Aloha !
I survived the 6 hour Lava Hike ! I went on a 6 hour lava hike this morning. I hurt my left knee , and each step that I now take is ow , ow , ow ! Walking up the stairs to the Loft is a big challenge . Walking down the stairs from the Loft requires a two step on each step process , but I survived ! yes, I am doing the two-step ! I talked with a bunch of Kalani people that went on the hike previously and some of them blew out both their knees, so I am grateful that I only hurt one. I am extremely grateful that I didn't fall as that would had been the end of me. Falling on lava rock is like falling on glass. It is extremely sharp and there are fine sharp granules that go deep into your hands if you fall. 100% guaranteed that you will be bleeding profusely on any part of the body that accidentally lands on the lava rock. It is easy to fall as the terrain is so rough and uneven . We are walking on lava rock , after all. I had a few near mishaps. One 16 year old boy was cut up pretty bad from a small trip of his foot . His t-shirt was used to mop up the blood. It was bleeding that much.
We left Kalani around 5:00 a.m. It was still pitch dark. We drove to Kalapana and met the Lava Hike Guide at the gate to the lava fields. By then the sun had started rising . Dawn was breaking and there was a softness of daylight all around. Although it is said to be a 8 mile hike , it is , in reality , a 10 mile hike due to the terrain . There is no path . You are literally walking on the lava rock , with its jagged breaks and crevices to the under world . Watching each step that you take was imperative and not an option.
We all started out not knowing really what to expect other than we will get up close and personal with a /some lava flow(s) . It was a most arduous hike. DO NOT wear hiking boots as you will not have the range of motion and the flexibility required for you to walk on the extremely uneven terrain which is completely all lava rock. By rock , I mean big shards and chunks of hardened lava . It is not like big round rocks, by any means , Your feet bend and twist in all directions as you maneuver carefully through the terrain. I had wondered why Bo was carrying a very long piece of bamboo . I would soon find out.
In the early morning , when the sun shone on the lava rock, the lava rock looked like molten silver. It shone brightly in the soft sunlight. As we walked, there was a strong warm wind blowing and I was thankful for that as it got really warm. Actually, really HOT. There was zero shade , With the exception of a few tiny ferns peeking up through the craggly cracks in the silver black lava new earth and a few Ohia lehua trees that were about 2 feet tall , it was all hardened black lava . As we hiked further in , there was no plant life at all.
The first sign of Pele welcoming us was a heart shape hole in the lava rock.
The first sighting of lava was a lava tube that we had to bend almost to the ground in order to see that lava. We could see the red hot molten lava , thick and glowing ! As we stood there , the lava came oozing out . Holy toledo it was so HOT in that area. You couldn't get too close. Bo started poking it with his bamboo pole and it caught on fire. So yes, you can poke it. I have a picture of me poking the red molten oozing lava. I was about 6 feet away. crazy, huh ?
As we walked further into the lava fields , it got hotter and hotter and hotter. Did I say hotter ? Imagine the summer sun shining brightly onto the black lava rocks , the sun's intense heat bouncing off the rocks, right back at you ! There's no dirt , no sand , no rocks . Its all hardened lava rock . Some of it was still crispy . There was zero shade . You can see miles and miles of craggly jagged black lava rock . An inhospitable land indeed. And it was HOT. I know I already said that .
We finally came upon an active lava flow. In fact, several . Oh, to be so close and feeling the intense heat. I couldn't believe that I was seeing the lava so close . Contrary to Hollywood's portrayal , lava flows slowly . It isn't like you see it and you run for the hills. You can't run on lava rock anyways. As mentioned, lava rock is sharp and you foot may get stuck in a crevice.
One of the hikers started putting an action figure right in the path of the flow. She started taking pictures. I was thinking about the morbidity of it all. Immediately , I knew that she was doing this for the sake of ' art..' I've been around a lot of artists this past year. Yes, and she is going to show her photographs in a gallery somewhere else except Hawaii. She complained that if it wasn't Hawaiian Art or Graffitti Art , Hawaiians were not very accepting of other art. She forgets that she is in Hawaii. Why is it that there are so many people that are not respectful of the culture of the place that they are in ? Why do they want to change it ? Why does everything have to turn ' white bread ' ? Go back to where you are from if you don't like the culture. Enough about that. She did say to us to not post the pictures that we took on the internet as that is her ' work. ' It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that she should have taken a private hike then. I did take some wild pictures of action heroes in the path of lava , slowly getting consumed and burned. Superman was the bravest one of all . Although, Captain America stood valiantly facing the lava . Quite a few Super Heroes sacrificed their Lives to try and stop the Lava flow(s) .
It was so very very hot where the lava(s) was flowing. I had had enough. We had to wait around for a long time in the intense heat while all the action heroes were slowly burned in the lava flow's fiery inferno , one by one. I made a grill cheese sandwich on the molten lava. On one side , it was nicely browned, on the other, it was charred. I was so hot that the thought of eating a grill cheese sandwich made me nauseous. I didn't end up eating it but I did photograph it. One of the most spectacular was witnessing the red molten lava flow into a crevice. I can't believe I was so close to the lava flows. At one point, I was about 5 feet away. You can get a serious burn from being too close to the lava, just by the heat it gives off. What was I thinking ?????
Oh, and someone stupid was going to throw a semi- empty aerosol can into the flowing lava as he didn't want to carry it back . The Lava Hike Guide said it was O.K . I said otherwise. We could have been blown to Kingdom Come. At that moment , I seriously questioned the sensibility of the person who was guiding us through the hazardous lava fields. I was also concerned about the toxicity of the burnt plastic left behind by the deceased Action Heroes.
Heading back was even more challenging as the sun was getting more intense. The lava rock turned from sparkling silver to glittery bronze and gold. It was hard on the eyes. There were sparkly blue specks and rainbow sparkled thin shards on the lava rock too . Everywhere , there were lava braided ropes . It is so very interesting. It literally looks as if someone braided the lava. This braided lava is called Pele's hair. Its wild looking and hard to walk on as there are so many ' grooves.'
Jackie told me that there was a huge magnetic field on the lava fields. It zaps the energy out of us. We were all so very tired . As soon as I got back to Kalani , I took a shower and went straight to bed to take a nap. We got back around 11:00 a.m. I didn't make to lunch as the thought of walking up to the Lanai made my knee hurt more. Its a bit of a walk. Distance wise, its probably equivalent of 4 long city blocks. I was so tired and tried to nap but i couldn't sleep . I laid in bed , and watched the geckos go up and down a tall palm tree outside my window. I watched the palm fronds rustling and swaying in the summer breeze.
Going to dinner was challenging. I was really hungry by dinner time and I dreaded walking to the Lanai . Prior to me heading to the Lanai , Beth gave me some Arnica drops and pills . Tara gave me a bottle of Gatoraid as it had electrolytes and she said that would help me with me ' groggyness. ' Someone else gave me 2 pills of extra strength ibuprofen.
During dinner, it started pouring heavily . Oh, great, I was going to get completely drenched as I had no umbrella and I am walking ever so slowly. I was able to find a very large golf umbrella and I jokingly said that I would use it as a cane instead of an umbrella. It made everyone laugh as I was walking around the covered Lanai using the umbrella as a cane. As I headed back to my room, Mark gave me a bag of ice to ice my knee. Karen has bandaged me up to help decrease to impending swelling. She is a nurse. And as I am writing , my right knee is feeling a bit tender and sore .
I feel incredibly lucky to have experienced being so close to lava. I will not do this again. Once was enough.
Life is telling me to take it one step at a time.
With much Aloha,
x0x0x0x0x0
Molly
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