Dream come true

For years I’ve been dreaming about climbing a volcano and Friday 4th of September I did it. Lauren, my friend from Idaho, went to work, so I had a day to do whatever I’d like. I borrowed her car and drove up to Haleakala National Park. The tallest peak of Haleakala is at 10 000 feet (3000 meters). I didn’t drive all the way up though, but parked at about 8000 feet (2400 meters) and hiked down the crater at 7000 feet (2100 meters). It was so massive, and such an incredible surface. It’s been 225 years since it last erupted. The rocks were all sharp, dark and it was very sandy. The only camera I had with me was an old school one-use camera, but I’m posting some pictures I found on the internet.

Maui. The tall mountain is Halakeala Volcano/Crater

The red line indicates my route

I went without water and food, and that was a rookie mistake. The weather was good, since I was so high up it didn’t feel very warm, but the sun was shining. I left home at around 8ish, and started hiking at 10:15, not long before I usually eat lunch. Anyway, not much I could do about the water/food situation, so I just started running.

I ran on the ash/sand in the crater from west to east and turned after a couple of hours. I went further south and back west so I came back up the tallest part of the volcano. After a total of 4 hours and 16.7 miles (27km) I was so thirsty (and hungry) that it went really slow up the final 3000 feet. Thankfully there was a water fountain there. After drinking «gallons» I asked some people to get a ride to my (Laurens) car.

Back to Laurens house her friends were throwing a birthday surprise party for Kate. Since she comes from a ranch they made a cowboy party. Good fun with horseshoe throwing, tug of war, sack-race, bb-gun shooting and so on. Tomorrow we are a group who are going camping, but I don’t really know where except from that it will be close to the "7 sacred pools"  (link to google search).

7 sacred pools