Big Island Part 3
Today was the day, I was back on the hunt for lava. One of my friends from Oahu, Chris, flew over with one of his friends. We met up in Pahoa at 08:00 and headed towards the lava fields from the Kalapana side. After my lovely experience walking out the first time I recommended that, if at all possible, we avoid using our legs to get out there. They have bike rentals at the access point and we each picked out our trusty steeds. The way out to the lava is a pleasant, mostly downhill pedal, that only took about fifteen or so minutes (this side is much closer to the active lava flows, but the bikes are more than worth it). When we reached the end of the road we propped our bikes on some lava rocks and began our hike. We started out by approaching the ocean to watch the lava fall into the sea. I definitely had a better view this time, and could see globs of molten red rock as they hit the water and sent up huge gouts of poisonous steam. When we got our fill, we began the long trek into lava plains, the wildest place I've ever been.
Shortly after we started walking we ran into another group of three, who happened to be very lava-knowledgeable locals. We decided we would follow them on our quest for surface flows. This was my second time out on the flows, but the landscape was still unbelievable. The entire area is black, upturned, disorganized and shows signs of having recently been liquid. Steam and toxic gas rise from cracks and fissures that cover the entire area. Torrents of heat escape to the surface out of whatever hole they can find. Occasionally, you can even see the hellish glow of molten rock in the cracks. Different color streams of rocks indicated their freshness, silver being the newest, black having been in place for a while. It's a fairly easy process to spot the lava tube, an underground channel that the lava follows to the sea. The ground above it is raised about 15-20' over the surrounding landscape. It's also very hot. I was pretty nervous walking deep into the fields at first, but it quickly became apparent that short of crashing through the roof of the lava tube, it was just too hot to miss the surface flows. The guys we were following found the first one, they waved us over and I lost my mind. I was feet away from molten red lava. Epic. Then we found another breakout, and another, and another. The heat is so intense you have to stand upwind and the rocks all around you are crackling and flaking apart as they cool down.
That wasn't enough, we wanted to find a skylight. A skylight is a hole that forms in the ceiling of the lava tube, letting you see the molten rock inside. We decided to press onwards to the base of the slope. We found a massive old skylight, and a few other holes down into fresh tubes, but no active ones. The guys we were with decided to turn back at this point, and we decided to climb up the slope. Climbing the slope is far more difficult than it sounds. There are two main types of lava here, 'a'a (pronounced ah-ah) and pahoehoe (pronounced pah-ho-ay-ho-ay). Pahoehoe is what the fields we had been walking on so far were made of. It's generally smooth, in some places "ropey" and fairly easy to walk across. 'A'a is a different story. Its a bunch of small, jagged and incredibly unstable rocks that want to cut you up and feed you to Pele. In order to climb the slope you have to follow the pahoehoe flows. It sounds easy, but imagine walking up a decent slope on a smooth surface. Wait, it gets better. Want to use your hands to help climb? Too bad! Volcanic rock is filled with little glass strands that like to stick in your hand and cut you. Want to take some nice deep breaths of air? Too bad! The gas leaching out the ground all around you is toxic. We decided to not climb any higher, but we did stop for a quick snack. I went immediately for my go-to, a bag of Cheez-Its. Yes, you read that correctly, I ate Cheez-Its on the side of an active volcano. I suspect that I am the first (if anyone from Cheez-It or Kellogg reads this I would love a sponsorship deal).
My hand holding the Cheez-Itz I ate on the side of a volcano
On our way back down the slopes of Kilauea we were closer to the kipuka (a forest or area of land spared by the flow of lava). One of us had the idea to pick up some broken tree branches to use as lava pokers. I found the biggest one I could and Chris helped secure it to my backpack. The breakouts we had found on our way in had already cooled off so we pushed farther into the lava wastes. This turned out to be the most exciting, and dangerous, decision I've ever made. As we went further in the heat became more and more intense. The wind was pushing the heat from the edges of the field toward us and we were also downwind of the tube. We started noticing how hot and silvery the ground was. Then we noticed that some of the rocks around us were no longer solid. We quickened the pace and realized we probably weren't in an ideal location. We pressed on for a bit, with everything getting hotter and hotter until we realized that we were surrounded on three sides by lava. I don't think I've ever back tracked out of somewhere so fast in my life. I was ravenous, dehydrated to levels I've scarcely experienced and my legs were exhausted, but I got the hell out of there. We made it safely away and found a couple more surface flows to poke and then bailed. I'd never been so thankful for warm gatorade in my life.
Helicopter stoked-out Joe.
The next day I woke up, got some breakfast and went to the airport. Not to fly home, but to take a doors-off helicopter ride. I can't describe how cool it was, and the video doesn't do the experience justice. The best description I can give you is my face shortly after takeoff, it looked just like that the entire flight. I can tell you the views are incredible, you can see the divisions of each volcano easily, Hawaii is just as beautiful from the air, and that I love helicopter rides. My Grandma bought me that flight as a present. Grandma, thank you for the coolest experience of the trip and for being awesome. Everyone else, my Grandma is cooler than yours.
