I had a nice leisurely morning waiting for the 11am departure of the lava flow tour. Breakfast was fresh papaya, a blueberry muffin, and coffee. No where near the B&B breakfasts of the last few days, but the amount of food matches the effort for the day! I shared some of my muffin with a little sparrow who kept hopping up on the table looking for crumbs.
Before I go any further - I have to send my dad his birthday wishes. I tried to connect with him over the phone, but no luck. He did get his cards and two phone messages - so now I'll add some cyber birthday wishes!
I was absolutely exhausted when I got back from the Mauna Kea tour last night - so much so that I didn't even finish my journal entry until this morning. I was a bit concerned because right after I got back to my room the folks in the room next door came in. There must have been at least 4 people sharing the room, and while they were talking in normal voices, it sounded like they were right in the room with me. Guess there's no insulation in these walls! Like most backpackers lodges or hostels, this one has quiet hours from 10:30pm to 8am - and I didn't even need to ask. My neighbors must have been as tired as I was, and it was quiet all night except for the occasional downpour.
The Internet access here consists of 3 computers with high-speed access and supposedly a plug-in for laptops. The folks that work here told me that is high-speed access too. That would surprise me a bit since the plug-in is a phone line. I wasn't able to try it though because someone has been on the phone all morning. I expected to have to wait for a couple of days to upload my Hilo journal entries, not a problem. Maybe I'll be able to squeeze in later, maybe not.
Time to go pack my supplies for the lava hike. More later...
I don't know how to describe today other than to say wow. Wow! What an awesome day!
We drove up to the park in heavy mist and rain. It made me realize how lucky I was to have a dry sunny day for my ride down yesterday. The wet stuff started to clear as we worked our way down Chain of Craters road, although it remained overcast and windy. And we were very happy about both of those conditions. But let me go back to the beginning. Most of us were gathered around the van pickup spot when Ian - our guide - walked up. His first comment was "what are the odds?". He was leading a tour of all women! Well, at least until we got to the start of the hike where 4 more folks joined up with us - two more women and two men. We had a pretty good group of people, and we were from all over the world, so we had a lot of fun chatting and sharing as we hiked out over the very uneven terrain. Ian was fabulous. He's been leading lava hikes for 3 years now, 3 to 5 days a week, and his enthusiasm just bubbles over. That added a special touch to the day.
Ian asked us if we wanted him to talk about volcanoes during the drive to the coast, or if we just wanted to listen to music. Everyone voted for volcanoes, so we learned a lot of interesting things on our way there. The Hawaiian volcanoes are believed to be formed from a hot spot under the Pacific tectonic plate. The plate is moving to the northwest, so the hot spot has created volcanoes (and the Hawaiian archipelago) running from the northwest to the southeast. The Big Island is the youngest of the islands that have broken the surface of the ocean, and Kauai is the oldest. The age difference is amazing to me - from 5 million years old for Kauai to 800,000 years old for the Big Island. There are currently 3 volcanoes in Hawaii considered to be active - Kilauea, which is currently erupting, Mauna Loa, which is apparently due to erupt, and Loihi to the southeast of the Big Island and which is not expected to break the surface of the Pacific Ocean in our lifetime. If you're as fascinated as I am by these volcanoes, you can read more information on the formation of the Hawaiian Islands page on the Hawaii Center for Volcanology web site.
According to the daily Park Service eruption update, there was some water entry, but no visible red lava flows today. Ian was sure he could find some though, and we struck out searching. He scouted ahead at one point, then came back and said he was just standing next to an active flow. He pointed us in the direction and went to update a few more folks. We started in the direction he indicated, watching for heat shimmering in the air. We stepped over some cracks and felt some pretty hot air billowing up towards up. When we looked down into the cracks we could see thin lines of glowing red lava. So we were all leaning down looking into these cracks - and Ian told us later that he almost started laughing since of course that wasn't what he meant when he said he was standing next to an active flow! Just a bit further, and there it was. How amazing. It's rock, red underneath, but quickly cooling to a smooth silver color. It moves, pulses, and forms rope-like textures. It pops and makes other sounds, and it moves both slowly and surprisingly quickly. (If you want to hear some of the sounds it makes - go to my resources page and click on the link for the USGS Hawaiian Volcanos Observatory - they have some videos on their site that include sound.) The heat coming off of it is intense - 2000 degrees fahrenheit. Now you can see why we were happy for both an overcast sky and a strong wind! When we asked Ian how close it was safe to stand, he had two responses - as close as you feel comfortable, and if it's popping it's too hot! We were close enough to lean down and touch it - although none of us was crazy enough to do that! You really had to watch where you put your feet when you were near the active flows, because in the sun the color of some of the older flows matched that of the new flows. The surface of the new flows was much smoother though, and obviously the red color underneath was a dead giveaway - but the red disappears relatively quickly. The heat coming off of the rock was another clear sign though, and we managed to keep our feet out of the hot stuff. No melted shoes today!
And my amazement at the lava flows was on a day that Madame Pele wasn't really cooperating - imagine if it had been a day with rivers of lava flowing in easily accessible places! Of course this means that I'm going to have to go back again. You'd think that once I saw a place I could take it off my list of places to visit, but it doesn't work that way for me.
As we walked across some of the newer - but cooled, not from today - flows, we could hear a crunching beneath our feet. Sometimes the sound was even like breaking glass. And after all, that's what were were walking on. We picked up pieces of lava - some were porous from escaping gases, and some were solid. There were white and yellow sulfer deposits on areas that had been lava tubes, and there were orange spots showing the presence of iron. I have quite a few pictures of the surface of the lava - both active and totally cooled. The shapes and the colors were fascinating. After seeing a number of active flows, we hiked over the top of the flow emptying into the ocean. At the point where we crossed over the top, the flow was far enough below our feet (underground) that we could safely and comfortably walk over it - although we could still feel the presence of some heat. Then we headed toward the coast. By crossing the flow, we were able to get to upwind of the gases (hydrochloric acid!) created by the water entry - no bad smells, sore throats, or danger from inhaling bad gases. The water entry is viewable mostly as steam, although from where we were standing we could still see some traces of red. You have to be very careful around the new flows at the water, because the lava flows form benches that often collapse. That's not a place where you'd want to be. We were actually fairly close today, but we were standing on an old flow (relatively). The safe spot we were standing in is likely not to be safe in a few days once the lava starts to fill in and build a new bench.
Black sand beaches are formed by the lava flowing into the ocean and cracking into tiny glass particles as the hot lava hits the cooler ocean water. These beaches are gorgeous, but they are quickly destroyed by both bench collapses and by the ocean currents carrying the sand away.
Many people think the lava tour is a do-it-yourself thing, but all of us in our group felt lucky to be on a guided hike today. The folks who were on their own today were on the downwind side of the ocean entry, right in the path of the noxious volcanic fumes. And they were no where near the active lava flows. I knew when I came here that chances were good that I wouldn't actually see the active lava flows - but I'm really happy that I got to see them.
We were back at the lodge before sunset. I was so happy that our entire hike was in daylight. A lot of people time their visit to the lava flows so that they're there at sunset. That means walking back in the dark on a black, uneven surface with no trail. That wouldn't have made me happy. My second night at Aloha Junction B&B - two of the couples staying there went to see the lava. The first did their walk in daylight, and it took them 45 minutes to walk in and 45 minutes to walk out. The second walked in with daylight but walked out in the dark. It took them 45 minutes to walk in and 2 hours and 15 minutes to walk out. We actually had to walk much further in today to find the active lava flows - we were out on the lava fields for a total of 4 hours. I can't imagine doing what we did after dark!
Back to biking in the morning. I'll be heading north and west from here, continuing to follow the coast. At some point - I hope - the trade winds may start to help instead of hindering me.
