I am a Japanese female who came to the U.S. for the research opportunity as a scientist.
In my free time, I go hiking, backpacking, XC skiing. I love to be in the deep wilderness. I write my adventures from all over the world and Introduce the beauty of nature, from a viewpoint of Japanese.
日本出身の女性研究者かつハイカー。
休日はハイキング、バックパッキング、クロスカントリスキーなどで多忙。
日本人の視点から見た世界中の自然の美しさを、読者が旅をしているような感覚で読んで頂ければと思い、このブログを作成。
This day we hiked Napau trail in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. It is a 14-mile day hike to see two craters. There is not really established trail, you just walk on lava. Trail will be marked with a pile of lava (see the left picture).
On the way to the craters, I saw many steam coming from from lava (picture above). I got close to the steam area and it was warm. First crater you see is Makaopuhi Crater. Wow. It is huge.
Makaopuhi Crater
Napau Crater
Then 2 more miles you see Napau Crater. The mountain over the Napau Crater is Pu’u’O’o (I don’t know how to pronounce any Hawaiian language). This is one of the 2018 eruptions and still steam is coming. We were taking nap at the point I took the left picture. Then we heard one couple coming by. They are Canadian and they do this hike EVERY YEAR. Wow. They love Big Island. They might want to be at warm place in winter. They are from West coast Canada and they said that West coast is the best part in Canada in winter. Probably only 4 people came to this point on that day. It seemed that not many people hike this far in Hawaii. The vast majority of people are laying down on the beach.
Then we camped at Kulanaokuaiki campground (first-come first-served) in National Park. There are only 10 sites, so I was little worried if there was an open spot, but only 2 sites were taken. Here I got confident that the vast majority of people stay at nice place and nobody camps.
In December 2018, I went to Big Island in Hawai’i. It was an amazing 20-day trip.
One of the great sunsets during this trip
On the first day was just flying. From Boston, Hawai’i is far. To save money I had a three-leg flight: Boston to Chicago, Chicago to LA, LA to Kona. To be honest I thought that I chose a too far destination. However, now retrospectively, it was a great choice.
Walmart in Kona, Big Island, Hawai'i
First night we stayed at AirBnB near the airport. The host works at the airport, so he told us the number to get into the house. He is Japanese American, because his name is Mark Nakagawa. In Hawai’i, you will see many Japanese Americans. Hawai’i has the biggest Japanese American community.
Walmart in Kona, Big Island, Hawai'i
There are many Japanese grocery stores, Hawaiian-Japanese restaurants. Even at Walmart in Kona, where we went to get food for camping, I found Japanese snacks, rice, etc. Seeing decent Japanese rice at Walmart was a little weird, but also it waas a nice surprise.
Kona coffee
After buying camping fuel and camping food for the next 10 days, we had some time to go to night manta ray snorkeling. So we went to a coffee shop.
Kona coffee is very famous worldwide for its great taste. I loved the Kona coffee. In fact, so loved it and I went to this particular cafe FIVE times during this Big Island trip.
Delicious Poke
Another important thing to mention is poke. Poke is Hawaiian food. Raw fish is flavored with various kinds of sauce. Poke is sold at every grocery store and also there are many poke restaurants. Ahi tuna is popular. We got poke seven or eight times during this trip. We had poke on the beach near the turtle (picture on the top).
Manta Ray
At night we went to snorkeling. Snorkeling on the board with light attracts manta rays. I had never seen this creature in person. The manta ray was really big. They swim like birds. They are cute and mysterious at the same time. It was amazing experience.
<Japanese version is after English: 日本語は英語の後にあります>
There are so (literally, sooooooooooo) many parks along the ocean in California. In this entry, I will introduce Salt Point State Park. This park is located about 100 mile/160 km north of San Francisco.
Because this park is not too close to San Francisco, there are much less hikers. It is nice to walk quietly.
There are scenic trails along the ocean, and there are sandy beaches to sit down. Looking at big big blue Pacific Ocean is gorgeous. In spring, there are many wild flowers, such as California poppies. In geologically, a lot of sandy rocks are seen in this area.
One more special thing about this park is seals. There are many seals in the park. Some are resting on the rocks, some are swimming. They are lazy and cute.
FYI, Park official site is here https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=453
Mount Carrigain is 4700 feet mountain in New Hampshire. We went climbed there with overnight backpacking. This is 13.5 miles total, 3900 feet elevation gain. We did as a loop. First we climbed via Carrigain Notch Trail and the Desolation Trail. Desolation trail is very rocky and steep. It was like a rock climbing. In general, trails in New England is rocky and steep, so it is tougher than Californian trails, if elevation gain and distance is the same. For example, there is not a single switch back in New England.
It is true. When you need to go to point A to point B with 1000 feet elevation gain, a trail go up to point B with switchback in California, it is one straight way up to point B in New England. Besides, New England terrain is very rocky. The Desolation trail is steepness is 70%. It is the same slope as the steep part of Mt.Shasta!
Once there was one section a sort of switch back somewhere. The hikers there said, "Wow Is it a switchback?"
The other hiker said, "No, it was just winding portion and go straight up. No switchback in New England."
I almost laughed about the statement.
Anyway. Although it was super steep, I saw many interesting mushrooms and plants. Most mushrooms are very colorful, so they must be toxic. Some mushrooms are poka dots with red and white. They reminded me of mushrooms in Nintendo Super Mario.
Mountains in White Mountains in New Hampshire are moist. So there are many mushrooms, ferns, moss, and trees. It is sort of similar to Japanese mountains.
We saw sunset at the mountain top. The sun has set over the undulating mountains. It was pretty. I like staring at sun setting because every moment is a different view and all the moments are beautiful. It doesn't bore me.
On the way back was via Signal Ridge trail, which is much less steeper. I saw cute camouflage frog along the trail. Also a cute squirrel who was so focused on eating nuts.
It is always nice to have weekend in the wilderness.
On day 6, we did a day hike. We hiked to Grinnel Glacier. On the way to
the glacier, we saw a lot of bighorn sheep. It was my first time seeing
them. They were calm and standing on the cliff. They ate plants, but
didn't move a lot. They were cool and cute.
Grinnel glacier was amazing. Hundreds of pieces of glacier were scattered in the turquoise-colored
lake. I had never been able to imagine this kind of scenery. The water
was really cold, of course. In the back, there was the Garden Wall and
falls were running into the lake. We saw the other side of the Garden
Wall yesterday. According to my friend, the lake was all glacier in old
days. Apparently, glaciers are getting smaller and smaller and will
eventually disappear, maybe in the near future.
Day6 was a big hike day. We hiked 22 miles including the 8-mile off-trail portion.
We had to get up at 1:30 a.m., so we went to bed 9 p.m. the day
before. However, I couldn't fall asleep until 11 p.m. because other
people at the campground were still talking and my tent was too hot
inside. Anyway we started hiking before dawn. The air was cool and crispy. It was nice to see the scenery emerging by getting sunlight gradually.
The
off-trail section was amazing. We hiked right under the gigantic
glacier and sometimes walked on the glacier. The view was so colorful.
There were purple, green, brown, and gray rocks. The lakes were blue,
green, and non-transparent white. The minerals in the glacier made the
scenery dynamic. It was stunning.
I was much more comfortable with the off-trail region because we did more hardcore off-trail in the firsf half.
I thought, "Wait, is that Mr.N's strategy to get used to the undesignated area?"
The
last one-third of the hike was on trail, but we got a thunderstorm.
Clouds made the view mysterious and pretty, but we hiked fast so we
would not be completely soaked.
The hike took us 14 hours, but it was definitely an epic hike.
We hiked back to the trailhead on day 5. On the way back, we saw
fresh bear poop, so we thought that there might be a bear around. Indeed
there was a bear a little ways ahead of us. It ran away, so we talked
loudly and slowly hiked.
Mr.S: Hey bear!
me: Good morning bear!
Mr.N: Are you still there?
Bear over the lake
We didn't encounter the bear again, so it probably hid in the bushes or somewhere.
After
we hiked another mile, we took a break on a lakeshore. We saw a bear
across the lake (see picture below). It was in the distance, so we were
relaxed and observed it. The bear was an adult. It walked near the lake
and then went back to the bush.
Bears in Glacier are different
from Yosemite. They are less accustomed to human beings. They usually
run away when they see a human. They haven't learned how to break into
cars. So we could keep food in the car. The Glacier bears haven't
learned how to get food hung from trees yet. Califronia bears break
into cars, show up at campgrounds, get food from bags hung from trees,
and they are not as afraid of humans as Montana bears. I enjoyed seeing
the Montana bears who are not used to human. Also I thought that we need
to be more careful for bears not to get used to humans.
After we came back to the trailhead, we drove from the west side of the park to the east. The road was called "Going-to-the-Sun". It was a very scenic road and all visitors drive it. It
was really scenic but I felt weird seeing so many normal visitors,
because I was in the wilderness and saw only 10 people in 5 days.
According to Mr.N's mother, people say, "We did Glacier!" by driving the
road. She said ironically, "What does doing Glacier mean? After they
did Glacier, they do Yellowstone."
I got her point. It is a great view, but driving doesn't make you feel like being deep in the wilderness.
Anyway,
we arrived at the Two Medicine campground. This was a first-come
first-served campground. Kindly, Mr.N's mother who lived near the park
saved the spot. How nice of her. She pitched a tent and put a kayak as
if somebody had already camped there. The most important connection is a
local person, not a park ranger.
We packed up and went back to the Kintla Lake. I was a little
worried to climb up the gully with a heavy pack, because we took 3 hours
to descend it. Although it was very scary because the rocks were wet,
ascending was a little easier than descending and it took us 45
minutes.
Because it didn't take 3 hours, we climbed up to Boulder Peak as a side trip.
From Boulder Peak
We
couldn't just leave the backpacks because bears or marmots could get
food from the bags. We hung up our backpacks with ropes on a device. To
hang them up, I needed to have ropes both sides of the device. Usually
people tie a stone to a rope and throw it to the other side of a device.
Because I had never done it before, I couldn't throw a stone correctly.
I tried more than ten times. By the 5th time, all campers there were
observing and cheering me on. Mr.N kindly offered to throw a stone for
me, but I insisted that I would do it myself (Thank you Mr.N). Finally
after ten minutes, I was able to throw a stone over the device. It was
stupid, but I had fun.
The scenery from the top of Boulder Peak
was incredible. It was a 360-degree view. Every direction had undulating
mountains. The mountain range in the north was in British Columbia,
Canada. It was my first time seeing Canada in person. In the East, the
steep mountains with green turned into the rocky portion of the glacier.
I was just amazed and thought, "I didn't know that this gorgeous place
existed."
I felt like I got more experienced by doing this kind of hardcore stuff.
Being
off trail was a great experience. It was really quiet and so remote.
Nobody was there except for us. Wild floweres were very colorul and
pretty. It was nice to see the flowers were opening by having sunlight
in the morning. A lot of plants were there. I enjoyed the sounds by
walking in the bushes and trees. I felt good by smelling the scent of
dirt and small plants. I loved the sound by hiking on the rocks. Rocks
in the Glacier were really colorful. Green, purple, and red. They
prouduce noise like that of instrument. On the rock, in the basin, on
the suddle, we talked and smiled. What a precious time.
