Day 10: In Volcano National Park

January 20, 2016

Shared bathroom and kitchen facilities can be a little uncomfortable when you have to coordinate with the other people. On the other hand, once introductions have been made all around, it is fun to share tips and to learn what the others are up to. Our companions this morning included a Chinese couple from Salt Lake City. It was interesting to watch them heating a fried rice dish in the microwave, and finishing off with smoked dried cuttlefish. We of course had .. oatmeal!

We began our cycling day byheading into Volcano village and checking out the two grocery/general stores. The first has a nicely painted mural on an outside wall. Here is a bit of it:

Part of a nural on the outer wall of Volcano store

Inside, the shelves were fairly bare, but there was enough to survive on. They do do some of their own baking, and we picked up a little lillikoi loaf that we have not actually tested out as yet.

Note on Lillikoi: All last year we ate these tangy yellow fruits, and called them guava. But at Fruity Judy's fruitstand the other day, a basket of these was clearly labelled lillkoi - passion fruit. So we checked Wikipedia, and Judy seemed to be right. But now William Shaneyfelt, a reader who is usually right about such things, has asked us to triple check. Does anyone else have some information on this?

Not so nice at the Volcano stores is the price of bread. Bread here means very weak factory white or brown bread, and the cost of a regular loaf is over $6. Dodie theorizes that it's because people here do not actually eat bread, with most preferring rice, even at breakfast. Maybe it's a vicious circle and no one eats bread because it is too costly, meaning that there are fewer economies of scale in producing or transporting it here. However our place has a toaster and we did spot some eggs in the store, so now we are lusting after a "real" breakfast of eggs and toast.

This is not even the highest bread price!

When we left the store we found a small group of people admiring our bikes. This turned out to be staff and guides from a local bike tour company. We learned that there are three bike touring companies operatig here. "Backroads" is the big mainland based company, but the people we met and the one other company are local. Anyway, it's pretty special when you can entertain a bike guide with some kind of biking stories, which we did.

Our first destination lay down a road that leads to the base of Mauna Loa. At the end of that road is the start of a trail leading to the possibly snow covered summit. Dodie and I tried it one year, but only got halfway up. This time we were happy to just stop at Kipuka Puaulu. A Kipuka is a patch of land that has been spared by lava flows, and beomes an island of often rare vegetation. This one has about a 1 1/2 km trail running through it, with a dozen sign posts identifying the plants. Because plants often show their identifying flowers, berries, or leaves in certain seasons, it was hard to learn much from the signs. But this did not distract from the pleasure of walking through a sun dappled tropical forest. Tomorrow we will try another such walk that we have found out about.

Trees probably killed by VOG make beautiful sculptures

Walking Kipuka Puaulu seemed to be hungry work, so we next headed for the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC). KMC has operated as a recreational spot for US military since 1916, and was a POW camp during the Second World War. It's significance to us is that it has a cafeteria open to the public, a general store, and a post office. The camp has a fair number of buildings, all poorly identified. But we are old pros now and rode smartly up to the cafeteria, parking our bikes on the porch. That's when someone told us that since it was now 1:09 p.m. the cafeteria was closed. But never fear, there was food at the "bowling alley". So we set off, not so confident now, in search of a bowling alley. Eventually of course we found it, and ordered lunch plates. They came with rice and a request to substitute fries was refused. Must be some kind of military regulation. So we bought an extra side of fries. As you see from the photo, lunch did not waste any effort on anything green, though I did detect a tinge of orange carrot in the macaroni salad.

Restored by our military rations we headed around Crater Rim Drive to the Jaggar Museum, which is located at the main observatory for the volcano. The museum directly overlooks the belching Halemaumau Crater. Crater Rim Drive used to go all the way around the Kilauea Caldera, which contains Halemaumau, but since the latest eruption in 2008, the downwind half of the road has been closed. March 2008 saw the first of the most recent explosive eruptions, and there were six violent events up until September that year. Blocks of rock up to one foot hit the observation area where we stood today. During the most active phase, the park and nearby villages were evacuated, but even today volcanic gas remains a danger.

I am looking at two pamphlets from the US Geological Survey, reviewing the various dangers of the gas (know as VOG), of the lava, and of steam and hot water where lava enters the sea. Some of the issues would not be immediately apparent (to me). For example, since the VOG is mainly sulphuric acid, it causes things to rust more quickly, and it can destroy crops. The acid rain is also caught by rooftop water systems used widely here, and it then leaches lead from the nails, paint, and flashings. Tests have then shown elevated blood lead levels among residents.

The Jaggar Museum has extensive displays about the various eruptions, and shows real time information about seismic activity which is continuous in the area. I think I see that the mountain began to rumble a little more when we cycled up here, but probably the scientists missed that.

There are of course a fair (but not at all insane) number of tourists looking out at the Caldera. Many are from Japan, but people are here from all over the world. There is no doubt that this place belongs to the world, and is one of the great, unique things that belong to us all.

There is a bit of Crater Rim Trail that is accessible for bicycles, so we naturally took that back as far as possible. It some some fun ups and downs.

In the KMC store - always so many great books about Hawaii

Panarama at the Volcano Observatory. Halemaumau seems reasonably quiet.

Real time monitoring of seismic activity

Hawaiian culture sees Pele, goddess of the volcano, as jealous and violent.

If we have to have goddesses, these are more my speed!

More books! These are at the Jaggar museum.

Dodie fills her new souvenir - a volcano water bottle with "ecological" water from the National Park Service.

At Volcano House, volcano oriented kids activities. They are no doubt from China, but we think the grandkids really liked the ones we brought home last time.

Back at Volcano, we bought those eggs we had been thinking about, but Dodie balked at the bread for $6.79 at the first store. So I jumped on my bike and headed to another one. $9 the lady said. I had to get her to repeat that. Something is very broken in the economic system here, at least for bread. Readers, here is your big chance to move to Hawaii and open a bakery. Just watch out for the VOG.

The Thai restaurant in Volcano is quite costly, but the chef in this truck does a good job for a more reasonable amount.

Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 301 km (187 miles)

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