It was a rough night. Fortunately, I didn’t hear any rodents, but I was so hot, I kept sticking to my sleeping bag and couldn’t sleep.
It rained a lot last night, but it was dry this morning. We started hiking at 8:20 AM. I predicted we would finish the 10-mile hike between 1:30-2:00 PM. The terrain changed from wet grass to dry scrub to sand and stone. The temperature increased and so did the pain in my calves and shoulders.
We eventually made it to Hōlua Cabin and stopped for a short rest. After another mile, we reached a gate. On the other side was a three-mile ascent. It was hard to see the trail as it blended into the mountain, but I knew it just kept climbing. I became so exhausted, I feared I wouldn’t make it, but John encouraged me. I felt miserable and probably looked like it to the people hiking the opposite direction. With a mile to go, I ran out of water and energy, but I knew we were almost done. John spotted the parking lot in the distance and I felt a surge of energy push me toward it. We finished at 1:02 PM (sooner than I expected), but we still couldn’t fully relax.
We drove to the visitor center to stamp our National Park book. I recognized a man we had seen trail running earlier. He was asking a ranger about a shuttle to get back to his car, but that doesn’t exist, so we offered to drive him. We briefly stopped at the summit and then started driving down the mountain. Our passenger Kristoff lives in Munich, Germany, but he’s been traveling through Canada and the U.S. since September. I was jealous of his epic vacation, but I was also proud of my three-day adventure.
