Called to serve: 2016-09-18

Saturday (9/17) was another day to explore some of the wonderful contrasts of nature that surround us here in Maui. We spent the day with 3 other volunteers from the institute. We started the day by driving about 10 miles south along the coast from here at Kihei. The Hawaiian Islands are the creations of long-ago volcanic activity. The island of Maui is the result of a “volcanic doublet” formed from two volcanos that overlapped one another to form an isthmus (or level valley) between them. The “younger”, though non-active volcano that forms the eastern 75% of the island is Haleakala (“House of the Sun”). Its last eruption was around 1790 and lava squeezed from a surface vent flowed down it’s southwestern flank and created a large (360 ft.) hill by the sea coast, called Pu’u Ola’I, nicknamed “Red Hill” by the local dive boat captains.

The hill is made up of crumbling lava rock and gravel with mostly scrub brush growing on it. The 20-minute climb was hot and wound its way through the underbrush. But the views from the top, of the coastline and the nearby islands, was spectacular. The climb down was a bit more treacherous with the loose gravel and rocks wanting to give you a free, quick “ski ride” down the trail. (I’m refraining from blackmailing Karen with a classic shot of her getting back up, using her trekking poles. :) )

From there we drove about 2 miles to check out a good snorkeling beach but this particular morning the surf was a bit too churned up for good visibility, so headed back home.

By mid-afternoon we headed the opposite direction into the interior for our first visit to the 10,000 ft. peak of the Haleakala Crater. Interestingly enough the summit parking lot is built in a shallow crater called Pu’u’Ula’ula (also meaning “Red Hill”). The main, large crater is oval-shaped and is 7 miles long by 2 miles wide and 2600 ft. deep. So we started the day at sea level, then climbed a 360 ft. red hill and by late afternoon drove about 46 miles up to another "red hill" at 10,023 ft. (Actually this volcanic mountain starts on the ocean floor and rises to 29,703 ft.; 675 ft. higher than Mt. Everest, but 19,680 ft. is below sea level!)

One of the incentives that prompts many to go to the top, is to see either the sunrise, or sunset. The cloud cover is usually around 6-8000 ft. level so you get to see the sunset lowering into the clouds rather than into the horizon. This night, however, there were an abundance of clouds so it wasn’t as spectacular as some nights. We were glad we were warned in advance of the 3° drop in temperature for every 1000 ft. of elevation. So we borrowed some sweatshirts and winter jackets kept here at the institute just for this purpose. It registered about 46° there at sunset.

I must mention that I have a profound respect for my friend, Larry, who invited us to go along with him and his wife on this trip. He is about 15 years younger than me and a serious bicyclist (brought his along from B.C., Canada); and about 3 weeks ago cycled (in the rain) from Kihei (@ sea level) to the top (total of 46 miles; actual climb from sea level about 30 miles) in about 8 hours!

[CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM]