Lava Quest 2011

For New Year's Eve we both decided not to go anywhere because we don't really want to drive 2.5 hours to Kona side and frankly Hilo doesn't look like it'll ever have a happening scene and even if it did it would almost definitely rain.

Instead we decided to go for our first hike in the Volcanoes National Park. In the first week of December or so there opened up a new surface and coastal entry point lava flow that was within the park. According to the National Park Service they were letting you have access...IF you were willing to complete the "challenging and extreme 9.7 mile round trip hike. Estimated time to complete is 5.5 hours." The picture on the website was promising:

THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN DECEMBER 15th

We decided to start the hike around 1 or 2pm and return after dark. I was totally nervous since if you know me, I don't exercise or do the slightest thing to stay healthy or in shape. We got to the park and drove down to the end of the Chain of Craters road. There was a final sign warning us if we were "Ready or Not."

We declared ourselves ready and "Lava Quest 2011" began!

Our trail started at the end of the "scenic hike" which was about a mile and a half one way all along the closed roadway (easy cruising). Once we hit the end of the scenic hike we still had yet another quarter mile through lava to reach the end of the viewing trail. The viewing trail was very clearly marked with little reflectors on the lava. One of the understatements of the "viewing trail hike" was this sign:

At the end of the little reflectored trail there was a workhorse and this sign:

Although the sign says "End of Trail" it was the start of our real hike (you can see the last reflectors on the far left hand side of the picture). The rest of the way would be marked by beacons. After a half of mile of hiking we reached our first beacon:

From then it was a long 2 hours of slogging through the lava field. There was a final sign warning us after beacon 2:

We saw these neat tortoise-shell like rocks in one particular part of the field we walked through:

We took a short detour to the ocean side to take a peek at the newest land in Hawaii:

Chris scouted for the next beacon (not really, he was posing in a "Discoverer" pose, but I couldn't get the whole coast in the shot):

But mostly we walked and walked and walked. Finally we reached beacon 5!

But now what? Where was the lava? What about smoke and steam? Where did we go? The group ahead and behind us all clustered around this little beacon a little confused. But it seemed like the only thing to do was keep walking. Finally after more walking I saw...another beacon. So we headed towards beacon 6...despite the trail being noted as having 5 beacons.

Along the way we saw this really neat metallic effect on the rocks:

It was interesting because much of the lava field was pretty brittle and it was bizarre to have rock crack under you when you stepped on it or to see it crack when you put down your walking pole. One of the neatest conversations Chris and I had while hiking was wondering if at any point we were stepping on land that no one else had ever stepped on before. It was an interesting thought.

At beacon 6 we saw a ranger and wandered over just in time to hear him tell another couple that the lava had deflated up at Pu'u O'o in the last few days and there really wasn't anything to see right now.

We could hike a few miles further and see some hot rocks and maybe some glowing, but there wasn't any surface or ocean entry flowing red lava. We might be able to see some glowing at the top when the sun set. A little disappointed to have hiked all this way only to find out there was no lava, Chris and I talked it over. We decided that with the sunset about an hour away Chris and I turned back.

The walk back wasn't as bad since I knew I could make it. At one point when the sun was starting to set Chris spotted the sun setting between two lava rocks and took some pictures. The result was a really neat picture where the sun looks like a star! (I mean it is a star, but the picture made it look really cool):

OOOH SUN STAR

With about a mile and half to go, the sun did set and we were left to hike with our headlamps. Hiking at night through a lava field - kind of hard! After what seemed like forever we hit the reflectored trail again. There we began to meet a steady stream of folks hoping for some lava. Many of them we pretty shocked when we told them to view it up close was about a 2.5 hour hike and that a ranger told us there wasn't much to see. We also saw two Japanese tourists hiking in the dark (not so notable, we all were hiking in the dark) only, THEY HAD NO FLASHLIGHTS. So stupid. The ranger at the Visitor's Center had told us about how just this past week a lady broke her wrist returning from the hike at night and had to spend the night out on the lava field before they could evacuate her.

At this point we had been hiking for about 4 hours straight - I couldn't wait for the "scenic trail" - nice, flat, paved road. Needless to say I was tired and a little sore. I didn't realize that the worst part of the whole hike was to come...walking back to the car. While it was a relief to be back on paved ground, after all that walking it seemed like torture as we had to walk another half a mile to where Chris had parked...literally the furthest car away from the trail.

But we survived and although Lava Quest 2011 was a fail, it was a fun way to spend New Year's Eve. We stopped by Foodland on the way home and picked up some mochi ice cream (Bubbies!) and sparkling grape juice. [A funny side story...I went home and googled why Japanese eat mochi for New Years and stumbled upon this funny article: http://www.chow.com/food-news/54224/new-years-japanese-style/ The article concludes with "Happy New Year! Don't Die!" because apparently lots of Japanese are hospitalized when they nearly choke on the mochi]

Once home it was nothing but the most glorious hot shower and then watching Dick Clark's Rockin' NYE (which was a bizarre experience because they kept saying it was live and it clearly couldn't be). Chris fell asleep but I was wide awake to great 2012!

Here's to hoping 2012 is a great year. Perhaps Lava Quest 2012 will be more successful!