Koloiki Trail

 We had one more day left and Dad wanted to visit the island of Lana'i. It was going to be an expensive ferry trip across and not everyone was sure about going over there, but in the end, we decided it was a grand idea and everybody came along. Dad did a great job of arranging transportation for us from the ferry into town. He and Laura were excited about walking around town and having a little bit of a date day to themselves. Jacqueline and I took Dad's recommendation about visiting one of the highest points on the island and started out on a little hike of our own. We had to walk all the way through town and out to a fancy resort. At the resort, we asked the valet for a map and he gave us one for the hiking trail that led us out from there. We walked through the fancy hotel with many displays, through the manicured gardens, and on the paved path that went around the golf course.
Finally, it took us to where we were away from civilization a bit and the trail got very quiet. There were a few people wandering down the trail, but it was rather quiet. It first led us through a forest with tall skinny trees, but a nice clear path. It helped that we had a map with numbers on it, sort of a nature trail. This path led us to a road that switchbacked uphill. We followed the road for quite some time. There were many flowers and plants around, but this part of the island was definitely much more barren than the island of Maui that we had been staying on. Eventually the switchbacks gave way to a much flatter trail. This was starting to lead us out to a point. This island of Lana'i used to be used entirely by the Dole corporation to grow pineapples. Eventually, it became cheaper to grow pineapples in the Phillipines, so that was abandoned. Most of the island still remains privately owned, but it has returned to somewhat of its natural state. This natural state, though, is rather dry especially on the part of the island that we were looking out from.
As we made it to our overlook, we could appreciate the island's differences from Maui. Still green and lush compared to Utah standards, we could still see the ocean amongst the browns rather than the greens. It was a beautiful spot overlooking this big canyon. One thing that we had thought about doing was driving to the actual high point of the island, but had decided that we did not have enough time to complete the long dirt road that would take us there.
Instead, we settled for the Koloiki Trail that turned out to be a rather enjoyable hike. It left us enough time to walk all the way back down to the resort, back through town again, and to a restaurant to have lunch and still have enough time to meet our ride. He drove us down to the beach where we got some snorkeling and chilling on the beach in. We had to make sure and enjoy it because this was our last day of getting to do all that. It is funny how you just sort of get used to waking up and going snorkeling or sitting on the beach. This section of beach had a few extra waves.
Jacqueline even got to take a tumble as the waves pushed her around a little bit. Dad, once again went way out and found the coolest fish. He even brought Jacqueline out with him, but I was a bit wimpier and preferred to float closer to the mainland. After a while, it was time to go, so the six of us went back down the road and caught the ferry home. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day for the six of us. We would return to the state of Washington the next day to Christmas and then a trip halfway across the world to Patagonia.

The Road to Hana

We had been enjoying all of the amenities of our condo for a couple of days. We went snorkeling, played tennis, and went out to eat at a fancy restaurant. Jacqueline and I even had a date day in Paia where it was pouring down rain, but we did get to see Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson. We all agreed that we wanted to see the other side of the island, Hana, but we could not figure out how we were going to get there. Eventually we decided to just have a day trip out to Hana. So we got up nice and early and had a caravan trip out there. Our first stop was the Twin Falls Botanical Preserve.
There was a short trail here that should take us to some waterfalls. We did see a few waterfalls, but because it was raining and had been raining for a few days, we were not able to cross the river to see the bigger waterfalls. We were fine with that though, as the littler waterfalls were big enough on this day. We enjoyed the giant plants and the massive amount of greenery. We got back into the car and headed down the road. Our next stop was the Waikamoi Ridge Nature Trail. This led us through the forests and we were happy to have our raincoats as the rain pounded us on this hike.

We had a great trail that told us all about the trees we were seeing and the many plants also. Of course, after it was over, I could not remember any of it, but it was nice to have a good walk in the woods on a well maintained trail. We continued our drive stopping along the way to see the many massive waterfalls that fell along the road. The road was incredibly windy, so it was nice to have a stop here and there to keep the car sickness from cropping up. I just wondered how many more waterfalls were out in the wilds above the road that we slowly meandered our way to the other coast upon.

We finally made our way to the other side of the island and found the ocean again. We stopped here for lunch to enjoy the brief spell of nice weather. The coast here was impressive to watch all the big waves pound against the shoreline. We did a short walk out to where a blow hole shot water straight up into our area. This was a great place to enjoy the power of nature and have a bite to eat. We left the beach with a goal of getting back to the forests and finally to Hana. Hana is a fairly small community that also has a piece of Haleakala National Park in it. Laura wanted to talk the Park Service people there and we wanted to get out and see the park. After getting delayed at the basket making area, we were off to explore the short trails in the park.

Since we were on a limited time frame, there was not a lot that we could explore, but we had to check out the Pools of Oheo otherwise known as the Seven Sacred Pools. These were some more beautiful waterfalls into some fresh water pools. Though, this was not a day to take a dip in the pools, we still did not get sick of looking at massive waterfalls. The trail led us across the road and into the woods. The trail was extremely muddy and we looked just like the typical Hawaiian tourist hiking it in our flip-flops. I guess every National Park has its visitors that people shake their head at and we were now them hiking in our flip-flops.

The trail was great, though as every half a mile or so, we would jump off it and check out some massive waterfalls. The Banyan trees along the way were pretty interesting, too, to see trees where the branches became roots growing right into the ground. The trail climbed pretty steeply as Jacqueline, Paul, and I hiked it together. Eventually, the trail led us into a most interesting forest across a bridge, but at this point, it was time to say goodbye to Hana. We hustled back down the trail to begin the drive back. The advice that we had received was to continue the drive around the island on the dirt road.

With Tom driving the Crown Vic, we were slightly concerned that it would not be able to handle the dirt road, especially with all of the rain that we had been seeing. Fortunately, though the road was in excellent shape and other than the occasional car that we had to get off the road for, there were no issues with the road. It was awesome to see the Hawaiian coast in basically a pristine form as this side of the island had not seen the massive development that had occurred on the other side of the island. We enjoyed the drive, but did not have time to stop to check out any of the sights. Eventually, the road ran into the road we had taken up to Haleakala. It had been a great trip seeing the sights of Hana and everyone had done a great job sitting through the many hours in the car to see all the amazing sights of Maui's undeveloped natural side of the island. 

Haleakala

 We had been waking up early in the morning to do some snorkeling. On this morning, though, our group awoke to do a little exploring. We had a bit of a drive to get to the volcanic hills that made the island of Maui, now named Haleakala National Park. Through windy, twisting roads we drove through the clouds all the way to the high point where the visitor center was located. We did a bit of sightseeing as the entire island it seemed could be viewed from this point. Strange to be at nearly 10000 feet in elevation and see the ocean right below us. We were lucky on this day to add Paul to our group of hikers and to have Laura to do a car shuttle for us.

We started our hike above the clouds, but that did not last long. The trail took us right into the waiting moisture as we tromped down the trail through the volcanic soil. Paul was slightly worried about all the downhill hiking since his knees tend to hurt with the hiking, but when we talked to people about going up on this hike, they said that no one should do that. With the weather the way it was, we did not want to take that risk. The way the beginning started the happier I was with this choice as there were just lots of switchbacks going downhill in a barren landscape.
I did not even know what the name of this hike was, but after doing research, the name of it is Keonehe’ehe’e to Halemau’u Trailhead. Don't ask me to pronounce that now, but while we were in Hawaii, I was doing a much better job pronouncing words than Jacqueline. Popo helped  quite a bit considering his one year of school as a student in Hawaii in elementary school. He helped us all with our pronunciations. The vegetation was rather scarce, but when there was some it was quite impressive. The famous plant for this region was the silversword. It had an incredible design and lived in this inhospitable soil.
As we ended the switchbacks, we came to a rather open valley. Just in time the clouds cleared to give us a view of all the little volcanoes in this massive caldera. If all of Hawaii looked like this, I don't think it would see nearly the visitation that it now sees. It was so desolate. We paused here for a lunch break while the rain clouds let our soggy selves dry off for a few minutes. It was nice to have such a big group to hike with and I was even more excited that Jacqueline and I were able to bring our two families together. I know my dad really likes Paul and Tom as he spent quite a bit of time talking to Paul on this hike.

 The group enjoyed the sunny day for a short time before continuing on. The hike became a little bit more flat for a short time before continuing down some more switchbacks. I felt bad for Paul's knees that certainly were going to have to recover from this hike. The sunny skies quickly disappeared also and it became a rainy mess once again. This area must get a little more precipitation because there were starting to be a few more plants and grasses. Eventually we came to a cabin where a couple people were packing up. We saw a few people on this hike, but for the most part we had it to ourselves. I just love what you can do when you are not lazy. This crowded island of Maui, yet with some effort, we can move back in time to what the island would be like if no one had ever discovered it.
 As we left the cabin behind, the downhill gave way to some steep uphill. We were now doing more switchbacks, but this time they were uphill switchbacks. Our group was moving well despite the sogginess of everyone. This area was so amazing with views out to the ocean and into the caldera. The plants were awesome also with some crazy coloration of the ferns. They were like Christmas colors as one would be green with another red one right next to it.

As we finished these switchbacks, there was not too much more to the hike. We were happy to see the trailhead appear with Laura there with the cars. It is quite ambitious to think that five people can do an 11.2 mile hike together and not have any issues. I don't remember any complaints from anyone in the group even though we had hiked through some not so perfect weather. I was glad to have Popo to plan this excursion as sometimes it is nice to not have to be the one thinking about logistics. We were pretty worn out after this trip, though, so the next couple days would have to be more low key with some snorkeling and some touristy type days. 

Iao Valley

 Ya know, going to Hawaii is just another excuse to get out and about on the trails. Luckily, I was traveling with some people who really wanted to do this hiking with me. On this day, it was the four of us once again of my beautiful wife Jacqueline, her dad Tom, and my dad Roger. We chose to go to the Iao Valley which was famous for its Iao Needle. This was one of my number one places to visit on the list of places on Maui, but when we got these, my dad informed me that we had been there before. I did not remember it at all so this seemed like a first visit for me. We paid a ridiculous parking fee and headed up the paved path. This lead us to a viewpoint of the Iao Needle. It is quite an impressive formation and it gets a lot of tourism activity. We checked it out and took some pictures. This was a short trail, so I was happy when we were able to locate another trail that went down by the creek.
This trail started out very good leading to swimming holes that the locals were enjoying using. Kind of a funny notion in Hawaii because every beach is a local swimming hole. We were not after the swimming holes, but it was still enjoyable being next to the creek. This trail wandered along for some time before starting to get much worse. We wondered how long it would last and whether it would be worthwhile to continue upon. It soon took an abrupt turn and went away from the creek and up into the woods. The trees were rather thick and the trail in not very good shape, but it was easy enough to follow the path. The trees were crazy being long and skinny similar to bamboo in the straight up nature of the trees.
 This path lead us further up higher into the valley. There were not many other people up here, but we did run into some French folks who told us about the berries up ahead. We found some and ate a couple, but since we had no idea what they were, we did not eat much. Considering the fact that our trail was not much of a trail, we soon decided that the remnants of it were not enough to continue to follow. So with our last really good view up canyon, we took a good look at the Iao Valley and turned around.
We did not have to go the same way back, though, because where our trail popped out of the trees that we climbed up to from the river, there was a trail going down valley from there. No one particularly wanted to climb back down the really steep trail to the creek, so instead we took the other path. We were glad that we did, because this was a much better section of trail. The views were great giving us a great perspective on the high cliffs. We even got a good view of the Iao Needle from the backside. The trail was not quite in wonderful condition being somewhat steep and slick, but we were able to handle it just fine after taking our time. We did see some young guys hiking up the trail as fast as they could who asked us how far, but we let them know that there was not really any destination on this hike. It was true, the whole hike was just great to be in the greenery with all of the vegetation.
The trail eventually circled back around to the viewpoint of Iao Needle with a sign that said not to use it. Oops, well maybe they could use our parking fees to bring someone in and obliterate it. It seemed to me to be a soft closure trying to keep people without any plans to keep hiking away rather than a hard closure keeping even the most prepared adventurers like ourselves away.
We took one last walk down to check out the botanical gardens. This turned out to be a great way to spend an afternoon in a beautiful state (hard to believe this place is a part of the United States) and on one of its most beautiful islands of Maui.

Waihe'e Ridge

 It was now time to enjoy our winter. Jacqueline and I hadn't taken a real vacation together since we went to Tasmania on our honeymoon. We were wanting something tropical with beaches and mountains once again. We chose Hawaii and specifically the island of Maui. We wanted to spend time with our family on this break also, though, so we got ourselves a condo on the island and invited our friends and family. Luckily, a lot of them wanted to join us. My dad Roger and his wife Laura flew out with us from Washington State where we were visiting for the month of December.
Jacqueline's dad Tom flew out from Michigan and met us on the island. And we were waiting the arrival of Jacqueline's brother Paul in the evening. We had spent the first day doing all the necessary parts of flying, rental cars, groceries, condo check-in, and room assignments. We were now ready to enjoy ourselves. We spent some time at the beach in the morning, then it was off to do what we do best and go for a hike. The island of Maui has a lot to offer as far as hiking destinations. We chose to go up to the Northwest corner and do a hike called the Swinging Bridges. The problem was that when we got to the trailhead, there were no trespassing signs saying that this was now a closed area.
So we went with a back-up plan and did the Waihe'e Ridge trail, though, it wasn't the most popular idea because it gained a lot of elevation. We needed to get out and do something fun, though, and this was in the neighborhood. The trail started out paved and steep. We saw a few other people coming down, but not many going up. We entered a really interesting forest with crazy curved Dr. Seuss like trees. These trees are Norfolk pines and strawberry guava.  The trail continued to climb and our group shrunk from 5 to 4. The skies were overcast, but not particularly rainy. The clouds just seemed to sit over these green mountain tops and we could tell that we were climbing into those clouds. Eventually, our trail popped out of the forested area and out to a very prominent view.
Thank goodness that Hawaii had all this lush greenery that made it very difficult to just hack your way through, because on an island with so many visitors, it sure seemed like we were looking at some rather pristine views. We were lucky to have views of both the lush green valley and the ocean with all the resort hotels along the beach. We continued on up the steep trail that was now more open and thus became more slippery. As we were only about 45 minutes into the hike, our group now decreased down to 3, but Jacqueline, Tom, and I continued on.
We were able to continue to soak in the views of the Waihe'e Valley and the coast beyond for some time, but soon the slippery trail climbed steadily up into the clouds. We thought that the views would get better on the top when we were starting the hike, but now that we were here, we realized that those views were not going to be better than what we had already witnessed. So about an hour into the hike, and the visibility down to nearly nothing, we decided to turn around and call this hike complete.
Besides, the end was supposedly a bench, so that was not much motivation to continue up the slippery trail. Instead we now had to continue down the slippery trail. I think each of us nearly ate it a couple of times. There were quite a few flowers and plants to enjoy which Jacqueline did her utmost to snap some pictures of. We made it back to the car rather quickly, though, because we were going down all of the steepness that we had climbed up.
We were not done hiking for the day, or so we thought. Makamakaole Falls were nearby and it looked like it could be the highlight of the trip. We had a guidebook and tried to follow some directions, but unfortunately we did not do a very good job of it. We ended up wandering around rather randomly through the forest on an extremely steep trail without any success. We followed this trail and it shot us out somewhere near where we had parked without witnessing any falls.
We looked closer at our guide book and realized that instead of going up, we were supposed to go down. We looked at that option and knew that our group was not up for it as we wanted to enjoy Hawaii instead of spending our time at the emergency room. The trail was very steep with exposed roots being the main thing to hold onto. It was also rather dirty with lots of trash around. We decided against it and instead went around on the road to see, sure enough, there were some rather impressive waterfalls. I think if it would have been just Jacqueline and I, this would have been a good option because it looked like a rather romantic place to go swimming together.

But we were also fine because it looked rather treacherous to get there and having our family along gave us a good excuse to not have to try to get down there. Plus, we got to share it with other people we loved. We wished Zyla could have been there too, as she had stayed back in Washington state with my mom, but I think we both appreciated the fact that not having her there was allowing us to do some things that we hadn't been allowed to do together for some time. Well, we got back in the jeep, yes we had rented a jeep, and went back to the touristy areas.

We were able to enjoy some good food, an evening walk on the beach, and a beautiful sunset view to complete the day. The great part about being in Hawaii is that the next day, it would be time to get up and do the same thing again the very next day.

Kautz Creek

 We had spent a couple of days and a lot of money to make a drive up to Washington state to visit my family. We had good weather on the drive making our way through Nevada, California, Oregon, until eventually getting to my mom and Carl's house outside of Mt. Rainier National Park. So when Jacqueline and Zyla went out shopping with Mom, I took the opportunity to go up to Mt. Rainier. They let me in for free, which is awesome and I drove a short way into the park to the Kautz Creek trailhead. Last time that I was here, I destroyed the ignition on my mom's car somehow.
I wanted to throw on my snowshoes, but the beginning of the trail was just lightly dusted with snow. I was actually moving pretty good through the forests of big trees until I got to the creek. I had to cross the creek and I didn't have too much trouble getting across. I was enjoying the cool Washington winter and the big trees, but now I was going to have to deal with the heavy snow. I put the snowshoes on my feet and was now required to use them to keep from sinking in. Luckily, though, the trail was easily discernible as people had been hiking it recently. Most of the hike I was in the trees, but at times the peaks would pop out and give me a view.
One of these views was of Eagle Peak, a mountain that I climbed over ten years ago. It looked like it had a good dusting of snow on the top. I wasn't expecting to see many or any people, but I saw a group of guys who had stayed overnight on Mt. Ararat, which sounded like a cold experience but at least they picked a clear night for it. From this point the trail was even easier to find. Since it was now the off season from my days of hiking each week, it was good to get out and just to stay in shape. This trail was basically straight up, so it got my heart pumping.
I had to figure out how far I wanted to go and I decided that I at least had to get a view of the mountain before I turned around. When I finally got that view it just reminded me why Mt. Rainier is just so enticing. It is just so massive and dominates the skyline. It had taken me about three hours to get to this point, but in the winter, that had put me at my turnaround point, as darkness kicks in around 4:30 and by this point it was now past 1:30. The way down was much faster of course and I was surprised to see so many people on the trail as I saw a few groups still going up. There just are more people using the wilderness than their used to be. This is good and bad, but in Mt. Rainier during winter it is rather surprising. I made the car in no time flat and enjoyed my day out in the park.  

Checkerboard Mesa

My first memory of Zion National Park is going there as a kid of about 11 years old during a spring trip. When you drive in from the east side, first major landmark that you get to is Checkerboard Mesa. I snapped a photograph there with my dad and mom with a camera I had just recently obtained for Christmas. Because of that, Checkerboard Mesa stuck in my mind as the most prominent of all the landmarks in Zion that I could remember from my visit there as a kid. I thought it suiting to give the ol' boy a visit and actually scramble to the top of the mesa. I had known for years that this route existed, but had not taken the effort to actually undertake it. 
So I got a fairly leisurely start on this fair November day. The park was just swamped since it was the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. Luckily, this trailhead was nice and quiet given that all the people here were doing what I set out to do as a kid and take that picture of Checkerboard Mesa. The route up is to the east of the peak through a very forested area. I was surprised to see a fairly well defined use trail with much erosion taking place. It was easy to follow and with just hard work and effort, I was able to make the saddle between Checkerboard and the hidden east side slickrock beyond it. From there, the trail sort of disappeared making me think that this route was being used as an entrance into Fat Man's misery instead of the route to the west of Checkerboard Mesa. 
A quick scamper got me on top of Checkerboard Mesa. Technically at this point, I had reached my goal and could turn around if I so chose. But, I had to get some kind of view so I braved the thick scrub oak that surrounded the top of the mesa. It wasn't too long before I got myself in a thick bunch of scrub oak, eventually having to turn around and backtrack because the way was blocked so severely. It was on my way out to find a new option around, that I managed to whack myself directly in the open eye with a branch. It was so painful and I thought after a minute it might get better, but my eye just continued to throb and to water. I could barely keep it open and found it much easier to move if I didn't, though I needed some depth perception to make sure I didn't make an error in judgment on where I put my feet. 

Eventually I found my way out to the edge and an excellent viewpoint of Clear Creek canyon and down into Zion. It would have been a great view to sit and enjoy, but sun made my eye ache more and more. So I took some snapshots of the views and of my squinty self, then started back. This time I found an easier way through the oak, but the eye was hurting more and more, so much that I found myself having to stop just to close my eyes for a few minutes to keep the pain away. I was lucky there was a strong social trail in that area or else I would have had a hard time route finding through that forested area.
When I got back to the car, it was getting bad. I was excited because my sunglasses were there and I could use them to keep the light from really hurting my eye. When I opened, the case, I saw that they were broken. Oh no! I put them on anyway and tried to tough my way through the drive that was a half an hour through windy roads. I would scream out in pain to keep my eye open. The most difficult section was through the tunnel. I literally hyperventilated to keep my eyes open because the pain was so severe. I luckily made it home without injuring myself, my car, or anyone else with my car. I spent the rest of that day and the next dealing with extreme pain in my eye. I guess this should be a lesson to wear sunglasses, but I truly enjoyed that summit and the short hike it took to gain it. I hope to go back again and maybe enjoy the view the next time around. 

Progeny Peak

   

 Furlough! It is not always the best thing to not get paid anymore, but a little time off is not always a bad thing. People look forward to their first day of retirement, but I had been looking forward to the first day of furlough. What was I going to do? Well, the same thing I get to do for work, go for a hike in the park. Jacqueline and Zyla were in Arizona for Thanksgiving visiting family, so I took the opportunity to have the day to myself. We had just had Greg and Annette over for dinner.  Greg had suggested a hike called Progeny Peak on the east side. This was a route popularized by Bo Beck and Tanya on their website zionnational-park.com.
For a long time I had been resisting these routes since the east side was so easy to explore on its own. With Greg's advice, I finally decided to give it a try. The funny thing is that I had actually done a lot of the hike before. (see East Side Arch ) I had just never had the urge to try to get to the top of the peak. So this time I had a destination instead of just randomly wandering the east side.
 I parked by the beginning to Spry and then just started up the slickrock. The beginning of this hike takes you to the Two Pines Arch, but I had already been there before, so I just went up a different route. It proved not too difficult. I followed the contours of the slickrock until finding a pretty easy slope to the top.
 This was such a great route because it was almost entirely slickrock. When I topped out, I found a gigantic cairn and a lot of amazing views. This is really a spectacular spot because you could see many of Zion's most famous peaks. I sat down for a while and went through the summit register where I found Greg's entry and added something to it.
I snapped many photos, but was disappointed to see that there was graffiti carved on the rock. Why does anyone feel the need to leave a scar in the rock with their initials on them. There turned out to be a half dozen different names carved in the rock. Luckily, I was the leading expert on graffiti removal, so I searched the summit for some hardened rock. I found some and bashed it in getting rid of a horrible idea by a not so smart person. I enjoyed the views for a few minutes more, but I eventually all good things have to come to an end.
 So, I went back down. I had a bit of trouble finding the way that I came up and got myself into some trickier downclimbing, but it wasn't anything to get too nervous about.
I could look back up and see the arch on my way down, but still didn't feel the need to hike up to it on this day. I did see a couple of other people out there wandering amongst the slickrock. They did not seem to have a purpose, but that is okay. It is funny how when I go on a hike to a place that I think no one else goes, there is always someone there. People are pushing farther out into the fringes of Zion National Park. I am okay with that, because the more people see how beautiful these places are, the more they should want to protect it.
 Except for maybe those few people who put the awful graffiti in the rock. I was plenty pleased by Greg's recommendation and Bo and Tanya's route description. I figured the next day, I would give another one of these east side routes a try.