It was a beautiful, warm clear day (sorry, all you people on the Mainland) so I decided to ride over to Hilo for lunch, and to test my new to me Wixom bags and mounts. On the ride up the old Saddle Road, I stopped to take a picture to the northwest up the island chain. There is a line of storms approaching from the northwest, the leading edge visible as a line in front of Maui in the distance.
Looking to the southwest, Mount Hualalai with the Puuwaawaa cinder cone on it's flanks.
...and Mauna Loa from the R-1 road entrance.
It was such a nice, warm day on the Saddle, I figured I'd ride up the access road to Mauna Kea to the base camp at around 9,000'. One thing led to another and I made it to the top of Mauna Kea on one of the clearest days I had ever seen! If you zoom in on this photo, you can see the turnoff at the highway and access road to Mauna Loa at the border between lava and grasslands a little bit left of center.
Nearing the summit:
Maui across the channel and North Kohala in the foreground. Waipio Valley visible to the right of the observatory. Clouds moving in...
While it was relatively warm at the 9,000' mark, above 11,000' the wind picked up considerably and it got cold fast at the 13,900' summit. Fortunately, with the new bags, I had carried some extra warm gear and gloves. There was a couple riding ten speeds to the top in bicycle shorts and spandex
More power to them, but I bet they had a cold ride back down.
