Haleakala in August

Another Crater Adventure! It was drizzly and cool as we departed Halemau trail head just after noon. Heading to Holua we had a relativly short 2.5 hour trek. Half way down the trail the view cleared. 6 Nene flew in landing above our heads. Soon the sun was out making for an enjoyable afternoon. The green, nene mowed lawn had many hikers sprawled around the cabin. A hiking group for germany had come down sliding sands and was heading up Halemau'u. Portagee bean soup for our evening meal... some "Sequence". Carole had her water colors out. My birthday - heading from Holua to Paliku - Lots of Silverswords in bloom.A gorgeous day! AHHH my pack was too heavy. We died right before Oilipuu. Carole with blisters and my knee brace not working too well. duct tape, moleskin and we were on our way.

14 nene at Holua and managed to make it out by 2:30pm. Annetter and Peter were already home.

Quadril Riding to Music

Crank up the boom box, and tighten your girths. We are going to dance! Queen, Elton John, Phil Collins..."We are the Champion's of the World" Annette has the pattern maped out via computer and nicely made into a booklet. We keep improvising and improving it. Soon we had quite a few enthuisasts. 2 little girls dancing on the grass to the tunes and a lot of laughter.

Haleakala - Paliku for Mothers day

At 4 hours into my 7 mile trek from Holua to Paliku the horses caught up to me. It was at the worst spot on the trail for the horses. An AA' lava wall whihc had rooed over the smooth pahoehoe lava and cinder preceeding it. The trail was heading downhill w/ some 2 foot step down type ledges. Loose clinker lava and only 3 feet wide. I know my mare would refuse to walk down this. No problems for this gang. We were now less than 2 miles from Paliku. After leaving me in the rear.. I soon came upon them again. Annette requesting my backpack which she slung up on Mr. M's saddle and tied it down. I felt as light as a feather as I followed them down to Paliku. Someone had been working on the trail as it was sooth and rock free with boards to help prevent water errosion. The Shangrala of Paliku soon greated us all. The horses munching happily on long grass. 3.5 hour trek. Not bad! I do love this place. Tall Mamane tres's, Old Ohia Lehua, bright red native forest birds and my favorite - Nene! The horses blast away to the far reaches of their 14 acre pasture. Freedom again! The cabin is in better repair than Holua and has a storeroom full of pressed fire wood logs. A few hours later Riley, leslies son arrives. The while sitting at the picnic bench in comes a small group staying next door at the ranger cabin. The ranger states his Mom wanted to do this for mothers day, she was bringing up the tail end. Across the field Lorraine and I say "That looks like Emi Lou". Yes it was! A small world indeed. Leslie cooks a tai curry meal, Rileys favorite for his Birthday. I need that recipee. Chicken, mushrooms, multi colored peppers. More star watching. A pair of nene are sleeping right up against the cabin under the ferns. Tonight I am too hot!. The morning is beautiful. Breackfast and a trek to the pasture to check the horses. I wish I had a nice fancy camera to capture the subtle reds and greens. The pasture is quite uneven with tufts type clumps of grass. Nene soar overhead. Lunch and we have a visitor Lloyd appears on his horse. He had spent the night at Holua hilton on the hard stable ground expecting we would be there. Soon he is telling stories of his crater expeditions. He first came into the crater 50 years ago when he was 8 yo with the boy scouts bringing in Nene reared in England to re-populate the crater. I had also made my first the trip in 68' when I was 13 with the girl scouts and recall the Boy scouts packing the nene in. I also recall the herds of wild goats running across the floor of the crater. Lloyd relates a trip where there were 27 waterfalls coursing down the cliff faces as it poured rained for 4 days. all the water was filling up the horse pasture. Finally they saddled up the horses for a ride down Kaupo. The water in the pasture was belly high at 4 feet. As they neared the trail down to Kaupo they could hear a roar. They came upon a massive whirlpool as all the water drained down a lava tube. Millions of gallons. This was the bif field just beyond the bottom of the horse pasture just beyond the fence. "Dont walk over there, lava tubes big enough to swallow a horse". The rest of the gang decided to ride down Kaupo gap. I toold up a spot on the picnic bench w/ Lloyd,and campers Ian and Noah. When the gals returned the afternoon was spent laughing and talking.. no peace and quiet in Paliku! The night was cold. we awoke to frost on the ground and leaves. Buur what temp is that? 30's? With 10.3 miles I left early at 8am. I figured I might be out of the crater by 4pm. Suprisingly I was zipping along. After an hour Riley caught up to me. 3.5 hours to Holua. A little lunch break and by 1:30 we were out in the parking lot. We

never saw the horses.

Haleakala National Park May 10th Holua

I have not stayed at a cabin in the crater in many years. When I first arrived on Maui I tent camped all the time at Holua and Paliku. One year in the early 90's I spent over 60 days camping in the crater that year. Well it is time to make sure I take advantage of the incredably beatuful National Park in my backyard. I was invited by Annette for 3 nights. Two nights at Paliku followed by a night at Holua. I would be hiking and 4 other ladys would be on horseback. I tried to get my horses in shape for the adventure but we were not able to get up to a fitness level needed and the Tucker western saddle I had purchased a month earlier had not arrived. I can gaurentee it will arrive when I am in the crater. The gals horses would carry the 2 meals I was assigned which ment my pack was a fairly light 18 lb. They set out early from Haiku at 9am. Darcy picked me up at 9:30. We stopped at the rangers head quarters to view the required wilderness video and get our red permit tags for our paks. Here we found there had been a mix up in cabins. We would have Holua first followed by 2 nights at Paliku. I did a rapid trail distance calculation and had darcy drop me along side the road outside the 8,000 Halemau trail head. This is a short 3.9 mile hike verse a 7.0 mile hike down sliding sands. The trail head was shrouded in mist. I started down at around noon. I was feeling like a bionic woman. ACL knee brance on the L, neopreme knee brace on the right. Back brace and double walking poles. It was perfect hiking weather. A few couples were heading up the trail after their day adventures. before long I was at the bottom with one mile to go. Just shy of 2:30 I arrived at Holua. Memories of all the fun times I had shared here with friends and my sisters all flitted across the movie screen of life. At 3:30 the rest of the gang, looking like Australian outback riders in their oilskin dusters arrived saying how cold they were. I had wanted to have a fire roaring in the stove for their arrival but my plans were thwarted with only 2 logs present. Enough for a few hours heat at best. "What do you mean there are no logs"? Thank goodness a recent addition of a double burner propane stove was present. We would have hot meals. My thinsulate ski pants, down jacket and ski cap came in handy. It felt like the 40's. The horses are taken up the short hill and released "freedom" as they skip across the pasture, tails flagged high. I swap dinner's with Leslie and cook my Portugee Bean soup. I think it was well recieved. Portugeese bean soup: I can red kidney beans, 1 can garbanzo beans, I can white beans -(removed from cans and put in zip bags) 1 onion, I green bell pepper, 2 carrots, 1 bay leaf (chopped and sealed prior to departure) 5 chicken and apple sausages thin sliced.(from Costco) 1 can chopped tomatoes. 1/2 shredded cabbage added toward end of cooking. ( shredded and sealed prior to departure) Multigrain GF chips as a side dish. Served 5, could serve over rice for more people, or add more tomatoes, carrots,cabbage and beans. The stars were brilliant. So many you could hardly make out the constellations. The clifs behind the cabin echoed with the O'U's plantive night crys. The night seemed quite long with a moon appearing later during the night. I was debating if I should go on to Paliku. Could I make the trek out the last day, 10.3 miles up hill? I had only hiked out from Paliku once or twice before 20 years prior and recalled it was not fun. Should I just go home? "BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT"! seemed to fill my mind. YES, that is it. I did the healing codes and asked for God to lighten my step. Woo hoo I was energized! After breackfast and cleaning the cabin I left at 9am when Darcy said Go! The gals were up at the pasture bringing in their horses. It was a beautiful clear day! 7 miles to hike. In no time Holua was a speck on the western horizon. The trail was easy and wide. Before I knew it I was at the colorful Pele's paint pot. I had hopped to reach here before the horses to try and photograph them coming through here. They were not in sight, so I took a long arm shot of myself and seemed to dance down the trail. Awesome!

Trail ride down to JAW'S

Friday the 13th is always a worrysome day to go on a new trail ride. I started early as just last week Kalae decided not to load. Usually she walks right in. I am wondering if there is a squeak or noise I dont know about happening in the trailer. She always loads pretty well. Well we made it to Haiku just on time. A beautiful sunny day with minimal wind. Annette,Margot and Jen arrived shortly afterwards. Off we went heading toward the ocean on old pineapple roads now quite overgrown with grass. We came to a small park overlooking the ocean. Kalae was unsure of the sound of the waves and did not go near the edge. Next we decended into the valley just north of the park. Soon we were riding through a canopy of tall trees on motorcross trails which were wide enough. A little ducking under branches and one spot to dismount and we were at another look out almost infront of Jaw's surf break. It was cool in the shade and quite beautiful. Still heading north we climbed out of this valley into another one. Here the ride got more challenging. Stream crossings with boulders and some water. As we crossed and recrossed the stream Kalae was letting me know she did not want to cross to the other side. She was shaking and backing while everyone else was on the other side.
I had gotten us into a situation, returning by ourselves was not an option. "Only one more crossing" Thank you God! But when we got there it was clearly the most challenging crossing. It was a deep pool with a steep entrance and exit. The other horses were pawing and having fun while Kalae was reversing down the trail and shaking. She is afraid of water... I am so lucky she didnt take off and run. As I approached the pool I slipped into waist deep water (camera and cell phone actually survived (always put your electronics in zip lock bags). I dont know what happened next but she was surging through the pool, I let go of her lead as she ran past me scrambling and slipping on the steep slippery bank as I watched in horror as her belly was on the ground, legs splayed. She got up and stood still with her left hind cocked, boot askew. She walked off sound. The final exit of the valley was up a narrow rutted dirt bike track where the horses were scrambling and any miss step would not have been good. Oh MY a bit too radical for the neophytes we are. We survived the 3 hour ride. The gals helped load Kalae and we were soon home safe and sound.

Dresage Lesson With Tom Poulin

Where does the time go? I find it hard to believe that 2 years has gone by in what is seemingly the blink of the eye. That was the last time I have trailered in to the Haku Baldwin Horse Center, just up the road from me. This past Saturday Tom judges a half day show and I was fortunate enough to be able to have a lesson in the indoor in the afternoon.
Kalae was not so keen on the idea and would not load. 45 minutes later, just when help was on the road she finally got in. Not without air's above the ground, striking, kicking and taking off. She galloped out of her glove boots. So uncharacteristic of her. Good thing she got those ya-yahs out before the lesson because she had plenty "GO" when I was riding her.
A bit late for our lesson but still with some time left we started with transitions walk=halt, then trot to walk, then within the pace at trot. Keeping her active behind. SI and hen canter work. Collecting the canter to 10 m circles to 8 meter circles and walk. The focus on our changes which are late behind. If cantering on R lead, go across the diagonal, whip in L hand. Ask for the change w/ only the R leg and R rein at the same time a little tickle with the whip behind the L leg so she jumps through. Worked well!
Then half pass work - more off the L leg please! And we were done. Great lesson. First one since October.

Makani Olu trail ride on Valentines day

I was invited Belinda and Jim to go on a trail ride for Valentines day. The destination was Waikapu at Makani Olu Ranch. The start of the ride involves a stream crossing. Kalae has never seen a stream! I did not know if I was going to be working on water crossing while the rest of the ride went ahead or going along with them. Sure enough everyone trooped right through the water except Kalae. She was trembling she was so scared. I tried to encourage her. I got off and went into the water myself... no way. Finally after 10 min I told the group to go on with out me. Jod was patient and suggested I walk her over the foot bridge. Nope. Annette came back over and led us over the foot bridge. Success! as we rode out of the valley Jod paused and said OK now at the top of the hill are the long horn cattle. Kalae spotted them and up her head went. Fortunately they just stayed laying down and we went by with no big deal. The rest of the ride was relaxed as we enjoyed the panoramic view from the north shore, Haleakala and south shore. Up the hill we climbed into the eucalyptus forest. More long horn cattle and their baby's, long haired goats, zip line riders and a reservoir.
an hour and a half later we were back at the stream. Jod recommended Kalae go over the bridge to avoid a water crossing battle. We will schedule some water crossing lessons after we build a small blue plastic/ water obstacle at home and get the herd through it. More training idea's yeah! A very fun day!
http://www.makanioluranch.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dht69rKws&feature=email

Beautiful Winter

The weather for January and February has been fabulous. Minimal wind with many days of light Kona wind. Beautiful blue skys. After the cold December deluge the trees and chickens are all confused. The golden Oaks are all in bloom when they should be blooming in April. There are over 30 chicks.

Happy New Year

We survived a harrowing New Years Eve. Normally at 11:30 I throw flakes of hay for each horse. At 11:40 I put on Kalae's halter and hold the lead rope. This evening as I sat in my recliner at 10 pm I hear loud booms, followed by whistling and saw big huge fireworks display blossom directly over head of the pasture, just 30 feet away. I could hear the thundering hooves, panicking whinnying as I bolted out the door. OMG the booms continue. 10-12 total. The neighbors are setting the Ariel fireworks off on the street but the wind is putting them right overhead. !0-15 minutes later the pattern repeats. I now have Kalae haltered, hay spred down for everyone. I am torn... I dint want to let go of Kalae but I need to ask the neighbors to stop. More incoming. it ends and I dash next door. I must have looked the sight, Helmeted, back brace around my neck to keep out the cold, riding coat and boots. Oh and the whites of my freaked out eyes must have portrayed my fright. Please do not shoot the Ariel's over my horses, shoot toward the empty lot! The gentleman said he would let the party goers know. The next few rounds did indeed shoot away from us but by this time the horses were so fried 100 feet did not make a difference. I felt like I was in the "War Horse" movie. I was dreading the midnight on slaught. I could hear the horses down the road whinnying in despair and hoped Monica was there. I can not imagine the barn across the gulch and how all those horses were fairing. At midnight the noise and booms was unbelievable. We survived nearly 3 hours of hell. It was the worst New years ever... you would never know Ariel's were illegal.
The next day we were all tired!