Aloha!

Recently my friends and I hiked Haleakala Crater and down Kaupo gap on the other side of the island. It’s not a Maui activity that most visitors (especially newly weds) would find appealing, but for those who love to hike, exercise and “get out into the deepest nature” this is the ULTIMATE MAUI ACTIVITY.

Here is my friend Julia Mancuso’s account of the trip… she’s preparing for a Mount Kilimanjaro climb for a charity organization and so this crater hike was her practice… here’s what she had to say…

Hello there everyone:

the beginning

an unreal scene

As Chemmy, Lauren, Mark and I get ready for the Kilimanjaro in June, I went on a little climb through Haleakala Crater here on Maui and Iwanted to recap my experience for us all and for my climbing crew to get ready for the trek! The raw stats on Haleakala are: 10,023 feet high (that’s 3,055 meters); several climate zones (you’ll see those in the pictures); decent into the crater to approximately 6,500 feet and the final 6,500 down Kaupo gap on the south east side of the island down to sea level.

Right off the bat, I have to say “silly old me”: I wore runners, with cotton socks, got a blister after about 2miles! Argggghhhh that was sooo much fun… ;). I mean, I’ve been known to forget my ski boots here and there and perhaps accidentally use my slalom boots for a speed event, but this was clearly another dimension of silliness.

Luckily, the boyz came prepared with a first aid kit and I put some blister bubbles on and made it the 10.1 miles to the cabin where we ended up spending the night. That hike took about 4 and a half hours. One of my favorite moments was when we turned a corner and right in fron of us were the snow-capped peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island. Sooooo amazing, it felt like I could leap right over! Check out the pictures! Fun stuff, but I was exhausted… and hungry.

That evening, we just took it easy, celebrated our accomplishment of the day with a bottle of red wine, sat around and watched the sunset. Ohhh yeah, and watched the endangered Nene goose chill and eat grass on our front lawn.

We all chipped in to light the wood burning stove… I chopped the wood (ha!) and the guys setup the fire and got her going. I know, I know, what’s up with that? The girl chopping the wood? I’m telling a white lie here… you see, anyone who has ever been in the crater cabins knows that’s a really soft, easily splitable particle board… I didn’t have to hack it like a lumber jack. Ha… and here you thought I was choppin’ away…

BUT, I did take over the culinary duties and cooked some good ol’ mac and cheese on the wood burning stove and poured some hot water in some instant soups. Which leads me to my second booboo of the trip: I didn’t get enough food! I totally underestimated the strenuousness of the hike and packed WAY TO FEW calories. Now on our Kilimanjaro trip, the food aspect will be taken care of, but man, proper nourishment is soooo key!

None the less, it was delicious and with the fire crackling, we all settled in for a restful night’s sleep. I actually woke up once and had to go pee and what awaited me when I stepped out of the cabin and on to the field was the brightest, most luminescent night sky I have ever seen. WOW! I wish I had a photo to show you, but the camera we had couldn’t quite handle the low light situation… you may know that Hawaii is a great place for astronomy. We have many observatories here on Haleakala and on the Big Island. The reason Hawaii is a great place for star gazing is because there is very little light pollution and the atmosphere out here is optimal without too many light-shifting particles up there… anyway, it was the most amazing sight.

The morning started of like a dream, right out of a picture book: colorful sunrise, cool mountain breezes howling off of the cliffs. “Paliku,” the name of the place we stayed means “standing cliff” in Hawaiian and its majesty was soooo palpable. I felt so at peace there. No one but your friends around for miles and miles and miles.

that’s the Big Island in the distance

We ate oatmeal for breakfast and drank black tea.

Then I led a qi gong session to loosen up our bodies and lubricate our joints in preparation for the 6500 foot decent down Kaupo gap to the most remote low-lying part of the island. The guys LOVED the qi gong session and Stephan kept on asking, “wow, I wonder if Julia’s fans would want to have a qi gong video led by her?” So, I thought I’d ask you… would you want to have such a DVD?

We packed and I doctored my foot with some mole skin. That ended up doing the trick, because my blisters dwindled a little and i made it through the 6500 feet decent to the ocean. We really motored through and made it down in about 4 hours. HOLY MOLY! My legs were like jello for a couple days! I have never ever ever been so sore in my life. haha!!! I thought I’ve done it all and would never have thought that anything could burn my quads as much as a 6 hour ski session or an all day bike ride up steep terrain. But NOTHING has come close to this leg pain! All I can say to my fellow hiking friends is: GET READY TO WALK AND WALK AND WALK AND FEEL THE BURN!

Some of the lessons I’ve learned? I would recommend walking in whatever shoes you are going to bring and breaking them in. I am going to bring a pair of sandals like merrels or Birkenstocks to hike in with thick wool socks. I guess that is what all the guys in Nepal use. Then a pair of nice running shoes. You can go for the boot, but I am not sure. We will see what they recommend on the list of things to bring. Also, and I think they tour company will have this: first aid kit!

Anyway, back to the hike. We knew that going down the Kaupo gap meant that we would have to hitch hike all the back to the valley (not sure how many miles that is, but many many many!) and that since the road is closed between Hana and Kaupo, we might not get a ride at all! That would mean, we’d have to sleep over there without any food or shelter. A bit of a risk, but we were all game and were excited to step out into the “unknown.” JUST JUMP!

celebrating our arrival

And man, did it pay off… there is something so life-affirming, so exciting, so fulfilling, to go out there and have faith in both each other and the divine plan (whatever that is). All three of us felt so alive (even though our legs were super painfully sore!) as we hiked down, taking in the amazing vistas and seeing all kinds of wildlife.

Lo and behold, as we FINALLY reached the trail’s end (a lot happened in between, like me slipping and falling on my butt, and a bunch of wild pigs nearly attacking us), it all fell into place. Mind you, Kaupo has a population of maybe 50 or so, but we happened to stop by a house whose owner is an Italian artist we had met before… we went in and were greeted by his daughter who was sooo nice. Hospitable like Italians usually are, she invited us into their “outdoor house” and offered us ice cold beer and wine. WOOOOOW! We just looked at one another and asked, “how did we deserve this?” But we in our hearts, we knew why this had happened to us: it’s because we WENT FOR IT! We understood the potential consequences of going down the gap, and were totally fine with whatever came our way.

And by being aware and having faith, we were rewarded.

After our refreshments and conversation, we went back to the road to wait for a car to come by and pick us up. The traffic on this dirt road is maybe 1 car every 15 minutes or so, but as our luck would have it, the second car that came by within 10 minutes picked us up. They were some elderly Philippine couple in a huge GMC truck. We jumped in the back and with the hugest smiles on our faces marveled at the beautiful Maui scenery as we were chauffeured through the remotest country side of Maui… Totally and utterly perfect.

The trip taught me a lot. It taught me that I have to take care in preparing and it again showed me that our fears are never an accurate predictor of what actually ends up happening. In our case, we understood the challenges that may lie ahead and were perfectly fine with whatever the outcome. And for that surrender to some “higher power,” we were rewarded and it was confirmed that we indeed were living fully.

I hope to take this to my trek of Kilimanjaro and wherever I go. Perhaps you too can find some value in my experience.

Talk again soon!

Julia

balancing act	hanging on
fields of gold	morning departure

wild goats	Kaupo side vista
the boyz’ legs were buuuurning!	cows checking us out

the Italian’s place

the Italian’s bedroom

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