2 posts tagged “mauna kea”
Before the unfortunate incident with my foot I drove & hiked up to the top of Mauna Kea. This is kind of cool for two reasons:
- Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world, measured from the base (33,474 feet).
- At the summit is the largest collection of observatories in the world, including the Keck Telescopes, the Gemini Observatory, the Subaru Observatory, the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the Submillimeter Array.
There's also a lake up there, about 30 minutes from the road at 13000 feet. It was here that I decided that my express Jeep elevator to the summit was gonna have to pause. I started feeling dizzy and a little short of breath, and came pretty close to going back down. I didn't, and after 20 minutes or so hiking (just out of view of the car, road & civilization in general) up the pumice/dirt/lava mountain my heart stopped racing and I could walk around at will. Yay quitting smoking!
After the requisite half-hour, I crested the last hill and looked down on this eerie lake, completely out of place in this moonscape. I walked down into the crater and circled the lake, finding a small patch of life clinging on to the edge of the water. The air and sun were unlike any place I've ever been, mica crisp and glinting. I read that most of the UV protection is gone at this altitude, so wearing sun protection is a really good idea.
I hiked up the far side of the lake, climbing up huge boulders and found a USGS marker. I stooped down to photograph it and when I turned around I saw two people in the distance. They were hiking around Mauna Kea with their daughter who showed up a few minutes later. They were from Hilo, and had parked their car in a spot much closer to the lake (sans crazy uphill hike). Oddly I saw their car parked in the same spot when I came back down the mountain a couple hours later.
I got back to the car, feeling ever more confident with my new high-altitude lungs. Drove the rest of the way up to the summit where the observatories were. It was some serious Evil Genius NASA shit. I kept looking around for guys in silver jumpsuits driving golf carts.
Determined to get to the top of the mountain, I had one more climb. Or should I say, slide down a stupidly steep slope on the wrong side of a guardrail and then a climb. On top of Mauna Kea is a traditional Hawaiian shrine, constructed of tied wood, feathers, stone and offerings. It seemed right that the highest piece of land in the Pacific wasn't bereft of something truly human. The only other thing on the summit was another USGS marker, uncerimoniously sunk into a concrete/steel post.
...I'd say the gash on my foot was because I violated a half-dozen kapu by taking photos and committing other generally annoying tourist shit on the mountain summit. But I'm not, so your angry god can stuff it. However, being an engineer subject to Murphy's Law I ended up in the ER for a particularly messy gash in my foot after approximately 0.01 minutes in the water.
At some point during breakfast yesterday, my intentions were steered away from visiting a beach on the north side of the island toward a visit to a lake on top of Mauna Kea. It was an hour and a half drive on what the guidebook termed the worst road in the state and a 30 minute hike at 13000 feet. Barren, desolate landscape devoid of life, shelter, UV protection, gas and guardrails--my kind of day.
I finished breakfast (coffee, eggs, bacon, potatoes, an english muffin & Portuguese sausage [sic]) and set off in search of music for the drive ahead. I bought a couple CDs and a historical novel at Borders and set off for the volcano. Murphy paid me an early visit and the Jeep ate my CD. Button mashing and yelling were insufficient to coax it from the Jeep's hold, so I drove back to the airport to see if they could do something about it. Driving around without music wasn't an option. The folks at Alamo attempted, ultimately futilely to do same and ended up just giving me a new rental car, this time a shorter (read: less annoying top to stow) Jeep and promising their mechanic would be able to retrieve CD sometime tomorrow morning.
A half hour later I was driving on Saddle Road, the lonely highway built in 1942 by the Army to connect the east & west coasts of Hawaii. By "built" and "1942" I mean specifically it was spewed out in a drunken, meandering chunk in about 5 minutes and then immediately demolished by driving tanks on it. The road consists of 1 somewhat smooth paved lane and one pockmarked, potholed, trashed gravel/asphalt lane.
The problem is the one good lane is evenly split between the east and westbound lanes of traffic. Which means that unless your car is straddling the center line, you have to drive with one half of the wheels on the murky grit, punishing just one side of the car's suspension. If you drive out-and-back there's at least a little symmetry. At the crest the wind blows about a million miles per hour, so between the thwapping percussion of the tires and the rear seatbelts, bits from the top and other miscellany, I couldn't hear the stereo anyway.
As I progressed further, the landscape turned from coastal plains to rolling hills and pasture. The grass finally gave way to a moon-like field of solidified lava flow, jet-black and sharp. At the 29 mile marker, I turned off at the Mauna Kea access road and headed up the mountain. At 6000 feet, the temperature was noticably colder than at the coast and fog enveloped the car. I stopped at the visitor's center at 9000 feet, which had approximately half of the wall next to the door covered with huge signs detailing the dangers of altitude sickness. At the summit, the air pressure is 40% of sea level and the oxygen level is quite low. I promised myself I'd drive back down immediately if my lips turned blue.
Will continue later...need breakfast.
