Photos 6, page 7
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Lava Hike
| October 16, 2009 |
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| Here's a plot of my route. It's plotted on an overlay map from 10/16 of the latest lava flow info from the Kilauea Update page. The pink areas are lava flows since 2/28/08. The darker red area (top left corner) is the new lava. When I started out, I tried to stay on the old road (with no references whatsoever). When the ground started getting too hot for comfort, I veered to the north in search of surface lava. It turned out that I was following the lava tube through which the lava is flowing to the sea (yellow line). It got so hot out there, I headed straight for the nearest shade to rest. After I rested, I almost turned back but decided on one last try. I finally found the lava flow, poked it with my stick, and headed back to the car, satisfied (magenta line)... |
| 12:34 PM |
| 12:56 PM @ 004 It's really hot out here! Where can I find some shade? |
| 1:28 PM @ "Shade" I was feeling faint by the time I crawled into these bushes for some relief from the sun. |
| 1:28 PM @ "Shade" After I had rested, I crawled out and considered heading back to the car. While I was thinking about it, I took this panorama of my bush. I realized that the silvery lava out there was new lava - not so far away! Let's give it a go... |
| 1:34 PM @ 005 So I headed toward it... |
| 1:41 PM @ "L07" "L" for lava - I could just make out the orange glow at the tip of the lava flow |
| 1:44 PM approaching 007 All that silvery stuff is hot new lava |
| 1:45 PM approaching 007 |
| 1:45 PM approaching 007 There's a helicopter at the top of the picture. |
| 1:50 PM @ 007 OK, there it is... |
| The noise from the helicopters is almost constant as everyone has come out to look at the lava. |
| <-- 1:54 PM - Here's a movie (16.6 MB) And another (34.7 MB) --> See, it isn't dangerous. I can walk faster than that! But it sure is hot! |
| 1:59 PM Having poked my hiking stick into the hot lava and set it on fire, I can head home a happy guy! |
| 2:44 PM @ E O R Did I say it was hot? I had just gotten back onto pavement when I decided I needed to crawl into the bushes again for some shade. |
| 3:03 PM @ 011 Almost back to the car, it's good to get into the shade... |
Another Lava Hike
| October 22, 2009 |
| So I went to see... |
| Both the same image: one without and one with the overlay map from Kilauea Update page for 10/22. They don't show the new lava flows because they are on top of the older ones. A friend called and said she'd heard that the lava flow was approaching the road. The Kilauea Update page said it was too. So I made a quick Road) but I chose to go around to the north (green line). I got to "010" and saw that the new lava extended all the way to the vegetation and I couldn't get through to the road from that direction. I went back around (magenta line) and was going to go out the road and approach the lava from that direction. As I neared the "Booth" at the top of the trail to the viewing area, I saw county pickup truck go by. Not wanting to get busted for being there before the place opened, I turned around and went back to the car and skedaddled. |
| 2:11 PM What's the definition of optimist? Not even out to the parking area and I saw this new house going up... |
| 2:25 PM @ 003 The activity on the pali |
| 2:39 PM @ 007 That's the new stuff... |
| A view of the plume, the new (silvery) lava, the heat waves coming off it, and the ever-present helicopters... |
| 2:43 PM @ "Poke" The stick is on fire but the wind is blowing so hard that you can't see the flame... |
| 2:41 PM between 007 and "Poke" |
| 2:51 PM @ 010 |
| 2:45 PM @ "Poke" |
| The lava has cut across to the bushes. I can't get through to the road so I have to go back around the way I came... |
| Here's an aerial photograph taken today that I downloaded from the HVO web page. It gives a really good view of where everything is... |
| back again. The road from the visitors' parking goes out the bottom of the picture. |
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