John Endriss

Hikers follow the Keauhou trail to the coast.

Hike to Keauhou (near Halape in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park) - May 22 to 23, 2009

1:00 pm - At the start of the trail. Nice day for hiking: very cloudy. Excited

2:00 pm - Finished the first 2 miles in 1 hour. Nice. Gonna head down the first cliff now. Looks like we might have cloud cover the whole hike today.

3:50 pm - 4.8 miles into the trail now. Feet are starting to get sore, but not too bad. When you stop, this is possibly the quietest place on earth.

5:10 pm - 7 miles later and we're at a small beach on the volcano's coast call Keauhou. I'm going snorkeling!

GPS COORDINATES FOR KEAUHOU: N 19 degrees 15.984' and W 155 degrees 14.020'

7:00 pm - the sun has just gone down now. Snorkeling in the protected area to the left was great. Some of the best coral on the island. Tents are set up on a sandy patch near the water.

9:00 pm - without much artificial light our group is heading to bed. A little too cloudy for stars tonight. Hope it doesn't rain!

John Endriss

Keauhou beach

5:00 am - I wake up to some stars still visible as the sun starts to light up the sky over the cliffs. Glad it didn't rain last night.

6:30 am - The sun is starting to hit the snorkeling cove. I'm going in the water again!

7:00 am - The diving was even better this morning. Saw more fish this time, but I was in 1-2 feet of water almost the whole time. It can get really shallow here! Time to pack up now.

8:05 am - We leave the beach and head to the shelter to fill up our water bottles. We use pills to treat the water there.

8:30 am - Starting the main hike now with bottles full.

10:00 am - Finished the first cliff. Hiking is more difficult today as we are going uphill and the sun is out some of the time.

11:00 am - We stop (for one of several of our breaks today) at the bottom of the second cliff. GPS reading: altitude 1,400 ft. We'll see what it is at the top.

12:15 pm - Stop for lunch at the top of the second cliff. GPS reading: altitude 2,180 ft. We just went up nearly 800 ft. in just about half a mile!

2:15 pm - Finished the hike back: 7 miles long, 2,680 ascent. Tired, but not dead.