- Joined
- Oct 3, 1998
- Messages
- 4,842
I confess, I've become enough of a gadgeholic that every outing is an excuse to try new stuff. So, my vacation to Hawaii became prime testing material. I spent 5 days with my family on the big island, around Hilo and Volcano National Park, hiking over terrain as diverse as tropical rain forest, dry lava fields, rocky shorelines. First up is:
Lights and Lava Tubes:
We went out at late at night, and followed Chain of Craters Road to a few miles down the shoreline from the current Kilauea eruption. At the end of the road is miles of dried lava fields, over which one can hike out, being careful not to get too close to the shoreline as occasionally acres at a time fall off into the ocean. At night you have to hike over the fields with flashlights. The Surefire E1 I used was plenty bright, as was the Princeton Tec 4-AAA Rage my stepdaughter had. The SureFire M-2 w/ P60 lamp seemed like a spotlight, totally destroying night vision and basically being overkill. I saved it as a backup.
But there's darkness, and then there's darkness. Kaumana Caves are really dried up old lava tubes. It amazed me how people showed up to look at the Caves. I watched no few than 30 people show up, get no more than 20 feet into the tubes, then leave. Why? Because they had no flashlights, and were wearing flip-flops! These are pretty rugged tubes, a big one on the right, and the one on the left I went into.
It is dark in the tubes. So dark that when you turn your flashlight off, even after letting your eyes adjust, you still can't tell whether your eyes are open or shut. Blackness. What's amazing is the way the tubes seem to devour the light from a flashlight. My E1 bordered on inadequate. The tight spotlight was not big enough to light up a reasonable path on the extremely rugged cave floor bottom, and the outer corona was devoured into nothingness by the cave. The Princeton Tec Rage did better, mine has a very big bright spot which lit up a reasonable sized path. Even the Surefire M-2 didn't seem all that bright! If I had a brighter light, I would have used it. But the P60 lamp was the right choice over the P61, you want at least an hour of burntime, I wouldn't want to change batteries in the tube if I could help it. A Streamlight Scorpion might be the best choice -- a little less bright than the M2, but focusable beam lets you choose between wide beam for choosing a path, and narrow beam for seeing what's up ahead and examing the tube wall and ceiling features.
To get through the caves, you want each person to have a bright flashlight & spare set of batteries. The cave floor is extremely rugged, very sharp rocks that shift, and remember all that darkness. A feel a First Aid kit a must. Good hiking shoes are required. I didn't need a helmet in the left tube, which is where I penetrated more deeply, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. When we came out of the caves we noticed we were fatigued and thirsty -- I think the disorienting effect of the darkness kept us from noticing that on the inside. Do bring water to drink.
Thurston Lava tube is a "tamed" tube, with a lighted walkway. At the end of that tube there's a small gate -- if you have a flashlight you can go another 1000 ft., which almost nobody does (I did). It's not as interesting as Kaumana caves, but the floor has been made smooth, so it's safer.
There are some even wilder tubes, but I didn't feel those would be safe for my family so I skipped them.
Hiking with Baby:
The Kelty Elite pack, once I got used to it, was great. The baby rides in the back, and my baby was comfortable and happy in the pack. I hiked through all kinds of terrain, no problem. I highly recommend a walking stick for balance, I used a telescoping aluminum job from Leki.
Knives:
I brought a Micra, PST II, endura, and Spydercard. Only the Spydercard got any real use. I used it for misc. cutting and for cutting moleskin. Also used it on fruits like mango and rumbaton. Rumbaton is this awesome fruit, about the size of an egg, bright red, and totally unappealing looking with dozens of short tentacles sticking out of it. Cut through the skin halfway around and twist, the top will come off revealing translucent white flesh and pitin the middle. Tastes somewhat like a grape but breadier. Delicious.
Trip Planning:
The entire trip info was in my Handspring Platinum. The itinerary I came up with, travel plans, hotels, etc. Also, free detailed maps courtesy of mapopolis. And games, which kept my teenage stepdaughter off my back when she got bored.
Backup module meant that even in the event of a crash, I could restore without the use of the PC.
Map reading is difficult on such a small screen, but has its advantages, like instant searches. Mapopolis definitely needs some tuning on its interface, I'll probably spring for commercial mapping software unless mapopolis v2.0 is a good improvement. But overall, the Platinum's maps supplemented paper maps very well.
Joe
[This message has been edited by Joe Talmadge (edited 11-27-2000).]
Lights and Lava Tubes:
We went out at late at night, and followed Chain of Craters Road to a few miles down the shoreline from the current Kilauea eruption. At the end of the road is miles of dried lava fields, over which one can hike out, being careful not to get too close to the shoreline as occasionally acres at a time fall off into the ocean. At night you have to hike over the fields with flashlights. The Surefire E1 I used was plenty bright, as was the Princeton Tec 4-AAA Rage my stepdaughter had. The SureFire M-2 w/ P60 lamp seemed like a spotlight, totally destroying night vision and basically being overkill. I saved it as a backup.
But there's darkness, and then there's darkness. Kaumana Caves are really dried up old lava tubes. It amazed me how people showed up to look at the Caves. I watched no few than 30 people show up, get no more than 20 feet into the tubes, then leave. Why? Because they had no flashlights, and were wearing flip-flops! These are pretty rugged tubes, a big one on the right, and the one on the left I went into.
It is dark in the tubes. So dark that when you turn your flashlight off, even after letting your eyes adjust, you still can't tell whether your eyes are open or shut. Blackness. What's amazing is the way the tubes seem to devour the light from a flashlight. My E1 bordered on inadequate. The tight spotlight was not big enough to light up a reasonable path on the extremely rugged cave floor bottom, and the outer corona was devoured into nothingness by the cave. The Princeton Tec Rage did better, mine has a very big bright spot which lit up a reasonable sized path. Even the Surefire M-2 didn't seem all that bright! If I had a brighter light, I would have used it. But the P60 lamp was the right choice over the P61, you want at least an hour of burntime, I wouldn't want to change batteries in the tube if I could help it. A Streamlight Scorpion might be the best choice -- a little less bright than the M2, but focusable beam lets you choose between wide beam for choosing a path, and narrow beam for seeing what's up ahead and examing the tube wall and ceiling features.
To get through the caves, you want each person to have a bright flashlight & spare set of batteries. The cave floor is extremely rugged, very sharp rocks that shift, and remember all that darkness. A feel a First Aid kit a must. Good hiking shoes are required. I didn't need a helmet in the left tube, which is where I penetrated more deeply, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. When we came out of the caves we noticed we were fatigued and thirsty -- I think the disorienting effect of the darkness kept us from noticing that on the inside. Do bring water to drink.
Thurston Lava tube is a "tamed" tube, with a lighted walkway. At the end of that tube there's a small gate -- if you have a flashlight you can go another 1000 ft., which almost nobody does (I did). It's not as interesting as Kaumana caves, but the floor has been made smooth, so it's safer.
There are some even wilder tubes, but I didn't feel those would be safe for my family so I skipped them.
Hiking with Baby:
The Kelty Elite pack, once I got used to it, was great. The baby rides in the back, and my baby was comfortable and happy in the pack. I hiked through all kinds of terrain, no problem. I highly recommend a walking stick for balance, I used a telescoping aluminum job from Leki.
Knives:
I brought a Micra, PST II, endura, and Spydercard. Only the Spydercard got any real use. I used it for misc. cutting and for cutting moleskin. Also used it on fruits like mango and rumbaton. Rumbaton is this awesome fruit, about the size of an egg, bright red, and totally unappealing looking with dozens of short tentacles sticking out of it. Cut through the skin halfway around and twist, the top will come off revealing translucent white flesh and pitin the middle. Tastes somewhat like a grape but breadier. Delicious.
Trip Planning:
The entire trip info was in my Handspring Platinum. The itinerary I came up with, travel plans, hotels, etc. Also, free detailed maps courtesy of mapopolis. And games, which kept my teenage stepdaughter off my back when she got bored.
Backup module meant that even in the event of a crash, I could restore without the use of the PC.
Map reading is difficult on such a small screen, but has its advantages, like instant searches. Mapopolis definitely needs some tuning on its interface, I'll probably spring for commercial mapping software unless mapopolis v2.0 is a good improvement. But overall, the Platinum's maps supplemented paper maps very well.
Joe
[This message has been edited by Joe Talmadge (edited 11-27-2000).]
