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Maui Airport has changed. All the car rental companies moved to one central location reachable by tram. Additionally a specific Airport Access road was constructed and in use by this trip.

7:40 am left 7-Eleven for Haleakala.

7:30 am arrived at park entrance. $25 entrance fee by credit card only.

8:00 am arrived at Halemau'u trail head parking lot. Filled my CamelBak bladder with 3L of water, redistributed my equipment and used the bathroom to add a thermal underwear layer for the cold.

8:40 am left the parking lot and went to the Hitchhiking spot to wait for a ride. I was picked up by the 3rd car to come along. A single young male on vacation by himself. As I was grabbing my things to get into his car a mother and young son came up and asked to share the ride. I only waited maybe 5 minutes to catch a ride.

9:00 am arrived at the Summit Visitor Center parking lot. The driver had never been up to Haleakala even after visiting Maui a couple of times before, and he was considering doing a short hike while up there. I would be passed by him and the other hitch hiker about a mile down the trail later.

9:15 am after a short look around at the lookout and tightening up my boot laces, I started on Keonehe'ehe'e ( Sliding Sands Trail )

11:51 am I would get to the bottom of the crater and the trail for Holua cabins or Kapaloa, Paliku cabins. Ate lunch of one Spam musube.

12:06 pm I would start on the trial to Holua Cabin

12:59 pm top of the ascent to "Ka Moa o Pele"

1:24 pm trail juncture on the left of "Halali'i"

2:14 pm Silver Sword loop begin ( did not take the loop )

2:22 pm Silver Sword loop end

3:05 pm Holua Cabin - rested

3:32 pm left Holua Cabin and headed out on Halemau'u trail and the crater rim.

4:13 pm arrived at base of crater rim and the start of the switchbacks up the crater wall. rested and stretched.

4:27 pm started up the crater rim switch backs.

6:56 pm I would reach the flat narrow spot I consider the end of the switchbacks.

7:00 pm the temperature would be 56 degrees and dropping down to 52 degrees ( not including windchill )

7:10 pm Sunset, and I was hiking in dark shadow. Too dark to take meaningful pictures or pics of my watch.

8:00 pm I would reach the Halemau'u parking lot and my car.

8:30 pm I would finish unloading and repacking bags for going to my hotel and possibly doing some astro-photography.

8:45 pm arrive at Kalahaku overlook to check out the possibility of astro-photography. The 50% moon washed out the Milky way too much, stars were visible and I was starting to yawn. So I didn't, and I left at 9:05 pm for Kahului and a shower.

I used up all my water, when I got to my hotel and check, the hydration bladder was flat. Possibly one or two sips left in the tube. This was the 2nd time hiking this trail. Both times I brought a collapsible water bag w/filter to refill water at Holua and did not. If I do this again I really, REALLY need to refill water at Holua cabin.

The weather reports for the previous week were about the possibility of hurricane Barbara hitting the islands the day before my trip. Fortunately Barbara down graded and by the time of my trip and predictions for the summit were somewhat cloudy with occasional showers. While hiking I only encountered a few light drizzle/drops from the clouds that didn't require me to break out any of the rain gear I brought or to stow my cameras from rain.

The weather at the summit was cloudy and approximately 65 degrees with windchill. Along the hike until the ascent up the crater rim at the end, the temperature would not seem as cold as I expected or remember from my previous hike a couple of years ago. Possibly due to my wearing thermal underwear, hiking pants, a medium thick long sleeve athletic shirt beneath a button long sleeve hiking shirt and my broad brimmed hat of course. While moving I felt cool and relatively comfortable temperature wise, while raising a slight glistening sweat. At least it wasn't dripping into my eyes.

Keeping to my expected and normal average hiking pace of around 1 mph or less going down hill and across the flats, I would take pictures about every 1-2 hundred feet of the trail. Boring, but I like to document the trail condition. In addition to any interesting views, scenery or recording the weather.

I kept one of my watches attached to my sleeve so it would not be in skin contact and would mostly dangle in my body shade. This would give me a way of tracking my elevation and mostly the temperature.

There were many more day hikers actually crossing the crater along the same route I was going. Most notable was the mother and son that caught a ride with me. They met up with her husband and other son who caught another ride a bit later.

Probably all the hikers that were crossing the crater caught up to me and passed me, and they all started later than I did. The only people who caught up but didn't pass me were 3 female park rangers on their way to Holua Cabin and pretty much started doing their park ranger stuff in the area where they caught up to me and didn't catch up again.

I was constantly annoyed by the hikers I would see taking short cuts along the trail. I had to remind myself to not get pissy with them. I'm tempted to think the only other hikers on the trail that did not take short cuts were the park rangers I met.

Personally, I started the hike with a kinda sharp lower back pain, which had been ongoing since the previous week. But since this hike was already book and paid for I wasn't going to cancel. All thru the hike my back would be in constant pain and I would continually think I might have to give up hiking if my back doesn't get better. It was most painful going down hill, while the flats and going up weren't as bad.

I was hoping the strain and constant back movement would loosen up my lower back and aleviate my pain. Surprisingly, while getting on my stomach with all my gear still on me, when I got up my lower back was better. The pain would come and go, but could now be aleviated for short periods of time by taking off all my gear and bending over to stretch my back. When I would get home, my lower back pain issues would return to "normal"

Evidently, the dry cold air and constant breeze caused my face and lips to chap, which showed up a day after I got home.

Once again I brought chapstic but didn't use it.

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CamelBak Octane 16X Hydration Pack (3L Hydration bladder)

3 liters of water = 6.6 pounds

1x Nikon D700 w/battery grip - Nikon 28-300mm

1x Nikon D700 w/out grip - Rokinon 12mm f2.8 fisheye

Tokina 16-28mm f2.8

Camera & lens weight = 12 pounds

I brought both cameras to reduce the amount of time spent changing lenses and the possibility of getting grit on the camera sensors. Turns out I never changed to the 16-28 so never removed any lens. Yay, no spots in my pictures, Bo, lugged another heavy lens around for nothing. At least I left the 100mm macro in the car already.

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