Hawaii, the Big Island – Part 10

Part ten! I’ve rarely had ten posts in a month, much less in a series. And this is the 13th post this month, making it my busiest blogging month ever. The evidence is clear – I really need a new job.

So there we were , a few dozen yards beyond the visitor center on Mauna Kea, and here the pavement ended – at least for a while. I stared out the windshield of the pickup (I may have been salivating slightly) and squinted at the road as far as I could see up it.

“That’s the dirt road you can’t take a rental on? What?!?” I mean, I should have known, given how Saddle Road – aka Saddle Modern Wide Superhighway of the Future – had turned out. The dirt road ahead was well-graded. It looked like one of the smoothest dirt roads I’d been on. And yet here was another dire sign, asking that we engage 4WD. I shook my head, set the truck in 4-high, and then shook my head once more for good measure…

The drive up on the dirt was uneventful. I took it slow, with visions of Mr. Cheerful back at the rental company going over the underside with his mirror. Heaven forbid that he noticed a slight ding he’d not recorded among the seven hundred others that were already there. As we cruised up the hill, another pickup zipped past us (“Was is Jody Foster? Did she look wide-eyed and excited?”), and then a Dodge Caliber flew by heading down.

OK, so the 4×4 thing was a bit of a bad joke, but we chugged along uphill until we came to pavement again, and off to the sides we’d also reached snow. Hawaiian snow.

From there it was a quick drive to the top, and we were there! I found it breathtaking, and not just in the literal sense. We gathered up my camera and GPS, grabbed coats, and exited the truck.

Brrrrrrr! It was rather cold, and a stout, frigid wind wasn’t helping matters. I started snapping pictures and walking around, with Carrie following. We couldn’t go inside the buildings as they weren’t open to the public, unfortunately. I love astronomy and observatories, so Mauna Kea was someplace I’d wanted to visit for a long time now. It was thrilling to be there.

Not exactly what Carrie had in mind for our tropical vacation.

After taking photos for a few minutes, I found myself jogging and racing from place to place in the blowing wind, something my oxygen-starved brain quickly let me know it wanted nothing to do with. We got back into the shelter of the truck to ponder our next move, while I spent a few moments concentrating on not passing out.

I decided we’d drive down the hill to the next cluster of observatories, but there was an unexpected snag: my key wouldn’t turn in the ignition. I stared at it with wide eyes, not quite believing it. You have got to be kidding me. I figured it was the steering wheel lock, I hate those things, so I tried manipulating the wheel to release it, but with no luck.

I tried several things. My brain was clearly off its game at this altitude, which might not be helping matters, I thought. I’d been able to start this thing fine twice before, why have trouble now? We located the owner manual, but it held no useful secrets. Wisps of smoke wafted from my ears as I sat there trying to come up with an answer. This sucked. What were we going to do? And exactly why wasn’t the key working?

I climbed out and looked around for some sort of evidence of what was going on. I saw nothing. I pondered a little more in the cold, then climbed back in, pulling the keys from my pocket again as I did and… Wait. Keys.

Doh.

I removed the truck key from my pocket. I removed the keys for the rental car from the ignition. I put the truck key into the ignition, turned it, and the truck started right up. Of course it did… Stupid.

With a little consternation and a great, whopping boatload of relief, we finally drove down to the other buildings and had a quick look around before driving back up again. It was at this point that I realized that an adjacent hill off to one side that we’d looked at earlier was the true highpoint, and it held something I wanted to see very much indeed: the peak benchmark disk.

The highest point on Mauna Kea: 13,796′. My GPS showed 100′ higher.

Carrie was cold and still not feeling great, and I knew that she was looking forward to getting back down the mountain. Somewhat reluctantly, I explained where the benchmark was, and that it was important for me to go see it up close. She looked at me like I was nuts, probably rightfully so, and then gods bless her, she knew me well enough to understand. It would haunt me for a long time to come so very close and then just drive away… She said she’d wait in the truck while I hiked up to it.

More relief, followed by some trepidation as I started the trek down the hillside from the side of the road, leaving my footprints in that peculiar Hawaiian snow as I went. Physical exertion was not going to be easy after nearly 14,000′ of elevation gain in just a couple of hours. I had a headache to remind me of the effects of altitude sickness as well, but nothing more than that. So down I went until the time came for the uphill slog to the peak.

Silly me, didn’t pack my showshoes to Hawaii.

I’d hiked after big altitude gains before, so I’d known it was going to be like this: a feeling of incredibly low energy, of sapped strength. Breathing heavily the whole time. Take it slow, I thought, but really there was no other way. I took small, slow, persistent steps forward and headed uphill. Even then, I had to take a brief rest about halfway up. More baby steps, still breathing hard, until I finally crested the top. With relief came elation!

A slice of the wonderful panoramic view.

I walked over to the obvious benchmark, and taking no chances I took my photos after I made sure it was the correct disk. Only then for some reason – the lack of air again? – did I feel it necessary to raise both arms in triumph. Perhaps it was because if you measure from its underwater base (instead of sea level) it is the tallest mountain on Earth, or because it was the highest point I think I’ve ever stood on. Regardless of the reason, it was a big “Wow!” for me.

I was even going to kiss the benchmark, but I was pretty sure my lips would stick to it in the cold, and I laughed at the thought of that. Instead, I kissed a pair of my fingers and let them pass it safely to the disk. Ah, I was happy. The trek back to the truck still took effort but my buoyed spirits made it easier.

As I got to the truck, Carrie smiled and told me she’d seen my raised-arm celebration. Then the ranger who had been driving slowly up the hill pulled over to us. It seems I’d gone off trail and they wanted everyone to stay on the trails at this spot, to protect some tiny endangered bug of some kind. I was a little shocked, since I’m usually very careful about that sort of thing. I explained that, but said that if there had been any signs I must have missed them somehow.

He told me it was OK, and that there were no signs, so it happened every so often. He just asked that if I was going to do any additional hiking up around the peaks here that I try to stick to the trails. I assured him I would, but that we were heading back down anyway. We chatted about the benchmark disk, and some others in the area, and he was interested to know he could look up info on this one and others on the NGS website. After about ten minutes of pleasant conversation, we said our goodbyes and we started our long drive back to the lowlands.

It was interesting to note how dry my lips and mouth got during the chat with the ranger, and not from nerves or anything, but because of the dry wind. In contrast to the humidity we felt on much of the island, Mauna Kea’s peak is higher than 90% of the Earth’s atmospheric water vapor. High and dry.

The drive back was pretty again, and uneventful. I drove a little faster in some stretches as I was eager to return the truck before the rental place closed, rather than bring it in the next day or leave it unattended overnight. We got there at about a minute to five, and true to his word the office guy was about to head out, but at least I could hand him the keys and park the truck inside their lot. He said they’d check it in the next morning and call me if there were any issues (there weren’t). We wished each other a good evening and off we went.

It had been a really busy day, so it felt wonderful to get back to the condo and get back into full relaxation mode with the rest of the family again. There was a nice warm feeling of having accomplished my last major goal of the trip. Tomorrow would be our last full day on the island, and although rain was predicted for the first time, we were looking forward to another good, low-key day in paradise.