I woke to a glorious day. I had pretty much resigned myself to the assumption that I would be biking to Hilo in the mist, but the sun decided to pay us a visit today. It's hard to believe how nice and cool it was last night; I was actually glad to have the down comforter on my bed!
Today was the last of the wonderful B&B breakfasts - I'm in a backpacker's lodge for the next two nights, and hotels for the last two. But today's breakfast was marvelous again: papaya boats, a wonderful quiche, juice, and kona coffee. A very good start to the day.
When I spoke to Robert as I was leaving the B&B this morning, he told me to send my friends there - he said that they really like cyclists. If you're traveling in Hawaii and looking for a place to stay in Volcano, Aloha Junction is a real winner. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.
The biking part of my day was very pleasant, and almost all downhill. I thought about throwing on my rain jacket for the downhill because it was a little cool starting out, but I knew that it would warm up as I reached lower elevations. No jacket needed! There was quite a long stretch of just coasting. It seems like cheating to count the biking miles, but I think it makes up for all of the climbing I did - and I deserved the downhill!
I got into Hilo pretty early and headed straight to Arnott's Lodge. In hindsight, I should have stopped a a grocery store on the way in because once I was checked in I decided I needed to go get some food. Not to worry, I dropped off the trailer, put a daypack on my back (for carrying groceries), and headed back out again. I asked someone I met on the street where I could find the closest grocery store. She looked a little puzzled, then told me the Safeway was pretty far. I don't think so! It was just a couple miles back out route 11 - I'd already passed it once today - and a couple of miles on a bike definitely isn't far!
Back to the lodge for a shower and some food, and to pack up my layers for the Mauna Kea tour. I felt pretty silly packing all of those clothes, but as you'll see later I needed them!
Getting ready for the Mauna Kea summit trip. Rover decided to come too.
I handwashed my biking clothes as usual, but this time I had access to a clothes dryer, and I used it. The bike shorts I washed out when I was in Volcano took two days to dry. I guess that makes a certain amount of sense - rainforests are wet! While the B&B was nice and cozy, it was still pretty damp up there.
Arnott's Lodge is low key and very pleasant. There are all different levels of rooms, ranging from tenting on the lawn, to dorm rooms, to private rooms. I opted for a private room with a private bath. It's in a house - all of the bedrooms have locks on the door. I can enter mine from either outside or from the shared living area and kitchen. There is a common area outside - under cover - with tables and chairs, internet access, and a movie tent. They even have clunker bikes that guests can borrow for free. Obviously I didn't need to borrow a bike, but having them there was definitely a nice touch for many of the people staying at Arnott's. There's also a beach park just down the street, although I don't plan to spend any time there. I'll be busy with my two adventure tours.
The Mauna Kea tour started with a quick stop at a grocery store to pick up food for dinner. Suzanne - our driver - recommended that we eat sugar - 58 grams for a 150 pound person - between when we started and our dinner stop at the 9200 foot level of the mountain. That's about the amount in a 20-ounce bottle of soda (no diet Coke this time!) and a cookie. She said the guests seem to have fewer altitude probelms when they eat sugar. The extra sugar supposedly will help get blood to your brain to carry whatever oxygen is available at elevation. I honestly don't know if there is any scientific support for this theory, but of course we were all happy to oblige - after all how often does someone tell you to eat sweet stuff for your health!
We made a quick stop at Rainbow Falls here in Hilo - beautiful - before we headed out on the Saddle Road. This is a road that was built by the military (I believe for World War II). It runs in the saddle between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea - the 2 largest of the 5 volcanos on the island. Mauna Kea is the tallest at 13796 feet, with Mauna Loa following at 13677 feet. Mauna Loa is the more massive of the two. The other volcanos on the island are Kilauea, the most active, Kohala, and Hualalai. Although the road runs between the two mountains, we couldn't see either of them as we were heading up - both were in the clouds. Interesting fact - use of Saddle Road and the road up Mauna Kea is prohibited by the rental car companies. Supposedly driving there voids the rental car insurance, and if you have a breakdown the cost of a tow truck is exorbitant. Plus you really need 4-wheel drive about the visitor center on Mauna Kea. The portion of Saddle Road between Hilo and the Mauna Kea cutoff is decent and two lanes wide, but the part of the road heading from the cutoff into Waimea is supposed to be pretty bad - and a single lane carrying traffic in two directions. It can be foggy (or cloudy) during the day, and obviously there's no lights at night. Fun. There's even a sign at the visitor saying to "watch out for invisible cows".
We took the Mauna Kea cutoff and headed up the mountain. We stopped at the visitor center at 9200 feet to eat dinner and attempt to get acclimated. It was still pleasant and 60 degrees out. I took a short walk to see some silversword plants, and even saw a pair of (what I think were) nene - the Hawaiian state bird. Back in the van, we headed on up to the top of the mountain. The first 5 miles of the road from that point were unpaved and pretty rough. I was very glad to be riding and not driving, and I was even happier not to be attempting to ride up that steep grade. It's amazing to think about just transporting the mirrors for the telescopes up that road - let alone doing any serious construction or assembling at that altitude.
We hopped out of the van at the top to very windy and cold conditions. It was beautiful though. As I mentioned earlier, but I was really glad I had lots of layers with me. I started the trip in shorts and a sleeveless Patagonia silkweight shirt. I zipped the legs back onto my pants before we got to the visitor center. And before I got out of the van at the top I added all of my layers. I was wearing a Patagonia silkweight capilene tank, an REI midweight long underwear tank, a Patagonia R.5 fleece shirt, a lightweight fleece vest, and my biking rain jacket - with the hood! Seems silly to be wearing all of that in Hawaii, but I needed it!
I took a short hike to the top of the cinder cone that is the true summit. I had an occasional bout of light-headedness, but I just stood still for a bit, concentrated on breathing, then started walking again. There's 40% less oxygen where we were than there is at sea level. That's the highest elevation I've been to so far. (No one in our group took advantage of it, but Arnott's had oxygen available in the van in case anyone was feeling ill because of the altitude. A nice security blanket...)
Of course a combination of the altitude and all the liquid I was drinking caused a need for a bathroom. The only bathroom up there were a pair of outhouses strapped to an old brick building. They were certainly the highest outhouses I've used, and they felt like they were swaying as I used them. It was probably just an altitude hallucination - but it was pretty windy, so they could have been moving!
There are 13 observatories on top of Mauna Kea. Apparently it's the premier spot for astronomy in the world. We weren't able to go into any of them since they were preparing for the night's viewing, but we were able to see them opening for telescope use before we left. Charlene (at Macadamia Meadows B&B) told me that on Saturday and Sunday some of the astronomers give tours for free. Of course you have to get up to the summit on your own. That would be interesting, but not possible for this trip. Maybe next time. If you'd like more information, check out the Mauna Kea page on the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy web site.
We hung around on the top for about an hour and a half - until sunset. I'm sure I have a lot of identical pictures since I kept shooting as the light kept changing. I was glad I was carrying an extra battery for my camera, because I got a low battery indicator towards the end of our stay at the summit. I did take a lot of pictures, but I also suspect the temperature had something to do with it. I did a bit of walking around up there, but then I joined most of my small group in using one of the buildings as a wind block!
I learned something that surprised me on the way up. We passed through some areas of old lava (gray in color with stuff growing on it), newer lava flows (from Mauna Loa in the 1980's), and areas of brown rocks that were transported by water. Water? Well, it turns out that there was a period of glaciation on Mauna Kea, and what we were seeing was the terminal moraine from the glacier. Fascinating. I'm going to have to do some reading on that when I get back.
Did you know that the lunar lander was tested on Mauna Kea? They say it some sections of it looks like the surface of the moon...
Another thing I noticed is that all of the road signs have holes in them. These holes were deliberately placed - definitely not bullet holes. They are there to allow the wind to flow through the signs instead of knocking them over!
We stopped at 9000 foot level again to stargaze for a bit, then headed back to the lodge.
I got a first-hand view of the reflectors embedded in the pavement in a vehicle's headlights on the way back. They are very effective - just annoying to have to continuously be watching out for them while biking. They definitely can cause a loss of balance when you unexpectedly hit them!
