[Journal entry for April 10-14, 2007] Kohala Coast of Hawaii.

April 10, 2007. I arrived in Hawaii at about 9PM, and drove northward from Kona International Airport, along the Kohala Coast, to Spencer Beach Park (N20:01.343 W155:49.340 WGS84). The Park is just off off Route 270, down a hill to the sea, less than a half a mile from where 270 branches off of Route 19. A security guard met me at the park entrance, and examined my permit. She was driving a golf-cart style vehicle and directed me to the camping area. It was a bare patch of land, just uphill of the beach, that once might have supported grass but which was now just dirt. I set up my Northface Starlite tent, near a picnic table and cement fireplace, working with a headlamp, for the night was quite dark. Stars were shining brightly, and a light breeze blew from the land to the sea. I weighted the tent down with stones, in case the wind picked up during the night, for I doubted that the stakes would hold it against a strong gust. I turned in as soon as the tent was set up, and set my alarm for 4AM, since I was planning to call in to Lamont at 10AM their time, New York being six hours ahead of Hawaii. The alarm woke me and I telephoned in to my Seismology Seminar class, but had to hunt around for a spot where the cellular phone signal was strong. I settled on a grassy hill overlooking the camping area. I spent a hour conducting the class, chatting with the students, lying on the grass and gazing up at the stars and crescent moon. I then slept a bit more.

I woke again at 6AM. A ferral cat was prowling about my tent. We stareed at each other in the predawn light. The cat was very timid, its body tensed to bound away at my slightest motion. After rising, I purchased some food a supermarket in Waikoloa Village, a twenty minute drive from Spencer Park. I stopped at a roadside overlook that is a little southwest of the Village, along Route 19. It commands a nice view towards the sea, across sparsely vegetated lava flows that come from the general direction of Mauna Loa. The land here is very arid, with mostly yellowing grass punctuated with occasional tall bushes (or perhaps low shaggy trees). Palm trees grow only along the coast, and even there mainly in irrigated spots. I spotted a donkey among the bushes as I ate. After breakfast I drove to the Seismological Society of America Conference, which was being held at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, a resort on the shore. The parking lot is near a set of Anchialine Ponds, saline ponds inhabited by brine shrimp and whose level rises and falls with the tides, owing to a subterreanean connection with the sea. The ponds support algae and marsh vegetation, and were being visited by numerous birds. In the evening, after the meeting, I returned to Spencer Beach, and cooked Chili on my MSR Whisperlite stove. The security guards who I had met the night before came by on her rounds, and we chatted for a bit while I cooked. She had been a Cub Scout leader, and upon learning that I was a geologist, spoke of the difficulty of teaching rock identification to Scouts living in a land with only one kind of rock.

April 12, 2007. I awoke at 5:30 AM, and cooked a breakfast of eggs on the MSR stove. It's a great stove for boiling water, but leaves something to be desired for frying, because its flame cannot not be adjusted to a very low level, and the intense heat tends to make a frying pan - and especially a thin one designed for camping - too hot. I more or less succeeded in frying up my eggs, mostly by using rather too much butter. I spotted a small mammal, a mongoose, in the brush near my campsite, as well as several smallish fowl that might have been Erckel's Francolin, judging from the picture in a guidebook. I then spent five and a half hours kayaking in Kealakekua Bay, an hour an a half drive south of Spence Beach, an activity that I describe elsewhere. Back at Spencer Beach, I cooked a dinner of steak, onions and peppers, topped with Hawaiian Hot Sauce, with Doritos, cheese dip and Diet Coke on the side. I had worked up quite an appetite kayaking! Birds (both mockingbirds and the fowl) and ferral cats prowled around as I ate. Later, after cleaning up, I watched the sunset and wrote in my journal, sitting at a table in the Pavillion that overlooks the sea. The security guard came by again on her rounds, and we chatted a bit. Although the day had ended rather overcast, the clouds began to clear as soon as the sun had set, and the night became rather clear.

Friday the Thirteeth of April. I arise early and eat a quick breakfast of Pop Tarts, for I want ot get to the SSA meeting early, to make sure that I could find a place to park. Upon ariving at the Hilton Waikaloa Village, I spent a few minutes walking around, prior to the meeting's start. The resort has a large anthropogenic lagoon, with bottle-nosed porpoises penned up at one end. I watched them swim around for a while, jumping and playing. I had a much better view of these animals than the ones that I saw yesterday in Kealakekua Bay. Those dolphins might have been a different species, though, for the Hilton's seemed a lighter shade of grey. I also spotted some intersting fish in the lagoon, including a three foot long, needle-thin garfish, and a much fatter four-foot long fish that was attacking smaller, six-inch prey (with both jumping out of the water). One of the prey escaped by jumping into extremely shallow water - perhaps just an inch deep. It flapped back into the deeper water a few seconds later, when the danger had passed. I also used the "Public Beach Access Walkway" (complete wirh dire warning signs; obviously the Hilton does not approve of the untamed out-of-doors) to visit the natural shoreline. It was mostly composed of black lava, but had a four foot high pile of white coral boulders thrown up at the berm. The morning was sunny, with just a little haze, and the blue water was very beautiful. After the end of the meeting, and after another trip to the supermarket, I cooked a dinner of sauerkraut, beets and sausage on the MSR stove. It is a boiled dish, which suited the stove's capabilities, and turned out very well. A new security guard came by and inspected my permit. He had been an environmental consultant in Michigan before retiring to Hawaii. A pickup truck carrying two Ocean Canoe 1's (OC-1's) was parked in the lot. I located the owner, Steve, who was also camping at the Park. He said that he was entering tomorrow's Starbucks 2007 Big Island Challenge, a thirty mile relay race that started nearby and ended in Kona. He invited me to watch the start of the race, and invitation that I accepted. I turned in early, so as to be able to get an early start the next day. Once again, the sky, which had been cloudy, was now clearing.

April 14, 2007. I arose at 6AM, with my tent gently flapping, for a breeze had picked up during the night. I again cooked egg sandwiches on the MSR stove, again managing only to burn them a little. I then cleaning up all my cooking gear, packed up my tent and other equipment, and drove four miles sout to the Puako Boat Launch (N19:58.645 W155:49.940 WGS84) and watched the start of the Big Island Challenge. About thirty ocean canoists were getting their OC-1's and OC-2's ready for this thirty mile relay race. A big yellow safety boat, and many smaller escort boats were also being launched. I enjoyed a cup of Starbucks coffee, and chatted with some of the race organizers, including a guy named Randy, from the Hawaii Island Paddlesport Association. And I wished Steve luck on his long paddle. I then returned to Spencer Beach, and around 8:30AM began a hike along the Ala Kahakai Trail, which follows the shoreline to the south of the Park. This trail is fairly marginally maintained and only poorly marked. It passes a variety of landscapes, including sandy beach, bushy headland, rocky shore, golf courses, condominiums, mansions and high-rise resorts. Most of the adjoining land owners (with one or two notable exceptions) seem to only bregrudgingly comply with whatever shoreline access law sustains the Trail's existence. Dire warnings to tresspassers abound, and many sections of the trail are difficult to pass, owing to sea walls built rather too close to trecherous escarpments and tangles of vegetation that extend down from fences to sea. The first segment of the trail, just south of my camping area, is well-maintained. It winds among twisted and leaning trees, some with very interesting roots, and leads to a beautiful sandy beach. I lost the Trail for a bit south of this beach, when it circled about a mansion, and I wound up in a deep rock gully. It was one of the few actual streambeds that I encountered in this rather arid land, but it was presently completely dry. After climbing out of it, and scrambling through some thickets, I regained the Trail and continued south again. I had brought with me a large bottle of water, but this proved insufficient for such a sunny and hot day. Fortunately, I was able to refill it when I passed by a public faucet at Hapuna Beach. Some of the most interesting sections of the Trail were along the undeveloped, scrubby highlands that looked down into the sea. Small turquoise-blue grottos abound among the promentories and rocks. They would be great places to explore in a kayak or with mask and snorkel. These areas sported many informal camps that were accessed by jeep trails. There were come nice camp sites with beautiful views of the ocean, but most were mared with rather too much litter. I reached the Puako Boat Launch, where I had watched the start of the race earlier that morning, in two and a half hours, with the GPS indicating a line-of-sight distance of three and a half miles from Spencer Beach. I noticed a "Caution: Collision Hazard Humpback Whales" sign posted at the boat ramp. I walked back along the highway. It affords a good view of the semiarid landcape of of the Kohala Coast. Looking northwesttward, I could just make out the Island of Maui. It's plent big, but its profile is just barely visible through the blue haze. Hannah and I could see it much better from a top Mauna Loa, back in 2005. I passed one stream on the way back, maybe the same one I had scrambled out of on the outward journey. It had only a little water in it, and that seemed pretty stagnant, but it supported lush marsh vegetation. Some of the roadcuts along the highway exposed interesting lava formations, including arches of grey basalt covering heaps of unconsolidated, red scoria. Some beautiful flowers bloomed along the roadside. Indeed, all the vegetation by the roadside seemed somewhat greener and thicker than the vegetation further waw from it. Whether this was due to its having been intentionally planted there (and perhaps of different species than elsewhere) or to some environmental factor (such as runoff from the road), I couldn't discern. I encountered an Echankar Adopt-a-Highway Sign. I photgraphed it, with the intention of sending the image to my brother-in-law, Ed, who is an adherent. I arrived back at Spencer Beach at 13:30PM, the hike taking about four hours, roundtrip. My water bottle was empty for the last mile; I ought to have taken more water with me.