Photos 4, page 24
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Kayak Kona Side
| February 21, 2008 |
More Royal Gardens
| February 23, 2008 |
| I was having troubles with work so I decided to take the day off and expend some physical energy. I got in the car and went over to Kona side (white line). First, I kayaked at Kawaihae, but that was kind of boring so I reloaded the kayak and explored my way down to Puako Bay (magenta line). |
| On the way over, I got these pictures of Mauna Kea |
| A catamaran coming out of the boat basin at Kawaihae |
| Monohulls (one hull) less stable than the others but good handling |
| Trimaran (three hulls) extremely stable and good handling |
| Catamaran (two hulls) very stable but not-that-good handling |
| Exploring from Kawaihae to Puako at Kanekanaka Point near Hapuna Beach. Definitely 4WD. |
| The Kilauea update page was telling me that the lava was even closer to Royal Gardens and so I decided to try again to get to the top. This time I left much earlier so that I would have enough time to get there. First I overlaid the latest map into Google Earth and marked the locations where the lava ended and put them into my GPS so I'd have some idea where I was going when I got out there. |
| For reference, I've included the 12-20-06 hike (pink line) and the hike from the 17th (pink line up to "Rest", light green line back down from) where I didn't even make it as far up the hill as I did last December. |
| Well, I didn't make it this time either but at least I made it farther up the stupid hill! It's just really hard hiking!. It took me 4 hours to get up (green line) and 2 1/2 hours to get down (magenta line). I turned back at "Turn Back" but then decided to give it one more try but only got as far as "Turn Agin". One thing I discovered was that the umbrella I carried in case of rain turned out to be excellent sun shade since there was absolutely no shade out there at all and it was HOT! Note all the breaks and rest stops on the way up and only a couple on the way down. |
| I'm trying to get to the top of the hill above the vegetation center left. If you look closely, you can see a whiter cloud at the ridge line. That's it. |
| Here's a look up the hill I'm trying to climb. The smooth lava is pahoehoe, the rough stuff is A'a and is all loose and clinkery and SHARP! One does not want to walk on A'a. |
| Another look up the hill. This is getting ridiculous! |
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