After arriving on the Big Island, we'll head over to the small volcano community known as...Volcano. We're going to spend a little time at a day spa before heading out in the afternoon to hike portions of the Crater Rim Trail. It'll be a pretty leisurely hike, mainly to check out the volcano and to acclimate a little to the altitude to prepare us for what's coming next. From there we'll make the short drive back to our resort in Volcano.
The next day is the day that I'm most excited about of our entire 15 day adventure. We'll be getting up around 4am to drive out to the Mauna Loa Observatory. We should arrive at the Observatory right around day break. From there we'll start the six mile trip to the summit of the world's largest volcano!
You can read more about the summit hike on the Internets, but sufficed to say, it will be the most intense hiking experience I've ever been on. I'll even need to pull the big bulky hiking boots out of retirement!
The whole trip there and back takes about nine hours and covers a distance of 12.6 miles. The summit is at 13,676 feet, over 1,000 feet higher than the last mountain I summited.
After descending from our successful summit bid we'll drive back into Volcano for some drinks, a huge dinner and some much needed sleep.
The next morning we'll head to the southern end of the park for a two night, three day, much less intense coastal backpacking trip on the Hilina and Ka'aha trails. Based on the pictures I've seen and descriptions I've read of Halape and Keauhou campsites, I have no doubt that they'll be the two most beautiful places I've ever put up my tent.
The week before this we'll be backpacking at Haleakala National Park in Maui. I'll post the details of that expedition at a later time.
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