburbs, and had a good shoulder but light traffic (at that hour on a Sunday morning, anyway). The straight road soon gave way to curves, then at 6 1/2 miles, the road became more or less a one-lane strip of pavement clinging to the side of the mountains high above the Pacific. With even less traffic, this was the marvelous part! None of the hills was steep enough or long enough to give us any trouble, and the rain had gone so we could see views of the coast, if not much of the mountains (they remained covered in clouds for most of our visit to the island).

Not California, either.

NE coast with a hint of Molokai in the distance.

No ride is complete without a stop for something we shouldn't be eating, so at 14 miles we stopped at Kahakuloa and bought banana bread at Lorraine's Shave Ice (we didn't have shave ice, since breakfast was too recent).

I guess it's a town.

The intrepid cyclists.

We ate the bread 6 miles on at the Nakalele Blowhole, which was the first place we suddenly saw lots of cars.

Yum.

Nakalele Blowhole; like a geyser or a whale spouting, you never know just when it will perform.

People were just as fascinated by the nearby heart-shaped rock. Which isn't accurate, because the heart shape is the part that isn't rock.

The blowhole in fact represented the end of the really tranquil part of the ride, though the road remained narrow, winding, and not too heavily traveled until about mile 26, when we began to approach Kapalua. I have to say that the giant resorts there, seen after several hours in the jungle, looked like something dropped in from outer space. The people who stay there are not like us (for one thing, they are way more willing to spend money).

Though we were only about halfway, that point also marked the end of the really good riding. We turned south along Highway 30 and began sailing south, pushed by a brisk north wind. Even at that, it took far too long to reach Lahaina and find a place to get lunch. I was getting pretty cranky before we stopped! Salads and smoothies at the Bamboo Fresh Cafe, which was about pretty much a parody of itself with everything natural, organic, local, and careful to say so.

We had the Starburst, because it looked the least like anything we'd find at home.

After lunch, we found the wind a little less cooperative, and at times the sun a bit much. For just one short stretch we found ourselves climbing a hill in intense sun, with no breeze, and had a moment of doubt that we might be in trouble (and a reminder of what it might have been like if the weather hadn't been cool and rainy in places). Fortunately, the wind came up, and while it was no fun to fight that, it was better than cooking in the hot sun. Much of the way was right along the shore, where hundreds of people lined the beaches, baking themselves or playing in the mild waves (that stretch of the island is sheltered by Lanai and has little surf). It was something to look at while riding, and I like the ocean, so not bad. We didn't stop for photos, since the sun was high and the light awful.

At 51 miles, we turned north to cross the island back to Wailuku, and the wind's efforts to cool us were suddenly assisted by rain, which persisted for those last 7 miles (so absolutely no photos, as cameras were wrapped in plastic for protection). Drowned rats would be the apt description of us by the end, but unlike cycling at home in the rain, we were not at all cold. So we finished in style, dripping wet but happy. A shower, a drive to return the bikes and pick up dinner (and ice cream), and a night's sleep had us ready for the next adventure (which fortunately involved a lot of sitting in the car).

On the road back to the bike shop. Rain begets rainbows!

Stay tuned for more--rainforest explorations, waterfalls, and backpacking the volcano (I told you we don't relax on vacation).

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2018
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!