We got up this morning early. It may be 5 o’clock here but it’s 11 in the real world, it’s even 7 a.m.out in San Diego. While Nancy showered, dressed and logged on to WOW, I decided that I would walk the beach. There was a cache in a park about 3/4 of a mile south of us so I thought I’d go take a look. I didn’t want to “find” it because finding our 50th state should be a joint effort. I just wanted to make the eventual find easier. It was a nice warm morning. On the beach were a number of individuals, mostly young women, who were sitting in a trance like position which I assumed to be Yoga. Out in Maalaea Bay (you pronounce it, I can’t) there were a few wake boarders and about 5 of the 8 person Hawaiian canoes. There is a club in the town that seems to practice every morning. I walked along down to the park. It is a tribute to Capt. Vancouver who apparently landed here either on his way to or from British Columbia. I gave it a pretty good search but came up empty. The GPS was putting me in a good spot for a hide but I saw nothing. When I got back to #6 I looked up the recent logs and saw that it hadn’t been found since July.
We had breakfast in the unit and then mounted up for our trip to the top of Mt. Haleakala. Nancy loaded the coordinates for the condo into our Nuvi in case we needed it and we were off. We drove back across the island and I figured that before we began the climb, we ought to grab some beverages. Seeking a Macland, naturally I got lost. Nuvi didn’t have a clue. We did find the port at the end of the road.
Well, onward and upward, One thing about driving up a mountain, the road will be twisty and turny.. One of the attractions of Maui is to drive up to the top to watch the sunrise. Many tourist folk combine it with a bike ride. There a quite a number of companies which provide bike tours down the mountain. They form a group of 10 or 12 with a guide leader to keep you from going too fast and a follower so they don’t lose anybody. The only complaint I heard was that their wrists and hands got tired from constantly squeezing the brakes. We saw at least ten different groups on their way down as we were going up.
The drive is spectacular. As you climb, the views are more and more breathtaking. We saw a bird along the road, bright purple. I thought it might be the Nene, Hawaii’s state bird, but when I described it at the visitor center I was told that it was a pheasant.
Anyway, the lookout point was reached, the answers to the required questions were found, pictures of the crater and the clouds were taken, and we had what we needed for a cache in our fiftieth state! Hooray! This is what we came for. Virtual and Earth Caches however do not have a container and so we still need to find some traditional physical caches in which to launch our coins.
This is the log I posted for this cache:
basswoodbend
Premium Member
Found it 10/23/2012
YEEHAW!!! We can't begin to say how much this cache means to us. Getting to Maui was a challenge, flight delayed, then cancelled, resulted in a sprint to the gate at LAX just as the last flight of the day was pushed away. But we're here and our goal for today is the summit of Haleakala. We saw this cache and went for it. The short walk on rough terrain at 8000 ft. was a challenge for a couple of flatland geezers. It was well worth the effort! The view is spectacular and this is our first Hawaiian cache. For our 50th anniversary we designed a coin and established the goal of placing one in a cache in each of Michigan's 83 counties. After completing that task, we decided to find a cache in each state and DC. This cache finishes that quest. Our Hawaii coin will just visit here today and will find a container tomorrow. Thanks for establishing and maintaining this cache. When we started 10 years ago, there were many virtuals and few micros. Times have changed. (And not for the better) Mail with answers sent to the owner.
