Hawaii Adventures pt 2: In, Under, Above Vocanos
1 Mile Lava Tube:
Hike 2.5miles down a path leaving from mile 23 on the saddle hwy. On your right is a hole in the earth. Climb down the rocks, take 3 flashlights, and a friend: Super hostess Michelle. You just keep heading down this long ‘culvert’ through the earth. Stalactites, and stalagmites have a shiny silvery-black look. Really cool, but being out here by yourselves, and seeing the frequent spots the roof has collapsed (this young rock here ain’t strong) is a little un-nerving.
Danger of Death: 0.5/10 ceiling collapse
Injuries sustained: goose egg on head from low hanging ceiling.
Sunset: Volcano National Park
Exactly how it sounds. Really great views, we could see over to Maui, where its peaks were also poking up above the cloud layer. I ran up a cinder cone. It’s also really dry up here, which is an odd change from the rain forest we left 9000+ feet below us.
Danger of Death: 0.5/10 Hitting Invisible Cows on Drive
Injuries: sand in shoe
Safe Crater Hike: Kilauea Iki
Outside Magazine has ranked this as one of it’s top hikes. It was more of a walk, but still was super cool. You start off peeking down into a crater, jog around, and descend 400′ into it. Which is where it gets really cool, and you KNOW that you are on top of a still cooling (hence the steam/ gas venting out around you) lava pond. If you have time for one hike in Hawaii, hands down, do this one
Danger Crater: a.k.a. Mauna Ulu
Idea, hike up and peek into a kinda dormant volcano crater, the rock I will be on is younger than me. It took around an hour to do the round trip from when I left the legal path. The fresh rock crunched and broke underfoot like crusty snow. After 5 minutes and a 
few cave-ins (dropping through the outer rock shell and falling 2-5 inches) I was starting to get frazzled and a little scared. Turn back? Nope. Twenty minutes later, I’d caved in 20 inches to a larger hole, and could see the potential of breaking through the top of a lava tube and falling down 15 feet. I was scared but the top was near. Mom, stop reading now. When I got to the top the ground was cracked all over the place, and steam was venting all around me. The diameter of the crater literally gets larger by the day as pieces of the rim break off and tumble down below (I told you not to read mom, stop now). So I lie on my belly, and peek over. After a few pictures, I realize I’m on a diving board and scared shit-less retreat. Mom, you can start reading again here. Of course I still have to make my way through the uber treacherous gauntlet back to the tree line. But 
I do, and am super-hyper relieved. I check the petroglyphs, and leave for my next adventure of the day.
Danger of Death:Â 6/10 I haven’t contacted 
any geography majors yet, but I was really frickin’ scared.
Owies: Volcano Rash, and prolonged over secretion of adrenalin from high D.O.D.
Mtb to Mona Kea top for Sunset
I drove straight from the crater, to the park Mona Kea welcome center. Parked, packed some clothes, and started my ride. The first few miles, and thousands of feet of climbing on the dirt road were OK. Somewhere around 12 000-13 000′ were rough. The final stretch flattens out a little, and I was rolling along well again. 2/3 of the cars passing either cheered me on or took pictures, which was cool. The sun was setting at the top, and this close to the equator it doesn’t set for long. Pop on my courage sport top, and start booking down hill. 5 minutes later, it’s completely dark and I’m frozen. From the bottom of the ocean this mountain is the tallest in the world.
Danger of Death: 2.5/10 Riding off road while descending mountain in the dark/ getting run over biking in dark.
Injuries: got very cold, and dust in my eyes (wah wah).
Safe things: 
view lava flow into the ocean: This is the earth getting bigger! Really cool. The lava was flowing around 1km away. Apparently the site closes at 11pm, and you can climb the barrier, and go as close as you want at that time. But not being a geologist, there is a very real danger of falling through a thin spot and becoming a crispy critter. I’m not a geologist, and skipped this. Mom, you should be proud.
mountain biking: There actually aren’t many trails, but I did find some pretty cool little spots to get off-road. Riding was mainly double track, as all the land here seems to be private, or park, and the park people emphatically didn’t want me mountain biking on their area.
Summary of week:Â I’m loving life
Here is a slideshow of my 2 weeks on the big island
