Big Island, Hawaii
May 25th, 2022
The day starts off in Hilo, HI on May 25th at 2:00 A.M. That’s a real early alarm after a late dinner and a movie, but the alarm gets me going. It’s a bit funny and a little odd to bring my WINTER gear to HAWAII, and I am glad I did since all the temps said it was going to be in the low 30’s at the top. So, I dress up in all my base layers and pack my down coat and wind coat. OK, hit the road at 2:30 in my fun little green jeep.
At this time, she is maybe 10’ away from me. Me on the sidewalk and her in the bedroom. I get back inside and she has a COMPLETELY different experience of what just happened. She’s in bed and didn’t hear anything, then all of a sudden, the entire building starts shaking and it sounded and felt like a truck just drove through the building. WAS THAT JUST AN EARTHQUAKE!?! We try to do some instant research and there hasn’t been anything yet. More time passes and it was confirmed, there was a 4.7 magnitude earthquake with its epicenter just 4 miles away from where we were staying. Since this was our first earthquake experience, we didn’t know what to expect the rest of the night. Will there be a tsunami? Any aftershocks? Would there be sirens to warn us of anything? Our Airbnb was right on the water, in a tsunami evacuation area. So, we turned our phone volumes up and tried to get any form of sleep possible through the rest of the night.
Well actually before I get into that, let me talk about what happened on the original planned hike date, night/morning of May 22nd. I was in Kona getting ready for the hike to the top at 11:15 P.M., it’s a 13.7ish mile round trip from the Mauna Kea Visitor Center to the summit and back. Other websites said it could be a 6-10 hour hike.
Anyways, I just stepped out the of building to get to the jeep. I hear this noise and it sounds like giant gust of wind coming. I grab on to my bag and papers a little tighter, so they don’t blow away and the sound finally get close, but I don’t feel any wind at all. I hear a bunch of drinking glasses clatter in the building next door and figured my building must have blocked the wind and just blew in through their windows. I didn’t even get to the jeep and I get a call from Madeline exclaiming, “Where are you and did you feel that?”
I am on the road to Mauna Kea, I’ve got a half a tank of gas to get to the top and back. 45 min later I get to the visitor center parking lot, it is 3:15 a.m. at this time so everything is closed down, but I was able to drive through the lot and start hitting the “off-road” portion on the route. It’s still a road, just that it is a dirt road and very rough. The 4-wheel jeep handled it fairly well. A tough 6 ½ miles later I make a pitstop at the Lake Waiau Parking Lot. The trail to the lake was a little underwhelming, simply because I could only see 6’ ahead of me with my headlamp. However, since I am above the cloud line the sky is completely clear and the star gazing was amazing and you can see a slight reflection off the calm lake. By now it is already 4:30 and I have to book it back to the jeep to make it the rest of the way up to the summit.
I got to the top about an hour before sunrise, but a bit of orange had started to come into the horizon. (so, maybe 1 ½ hour before sunrise next time, idk) I park in a spot, there isn’t really a parking lot up there, and hoofed it up another tenth of a mile to the peak. I found a rock off to the side of the summit to sit and watch. I see the orange colors become a little brighter as the night sky and stars start to fade into the sky. Then the sun makes an appearance with its glow growing every minute as it rises from the horizon. There is cell phone service up there so I was able to share this view some family. I almost spent 2 hours up at the peak and it was time to leave and carry on with the day.
Stress levels shot way up when I started the jeep, it said I had maybe 11 miles left in the tank. Uh oh! And its 45 mile back to the closest gas station. There isn’t anything I can do about it up here, so I just gotta go, I guess. Just going to coast all the way down and only braking when needed, well I did that until I got to the visitor center again and they did a brake check.
Come to find out that I forgot to put the jeep into 4-L on the way down and the brakes were over 400°. The rangers also did a gas check and noticed I was low and went back and de-pressurized my gas tank then directed me to go park and let the brakes cool down before I continue on. If I understood it correctly this is big hazard further down, because if the brakes get too hot, they could start flecking and produce sparks in the grassier areas. Not good. In the waiting time, I chatted with the rangers, they said that I must have missed snow at the top by maybe 3-4 weeks. (It was 32° at the summit while I was up there). Enough time has passed and they checked my brakes again, and and I had a ¼ tank of gas again. I am in 4-L the rest of the way down to the hwy and switch it back to 2-wheel. I get back down to the gas station to fill up, the tank is nearly empty again. I put another ½ tank in, start up and boom, it’s just under ¾ tank. So, to be noted, just go up on a full tank knowing there shouldn’t be any fuel problems.
Back just in time for breakfast.