[Trail Log]

Stuff - GPS files; pictures; gear tips. Read about it here.

Day 0 - Traveling to Hilo; getting hiking passes; getting supplies; being bored. Read about it here.

Day 1 - Driving to the trail head; hiking to Red Hill cabin. Read about it here.

Day 2 - From Red Hill cabin to the summit cabin. Read about it here.

Day 3 - From the summit cabin to the actual summit; back down to Red Hill cabin. Read about it here.

Day 4 - From Red Hill cabin back to trail head. Read about it here.

   [What to do in Hawaii]

I've been going out to Hawaii roughly yearly for the past several years. Prior to this visit I've always had friends living out there who could provide entertainment. Now they're all married and have moved back to the "mainland". Sucks. I knew I wouldn't be content sitting on a beach for two weeks so I found a web site that listed popular hikes in Hawaii; sorted them by difficulty (descending) and went with the first one. I'm like that. The hike was, of course, the ~40 mile (more if you decide to summit) round-trip up Mauna Loa - the largest volcano in the world. I was instantly hooked. I read everything available on the net including many first-hand accounts of the hike; it was all very useful information. Do your research.

And it goes without saying that my true first choice for a hike would be the Haiku Stairway (aka Stairway to Heaven) on O'ahu, which has been closed (to one degree or another) for some years now. Of course, that's only a quick day-hike. Anyway....

   [About Mauna Loa]

Mauna Loa is a shield volcano, which didn't mean much to me when I first started looking into it. In short, it's very long and wide and gently sloping; probably not like most mountains you may have hiked. There is no panoramic view of the surrounding island awaiting you at the top - only endless lava fields and craters; albeit spectacular lava fields and amazing craters.

Mauna Loa is part of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and anyone doing this hike has to get a hiking pass. It's free. Or so they say. They neglect to mention that one has to pay $10 to get into the park - the park that houses the headquarters where the rangers are who issue the hiking passes. As luck would have it, some "Friends of the Park" arranged to let everyone in for free that day, although they wanted a donation. I politely declined. I'm like that. I asked the ranger if there was any way to get the hiking passes without being physically present, and he hesitantly suggested that one could just call. However, the pass is a physical tag thing, so one would still have to get into the park to pick it up I assume. I think they really want you to pay that $10. Oh well.

Getting the pass is relatively easy, but there are some restrictions. First, one can only get the pass as much as twenty-four hours in advance. Also, they only allow a certain number of people on the volcano at a time. The limitation is set by the number of bunks in each cabin. There are eight bunks in the Red Hill cabin and twelve in the summit cabin. First come, first serve. You will be asked a bunch of questions about who all will be going on the hike, whether anyone in your group has done the hike before (and when), colors of sleeping bags (in case they have to go searching for you, I assume), emergency contact information, and so forth. Nothing too invasive. The ranger should also be able to provide you with relatively recent information on the water level at each cabin.

   [Gear]

I mention a lot of the specific gear I brought here. One thing that might not be obvious at first is that one can't simply check one's pack. Those millions of straps are an airport nightmare. They'll never take it. I bought an Osprey Airporter ($19), which was sufficiently large for my Acrux 65, sleeping bag, boots and a few other things. It was best carried by tossing it over my shoulder. Not really very comfortable for more than a couple of minutes, however. Invest two dollars in one of those rent-a-carts. You'll thank me. And don't forget that you can't check propane/butane/etc fuel. Well, you can, but they won't be happy with you if they find out. Consequently, I completely forgot about the fuel canister when I was returning from my vacation, and so it flew in my pack, first from Hilo to Honolulu and then from Honolulu back to Atlanta. They totally missed it. Or didn't care. It was also at the bottom of a pack with a multitude of straps, snaps and lids. Perhaps they didn't want to bother.

   [Getting Around]

I flew from Atlanta to San Francisco to Honolulu to Hilo. I had been in Honolulu a couple times previously but this was my first time in Hilo. I learned a lot about both places. For instance, the Honolulu airport is pretty much abandonded at night. Further, there are no inter-island flights at night. My flight from Atlanta arrived at 22.00 and the first flight to Hilo was at 05.30. The chairs in the Honolulu airport were not comfortable at all. I don't recommend them. The hairy guy who slept on the floor beside the chairs looked pretty comfortable. He also looked like he did this sort of thing a lot.

Melissa and I watched The Lake House on her laptop (seriously bad movie), and I watched Battlestar Galactica episodes on my iPod, and paced several miles back and forth from the seats to the road and back. Seven hours later we were on a flight to Hilo.

Once in Hilo I went to pick up the rental car. I had specifically chosen the cheapest possible car, and for a good reason: one has to park this car at the trail head for four days and I really wanted the car to be there when I got back from the hike. The rangers will recommend that you not leave anything valuable in the car, but in this case I would be leaving all of my "stuff" for the remainder of the two-week vacation in the car. Stuff that I wanted. Very much. The rental car company couldn't find my car at first, and then realized that it was flagged for maintenance, and then couldn't find the alternate car, and the lady finally got annoyed with waiting and upgraded me to a shiny, blue Jeep Grand Cherokee - truly a nice vehicle. However, it wasn't quite as inconspicuous as I was hoping for. We had stolen a couple Delta blankets, so we covered up the suitcases in the back of the Jeep as best as we could. It was sufficient. Or maybe no thieves wanted to drive 30 miles outside of Hilo and then 13 miles up a sad little road with no guarantee of anything worthwhile being there. Whatever.