In the classroom!

Thursday and Friday were the first two days in the classroom at Helix High School. All in all, I think it went alright. Thursday involved a short presentation introducing myself and my research. One thing that really got the students interest was when I mentioned one of my favorite outdoor activities is backpacking. I got a wide range of questions about this from “what is backpacking?” to “do you carry a gun to protect yourself from animals?” (no, the only arms I carry are the two attached to my shoulders.) As some of you who follow me on Twitter know, I work in a pretty spectacular place and there were requests from the students that we take a field trip to the White Mountains. That would be great except for the fact we have no money (if any rich readers of this blog want to donate to a White Mountains field trip I’ll rename our new cat after you!!).

Anyway, Thursday was the first day of the ecology unit and I dedicated time to introducing what ecology is and what ecosystems are. We also talked about the six levels of ecological organization (individual to biosphere). This was an interactive activity that got students out of their chairs (individual student --> population of students --> community of organisms within the classroom --> ecosystem of biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors in the classroom --> biome of various science classrooms in the science building --> a biosphere of subject “biomes” at Helix High School) and seemed effective. Students were also given a homework assignment that examined plant communities within the White Mountains.

On Friday we spent some time going over the White Mountains plant communities homework assignment. During my last trip to the Whites I took videos of the different plant communities found across the gradient of elevation and used those as part of our review of the homework. These videos are the first I've ever posted on YouTube and can be seen below.

I hope that I have gotten off to a good start and looking forward to future visits to the classroom that will employ more hands-on learning.

Part 1: Desert scrub

Part 2: Pinyon juniper woodland

Part 3: Sub-alpine

Part 4: Alpine

Part 5: Nival

The blog is back!!

Looking at my past blog posts reveals that it’s been… A LONG TIME… since I last posted anything. This is unacceptable! Someone really needs to get after me about not keeping up with that thing!

Anyway, I think it’s time to start updating the blog on a regular basis and today seems like a good day to re-initiate. Tomorrow will be my first day in the classroom for my NSF GK-12 fellowship. As part of this year’s experience I’m going to try and write a short summary of what I I’m doing in the classroom and comment a little about what went well and what didn’t. This is mostly for me to keep track of what I’ve been doing, but also to inform my immense fan base (mom? mom?) of what I’m doing. If anyone reading this has comments or suggestions as things progress, don’t hesitate to share them.

I’ll be in a biology classroom once or twice a week at Helix Charter High School in La Mesa, CA, a suburb of San Diego and will be focusing on ecology and the impacts of anthropogenic (human-induced) pressures on local and regional ecosystems. The over-arching project that students will carry out will be a competition experiment employing native coastal sage scrub plant species and invasive annual grasses. I’m looking forward to getting started!

Dry feet

Sierra Nevada Mts. from Schulman Grove

Today’s post will focus on my recent trip to the White Mountains where I had planned to do a 50-mile backpacking trip to recon some sites for experiments I’m going to be starting this summer and also to check out the snow at the higher elevations. The hike, unfortunately, was short lived.
First, the reason for going up to the Whites was to give a talk to the California Native Plant Society, Bristlecone Chapter in Bishop. This CNPS chapter was generous enough to award me a research grant earlier this year and in return I gave a presentation at their monthly meeting. The topic was on methods for measuring recent ecological change with a focus on the work I carried out last summer revisiting a study by Hal Mooney in 1961 (Mooney et al. 1962). This was the first time I had given a presentation for a general audience (i.e. not a room full of academics) and it was also the longest presentation I had ever given (45 minutes). All in all, I thought it went very well with a lot of positive feedback from those in attendance.
The next day, May 26, after gathering some archival photos at the White Mountain Research Station I headed up to Schulman Grove where I would start and end my trip. This was a big snow year in the Whites and White Mountain Road was only open to the Grove and still snowed in beyond.
I got started about 3 PM and made it about 10 miles before nightfall. It was easy hiking with a mix of off trail and 4x4 road. Starting elevation was about 10,000 ft and dropped to 7,500 ft in Wyman Canyon where I camped. The night passed uneventfully and I slept soundly in my 30*, 21 oz Marmot Hydrogen sleeping bag I got off the Gear Swap forum on BPL (see my previous post where I talk about my desire to get a lighter sleeping bag). The temp was about 33* when I awoke and I was warm so I think I have now reached ultra-light nirvana with my sleep system. But, I digress…
The goal of the hike was to check out some low elevation sites (low elevation = 7,000 ft). I had camped at the intersection of my rout out of Wyman, so after breakfast I left my pack and headed down the road to check out what things looked like at 7,000 ft. There were a fair amount of crossings of Wyman Creek but most were ones I could jump. I did, however, get a little wet at one, which is an annoying way to start the day. I checked out the site and was almost all the way back from the 3 mile round trip stroll when I came to the difficult stream crossing that got me wet on the way down. Instead of dealing with even wetter feet I decided to search for an easier crossing and started skirting the side of the steep slopes above the creek. After a few minutes I realized I probably would have been better off getting wet feet but decided I had gotten this far and could see a possible end to the detour. The next thing I remember were some large rocks in my path. They looked stable and I stepped on one. The next thing I know I was laid out against a truck sized boulder feeling woozy with blood pouring out of my right thumb. I reached up to feel the side of my head and realized I had tore up my ear pretty good and had a large welt between my ear and eye. Looking back, I don’t think I was knocked out in the fall but I can’t remember the actual fall so it’s hard to say. I sat for about 10 minutes to gather my senses and when I stood up almost fainted. Another 10 minutes of sitting and I was ready to go. I got across the creek and back to my pack and got cleaned up. About this point I find out my left knee is pretty banged up but at least I can walk on it. When I got the thumb cleaned up it was looking pretty bad. I had sliced it just above the cuticle with fresh fingernail showing a lot higher up the thumb than you should be seeing it. I was really hoping I wasn’t seeing bone (luckily I wasn’t). I also took a picture of my ear and head to see how bad that was. Not too bad but it sure didn’t feel good and some hair had come off so that indicated it had been a pretty harsh impact with the boulder. All this, along with the knee, convinced me it was time to abandon ship and head back to the car. The walk back to the car wasn’t too bad, although the thumb was seeping blood the whole way. After cleaning up the thumb more thoroughly I headed home. By the way, I was able to get across the stream without getting wet feet!
Looking back on the trip I realize just how vulnerable one is when in the backcountry. I consider myself to be a careful person when hiking and try to minimize risk as much as possible but stuff can happen. Although where this happened was far from remote by my standards (I was on a 4x4 road), it was still a relatively untraveled area. Had this happened in north end of the White Mountains, where probably well under 50 people visit per year, I could have been in some real trouble if I had been immobilized. Situations like this are a good reminder of why you should let someone know where you are going and what your schedule is when venturing into the backcountry (which I did).
Anyway, I’m healing up and am getting ready to head back the Whites in about a week to get started with the experiments I’m conducting up there. I will try to update this every week or two this summer so you can see what I’m up to. You can also keep appraised of my travels by following me on Twitter at @CWKopp.

Not pretty

Pretty (Prince's Plume)

Gear Lust

Yesterday I took a day trip to the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off (a.k.a ADZPCTKO, a.k.a PCT Kickoff) east of San Diego at Lake Morena with Daren. Janel is sick and stayed home. I had heard this was an event not to be missed but I had never gotten around to checking it out. I was mostly interested in checking out the vendors. Most of the vendors in attendance are mom and pop outfits run out of garages. They may be small operations, but they produce the lightest and most cutting edge backpacking gear available. Because of this, it’s rare to get a chance to see the gear they pedal except for on their websites. We also sat in on seminar discussing the evolution of backpacking gear with panelists including Joe Valesko (Z-Packs), Glen Van Peski (Gossamer Gear), Ralph Drollinger (Adventure 16), and Wayne Gregory (Gregory Backpacks).
I feared that seeing some of the ultra-light gear on display would ruin me on what I use now. I had this experience a couple weeks ago when I attended a presentation by Andrew Skurka and got a look at the quilt he uses. His Mountain Laurel Designs Spirit Quilt 30 degree bag is only 18 oz and is far lighter than my Sierra Designs Arrow Rock 15 degree mummy bag which weighs nearly 3 lbs. Getting a new, ultra-light quilt is now a gear priority before the start of the summer field season. But I digress…
Two items caught my eye yesterday. One of these I sought out and the other ambushed me. The piece of gear I was most interested in seeing was the Z-Packs Blast backpack. My current pack is the Golite Jam (the original version). I really like this pack and intend to use it until dies. That day is getting closer. Joe’s Blast pack looks appealing and is super lightweight (6 oz if I get it without the mesh panel). It’s fit felt very similar to my Jam so I think I found my next pack. This pack will eventually compliment my 4 oz Z-Pack Hexamid Solo tarp.
The piece of gear I wasn’t looking for but now am lusting over is the Gossamer Gear LT3C trekking poles. These are carbon fiber poles and weigh a mere 2.8 oz/pole. This is a lot lighter than the Komperdell poles I now use. I’d seen these poles online but figured that having lighter poles wouldn’t be that noticeable, but I was wrong. Now I’m ruined on another piece of my gear.
After we’d had our fill of ADZPCTKO, and all the people there, Daren and I headed out to do some hiking. We were going to go up in the Laguna Mts via Kitchen Creek Road but were stopped by a locked gate. So, we did an out and back trip on the PCT from Kitchen Creek Road to Boulder Oaks Road and back, about 8 miles. It was a peasant day for a hike and the wildflowers were fantastic thanks to a wet winter. Kitchen Creek was flowing strongly (almost roaring), which is unusual for any stream in Southern California.
Finally, I’ll hopefully be posting more updates to the blog once field season starts and I’m out hiking around a lot more. Also, I promised Luke Gibson I'd link to his website so he can climb on to the front page of Google. So, click on his name and check out his research.

Mt Woodson Hike

Today Janel and I went hiking up Mt. Woodson, near Ramona, CA.  I had been up to the top, via the Lake Poway route, a couple years ago but Janel had not been here.  Today we did a loop that started on the east side of the mountain, along busy HWY 67.  To get to the top we walked about 2 miles on the service road to the top.  This was a steep slog and we were glad we could take a different way down.  The path down was about 4.5 miles long.

There are many radio towers on the top, which doesn't make it the most appealing summit around.  However, the top has some pretty good views although it was a bit hazy today with a storm system moving in from the north.  There are some massive boulders on Mt. Woodson.  One of these boulders has split appart to form a diving board type protrusion pictures above.  There are also a number of Coulter Pines and Incense Cedars on top of this 3,000 ft peak.

Pictures from today's hike can be found here.

Day 13. Maui

We awoke at 4:15 AM and arrived at the visitor’s center near the summit of Haleakalā at 5:45 AM, an hour before sunrise. The guidebook (Maui Revealed) wasn’t kidding when it said to arrive an hour before sunrise to get a parking spot at the summit. We didn’t get a spot at the summit and there were only about six cars behind us that were able to get a spot at the visitors center. While I stayed warm in the car, Janel warmed up the camera by taking some pictures of lit-up communities on the coast. The area around the visitor center was quite crowded with people so we found the trailhead for the Sliding Sands Trail and walked about 2-minutes down that trail to find a fantastic vantage point with nobody around… helps to look at the map if you want to get away from people. The morning was chilly (the ground was white with frost) but at least it was calm. The sky was clear with clouds below us. The sun did rise (hasn’t failed us yet) and it was pretty spectacular to see it basically rise out of the clouds. Janel and I both agreed it was worth getting up early to see.

After revisiting the summit and taking some more photos we headed down the mountain. On the way back to the hotel we attended church at Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Makawao. It was a nice service with one of the hymns played with a harmonica.

After a lousy breakfast and packing at the hotel we headed over to the west coast. We did our final snorkeling at Po’olenalena Beach (aka. Paipu, Pepeiaolepo, Loves, or Keauhou Beach), where we had snorkeled on our third day on Maui. The snorkeling was pretty good on the north end of the beach but partly cloudy conditions made things kind of chilly. After lounging on the beach for a while we returned the snorkeling gear we had rented and did some gift shopping (almost everything is open here on Christmas).

After an early supper at Big Wave Café we took a walk on the boardwalk at Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge. Not too much to see besides salt-flats and a decent sunset.
Since our flight wasn’t until 11:20 PM we had a lot of time to spare so we went to the theater and watched “Little Fockers”. Pretty funny movie.

The flight home was uneventful, although we didn’t get as much sleep as we had hoped.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip. I’m not sure that we had a favorite island but we definitely didn’t see everything there was to see. I guess that gives us a good excuse to go back again someday.

Pictures from today can be found here.

Day 12. Maui

We covered a lot of ground today after an early morning start. Several stops were made along the Hana Highway to look at waterfalls. Falls we stopped for included two small ones at Pua’a Ka’a State Park, Wailua Iki, Haipua’ena Falls, and Upper Puohokamoa Falls. There were several other waterfalls that we passed up along the way… there is a lot to see on this road.

Since we were relatively close to Haleakalā we decided to drive to the 10,023 ft summit. Unfortunately, the mountain was socked in with clouds and we couldn’t see much of anything. We decided that tomorrow morning we’d get up early and take in the famous sunrise on Haleakala, which would be a unique way to celebrate Christmas.

After heading back down the mountain and checking into the Maui Seaside Hotel in Kahului we headed over to the west coast to do some late afternoon snorkeling at Palauea Beach (aka. White Rock). Unfortunately, my snorkeling mask malfunctioned and so I didn’t get a chance to do any snorkeling. However, Janel reported that the visibility was rather poor with few fish, so I didn’t miss much. The waves here were small but were fun to do some body surfing on.

For supper we got take-out at Da Kitchen and went to bed early in anticipation of an early start to Haleakalā in the morning.

Pictures from today can be found here.

Day 11. Maui (Hana area)

In the rush to get to Hana yesterday I wish we had taken the time to stop and do some shopping. The stove I use is a cat can alcohol stove. Usually, I use denatured alcohol for the stove, which works great. Unfortunately, you can’t fly with denatured alcohol and it is only sold by the quart, which is way too much for a couple nights of camping. So, for this trip I have been using isopropyl alcohol. It’s cheaper and is sold in smaller volumes. On the Kalalau trip I was able to get 91% alcohol and that worked OK. In Hana I could only find 70% and that didn’t work so well. It would ignite but wouldn’t stay lit for more than a minute, so water for oatmeal took a long time to warm up this morning.

Anyway, after breakfast we headed to the Haleakala National Park Kïpahulu Visitor Center. From the visitor center we hiked the Pïpïwaï Trail to Waimoku Falls. This 400 ft waterfall is probably one of the more spectacular waterfalls I’ve ever seen, especially since you are able to walk right up to the base of the falls. The 4-mile roundtrip trail has a section that passes through a bamboo forest. Walking through this forest of grass was like walking through a tunnel.

After returning and eating a quick lunch we went to see the Seven Sacred Pools in ‘Ohe’o Gulch, near the visitor center. The pools had some nice waterfalls flowing into them but rain was starting to fall so it was a quick excursion.

The next stop for the day was the Venus Pool. This pool was a 10-minute hike from the road and is a popular place for cliff jumping.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Hamoa Beach. This is a popular little beach with some great waves that were good for body surfing. We played in the waves until it started to rain and then headed into town for supper (Hana Ranch House again). The final night of camping for the trip was rainless so that was nice.

Pictures from today can be found here.

Day 10. Maui.

The flight from Kaua’i to Maui was uneventful. After retrieving the rental car we had lunch at Da Kitchen in Kahului. The food and service were good and the prices reasonable. I just learned that Da Kitchen used to have a restaurant in San Diego but it is out of business… bummer. After making a quick trip to Kihei (on the west coast) to pick up snorkel gear we headed for Hana, where we will camp for the next two nights. To get to Hana we took the southwestern route. This route travels through a lot of lava fields and did not appear to be heavily traveled. Part of the reason, as we found out later, was that travelers going out of Hana had been told the road was closed due to flash flooding this afternoon. We did drive through some water running over the road at one point, but had no trouble (it helped seeing a convertible fording the stream before us). As we approached Hana the vegetation became more and more lush until we were in a full-on tropical rain forest. By this time it was raining heavily so we took note of places to go back to tomorrow and headed for Wai’anapanapa State Park, where we would camp. It was not raining when we got to the campground, so we set up the tent and headed into town to get some supplies and find some supper. There are basically two choices in Hana for dining: the super expensive Hotel Hana Maui or the expensive Hana Ranch House. We chose the Ranch House and were very happy with the food. After supper we headed back to the campground and the night passed with no rain.

Pictures from today can be found here.

Day 9. Kaua'i

Today we didn’t venture too far from Wailua and Kapa’a and were dodging occasional showers throughout the day. The first stop was ‘Opaeka’a Falls, another roadside waterfall. From ‘Opaeka’a Falls we headed further inland to Keahua Arboretum. The arboretum was uninspiring and we didn’t stay long. We next went to some falls on Kapa’a Stream. The falls were nice but the trail was very slick and I took a pretty good fall that was more damaging to my pride than anything else. We saw some very cool white stuff (lichen?) growing on some trees along the trail. After this we returned to the hotel and went for a nice walk on the beach before going out to dinner at Harley’s Tropical Barbeque near the hotel. The remainder of the evening was spent packing for tomorrow’s flight back Maui.

To see photos from today, click here.

Day 8. Kaua’i

This morning we went to Waimea Canyon. This canyon lives up to the hype and I can see why it has been called the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. The dead end of this road is at an overlook that is supposed to have great views of the Kalalau Valley. Unfortunately, the fog was thick in the Valley so we were unable to see the reverse view of where we had been two days ago. This area of the island is supposed to have superb hiking trails but with the threat of rain we didn’t venture too far from the car today.

After seeing the sites around Waimea Canyon we went to the south part of the island. Here we saw the Spouting Horn blowhole and then went to Kawailoa Bay took a walk on the remote beach here. To get to Kawailoa Bay we had to follow a potholed dirt road with many puddles that looked like they would swallow the rental car. For supper tonight we ate at Kaua’i Pasta, which was small but had good food.

Pictures from the today can be found here.

Day 7. Kaua’i

We awoke to rain this morning and so were in no rush to get going. For breakfast we went to Waipouli Restaurant where we each had one too many pancakes. After breakfast we went and checked out Wailua Falls, west of Lihu’e. The parking lot for the falls was also the viewing platform and so we didn’t have to hike on any muddy trails to see the vigorously flowing falls. From Wailua Falls we headed to the north side of the island to see the sites. We stopped at several beaches and the Kilauea Lighthouse. When we got to Hanalei we headed down to Hanalei Bay and walked out on the pier and watched people learning to surf while listening to one of the locals tell some big fish stories, including one about the monster that got away.

We next headed back down to Kë’ë Beach (location of Kalalau Trail trailhead) and watched some whales jumping quite a ways off shore. We were able to get a couple pictures that would have been better if the whales would have cooperated and moved about a mile closer to shore. There was a high surf advisory today and we were hoping to see some big waves but they weren’t too impressive. On the way back to the hotel we stopped for a bite to eat at Bubba’s Burgers. This evening was wash night and we made runs to the laundry room in between torrential rain showers. Tonight we’re both happy we’re not camping out.

Pictures from today can be found here.

Day 6. Kaua’i’s Kalalau Trail concluded.

Due to wanting to catch the last bus out of Hanalei, we got an early start at 6:30 this morning. Throughout the day the clouds looked threatening but rain, thankfully, never materialized. Rain would have made for some tricky conditions as the trail was already slick. Instead, it was very warm and humid all day and I was sweating profusely on all the up-hills. We got back to Kë’ë beach around 2 PM and spent some time checking out the beach before hitching a ride into Hanalei and then continuing on to Wailua, where Janel was dropped off near our hotel (Kaua’I Sands). I stayed on the bus into Lïhue where I picked up the rental car at the airport.

It was a nice backpacking trip but I wish we could have spent more time on it. We didn’t have time to explore the Kalalau Valley or visit its waterfall or Hanakäpï’ai Falls. I guess we’ll just have to go back again!

Pictures from the Kalalau Trail and the Na Pali Coast can be found here.

Day 5. Kaua’i’s Kalalau Trail continued.

We got a late start today but reached the Kalalau Valley and Beach around 4 PM and had plenty of time to play in the ocean. Watching some whales jumping about a half-mile off-shore caused part of this morning’s delay. Those animals can sure make a big splash! The total distance covered today was about nine miles. The route had a lot of up and down and was filled with some great views, although the haze made for sub-par photography. A majority of the people we met on the trail today were those who are living illegally in Kalalau Valley. Most of them will spend a couple weeks in the backcountry and then head into town for a while to get food (and some how earn a living??) for a few days. They all seemed friendly and really love this valley.

Pictures from the Kalalau Trail and the Nä Pali Coast can be found here.

Day 4. Kaua'i

Today would be the first day of a three-day backpacking trip on the Nä Pali Coast of Kaua’i. In the morning we flew from Maui to Kauai. It was an uneventful flight on Island Air, with some good views of several of the Islands along the way. The descent into Lihu’e was exciting with cliffs on both sides of the aircraft! Once on the ground we retrieved our luggage and got a cab to Walmart where we would catch a bus up to Hanalei. After putting our luggage in storage at Kayak Kaua’i we thumbed rides up to the end of the road and the trailhead for the Kalalau Trail.

We didn’t travel too far this first day; only two miles to Hanakäpï’ai Beach. This was a beautiful setting for camping with a 150 yd long beach with a nice stream running through the middle. The remainder of the afternoon was spent lounging on the beach and setting up camp. All in all, a nice end to a busy day.

Pictures from the Kalalau Trail can be found here.

Maui. Day 3.

Today was pretty much a go to the beach day on the west coast of Maui. The first stop was to rent snorkel gear in Kihei. From there we headed south to Po’olenalena Beach (aka. Paipu, Pepeiaolepo, Loves, or Keauhou Beach). This was a nice little beach with small waves but pretty good snorkeling. We saw some cool looking fish, a lot of bleached corral, and a sea turtle. In papers I’ve read and lectures I’ve been too there has been a lot of discussion of ocean warming and acidification having adverse affects on corral reefs. This area was a sad example of what climate change is doing to our oceans. When Janel and I were on the Big Island seven years ago for honeymoon I recall that the corral we saw was alive and well with lots of colors. On the Maui coast that was not the case. I’d like to revisit some of the spots we snorkeled in on the Big Island again and see how they are doing.

After some time at Po’olenalena we headed further south to check out Makena Beach (aka. Oneloa Beach or Big Beach) and Pu’u Ola’I Beach (aka. Little Beach). We first headed over to Pu’u Ola’I Beach. Pu’u Ola’I Beach is a garment optional beach and was very crowded with scenery that was not particularly pleasing to the eye. So, we headed back over the knoll to Makena (Big) Beach, which was much less crowded. Big Beach got its name from hippies back in the 60s and 70s that kept things simple and called it was it was (a big beach) instead of calling it by its Hawaiian name, Makena. Makena is about a half-mile long and quite beautiful. The surf here was much bigger than at Po’olenalena and the snorkeling off shore was OK. After we snorkeled for a while, Janel headed in while I stayed in for a while and worked on my body surfing technique. Once I had taken enough abuse we sat on the beach for a while before deciding to call it a day.

Before heading back to town we drove to the end of the west coast road to La Pérouse Bay, where there is a very large lava field. The road here was quite narrow. There were occasional homes on the beach that looked like nice, simple places to live with a spectacular view. The sunset was pretty good.

Pictures from today can be found here.

Maui. Day 2.

Last night was a relatively restful night.  Our room is a little warm but not stifling.  The desk clerk last night wasn't the greatest at enforcing quiet hours and he was actually making the most noise it seemed.  Different person tonight and he seems quiet so I expect to be sleeping sooner.
Anyway, we awoke at about 6:30 this morning and headed out about an hour later.  We decided to tour the northwest corner of Maui today.  Our plan had been to first go see the hanging bridges in Waihe'e Canyon north of Wailuku, but the access to that didn't open until 9 and we got there at 8.  Instead, we did what was probably a better hike and hiked the Waihe'e Ridge Trail, which overlooks the area we had originally planned to visit.  The trail was a little shy of 2.5 miles and climbed about 1,500 ft.  We took our time and reached the top in about 1.5 hours.  When we started there were hardly any clouds in the sky but when we reached the end of the trail, Lani-lili hill, it was socked in with fog with a few glimpses of the coast and mountains now and then.  Luckily there were some great views going up, including Makamaka'ole Falls, so it was definitely a worthwhile effort.
After returning to the car we continued north along a winding, and sometimes very narrow, road.  The area we passed through was very lush with occasional villages, each with a collection of fruit stands.  One hour and 11 miles down the road we reached the parking area for the Olivine Pools.  After a quick lunch of PBJ sandwiches and fresh pineapple we headed down for a swim.  The ocean was very turbulent here but in these collection of pools, that are fed by occasional waves washing over the protective lava walls, the water was calm and clear.  We spent about an hour swimming in the pools and then headed back to the car and our next destination.
A couple miles up the road we stopped for a quick 1.2 mile hike on the Ohai Trail.  Not the most impressive hike but some good views of the coastline and Moloka'i to the north.  This trail did have a surprise as there was a humpback whale about 100 yards off shore that would occasionally surface and slam it's tail up and down.  Impressive!  I had never seen a whale from from so close before!
After returning to the car we continued north with a brief stop to see Nakalele Blowhole (not impressive at low tide) along with a couple other overlooks.  In the last 'pure' Hawaiian village we passed through there was a series of unattended pineapple stands selling the fruit for $3 so we picked one up.  It made the car smell really good the rest of the drive.
By this time it was getting to be late afternoon and we were feeling tired so we completed the north island loop, passing through resort choked Lahaina without making any more stops.
It was a great 1st full day of the trip and we are looking forward to getting in some snorkeling tomorrow.  I have added to the collection of trip pictures here.

1st Day on Maui

Well, this is my 1st blog post ever so hopefully it's good.  I've started this blog to share my wonderings with others as well as to have notes that I can look back on.
Since Janel and I have moved to California we've taken a lot of trips but they have mostly been short weekend adventures or visits to family.  Therefore, we decided that it was time to take a trip that would be longer with just the two of us.  We had thought about South America but settled on Hawaii.  We honeymooned on the Big Island seven years ago and had been wanting to go back since then.  We're going to be here for nearly two weeks, spending time on both Maui and Kauai.
Today we flew from San Diego to Kahului (I'm still not sure how to say that word and noticed that the pilot and flight attendants on the plane always said we were going to Maui instead of trying to pronounce Kahului).  My friend Daren was nice enough to watch our cat while we're gone as well as take us to the airport this morning.
We arrived in Kahului around 1:15 pm and retrieved our luggage quickly and then proceded to spend over an hour waiting in line at the rental car place.  That's an hour of vacation we won't get back.
After getting the car (a minivan instead of the compact we reserved) we headed over to Northshore Hostel to check in but discovered that we couldn't check in until 5pm so we headed up the Iao Valley, which is nearby.  The guide book stated this valley was the site of a massacre of the Maui people by the Big Islanders in 1790.  The Iao Valley State Park is a small park that is not too far from Pu'u Kukul, the highest point on the west side of Maui, one of the wettest areas on earth.  It was a nice little park with some short paths and a water garden with taro growing in the pools.  The prominent feature is the Iao Needle, a short way up the valley from the park.  The map we have shows longer trails leading out of the park and up the canyon but we didn't pursue any of these since it was getting late.
From Iao we returned to the Hostel, checked in, and went to the grocery store to get some provisions.  Supper was simple and we are now relaxing, figuring out what the plan is for tomorrow.  I have posted more pictures from today here.