Hike 1 : Pali East, West Maui Mountain

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Crossing a Gulch

Hello,

We arrived in Maui in swashbuckling style. After a smooth and uneventful flight, the best type there is, it appeared the pilot intended to commence windsurfing activities early...even before he landed the plane. Man, that 737 came out of the sky and hit the deck before one could reach for a 'barf bag'. Welcome to Hawaii. Yes, welcome indeed.

Our Pilot and plane over Maui

After picking our editor off the floor, (wow, what she only goes through for our adventure), we hired a car. We think the kids will be proud or …maybe embarrassed. The picture illustrates our first non-sedan…ever. Are we daring or what? We literally climbed up into the Jeep and using our usual keen sense of direction, arrived at the condo we have hired for a week…eventually.

Jenni's piece of 'Iron' at trailhead. Missing our Ford?

We needed to stock up with provisions; therefore, we headed for Safeway (Vons). We were excited to see that one box of matzah remained on the shelves. Our editor reminded us that a state of excitement was redundant… ‘If you recall’, she added, ‘Pesach ended last week. The challenge now is to find kosher bread’. Yeah, yeah, we get it. We mentioned in our last note about escalating prices. Big Ben’s desire for inflation is working beautifully in the 50th state. Prices are double those on the mainland for most of the food items we need. We’re going to be dropping a lot of dollars and quite a few pounds on Ben’s flation-diet at this rate.

Big Gulch...sort of

Our first Hawaiian hike was nearly 8 miles with an elevation gain of 1600 feet. The unique feature for us was the gusting winds. Today we received a lesson of how easily one can be blown off a mountain. In future, bigger breakfasts should ensure that we are heavier and not easily swayed. A few of Jenni’s matzo balls should stabilize us. We enjoyed the climb over rugged terrain with wonderful ocean and mountain views as we approached and walked along the ridges. We particularly enjoyed crossing the gulches and viewing them from the top all the way down to the coastline. We are also fascinated by the word ‘gulch’, hence the need to use it at least once more.

Opening of the hike. Should one give a tip?

Cheers

Jenni and Gulch.