ultralight backpacking in paradise | hawai'i volcanoes national park

Howdy gang! It's your friend Pepper here and I am backpacking on Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and this is arguably the most beautiful place that I have ever backpacked in my life. We got a lot of ground to cover so let's get the step in. Hello and good morning! We are starting our hike at around 9 a.m. We've got like 8-ish miles to do today. Currently I'm walking along a location called Mauna Ulu which means continuous and forever growing mountain and this references Mauna Ulu's eruptions between 1969 and 1970. So as you can see I am in fact walking on lava right now and it's very very fascinating and yes it's so-called lava even in its solidified form. This type of lava is quite smooth and you can see it's very like bulbous and browny and what this is is pahoehoe lava as opposed to a'a lava. So pahoehoe lava is more smooth and bubbly and it's associated with the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes Pele's softer than jet emotions and we should see some a'a as well and a'a is more rough and jagged and sharp and that's associated with her more fiery strong emotions. So I didn't realize just actually how intense the wind is here and I'm sure that it's kind of hard to hear me but what I was saying was this is my first time backpacking on Hawaii and the first time that I've ever backpacked and hiked across lava but I think it's really important before we get too much further into this video that I take a second to acknowledge that I am hiking on very very very sacred spiritual ground. There's a lot of history that's happened here and I've done my best to learn about it so that I don't accidentally so that I don't accidentally disrespect the land culture or the spiritual energy that was here before me. So if I accidentally do mispronounce something or I do make a mistake if you are a native Hawaiian please feel free to correct me because this is not my land. I'm just a visitor and I'm only here with respect and a very very strong desire to learn so I just wanted to get that out there. I'm not perfect but I'm doing my best. Yeah let's let's get into this it's uh it's pretty funky here and it's quite difficult to make sure that we're not getting off of trail and it's very important that you stay on the trail firstly because there are lava tubes that are running through this area that collapse and you fall into it and then also out of respect as well it's very important to not go off trail so you really have to keep an eye out for these markers here and I believe this is like one of the only parks that actually encourages these markers to be left alone and not destroy the national parks if the system actually sets them up so hikers know where to go so that's what I'm following right now as I as I navigate this terrain. So you may have noticed that I am currently uh identifying as a junior ranger and that my friend is because I always forget one thing and that one thing that I forgot today was a hat and this is unfortunately all that the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Visitor Center had because the gift shop is closed but it's okay because even though it looks a little bit dorky I am going to embrace that dorkiness to the fullest extent oh geez okay okay let's keep going so the trees that you see behind me here they're all the same species they're called the Ohia tree and in Hawaiian mo'olelo or stories the Hawaiian goddess Pele the goddess of volcanoes was in love with a man named Ohia and he didn't love her back he was in love with a woman named Lehua. Out of anger Pele decided to turn Ohia into the Ohia tree and this left Lehua all alone and so her ancestral spirits took pity on her and turned her into the Lehua blossom and so according to the mo'olelo if you pick a Lehua blossom and remove it from an Ohia tree it will rain and this is to symbolize the tears of two lovers who have been departed again interestingly though this tree is the very first tree to grow back in lava and it actually breaks up the soil making it so that other plants can thrive here and so you can see that we've got some shrubbery and some vegetation this is thanks to the Ohia tree now it's also really important that we don't touch the Ohia trees at all because of a new fungal disease that started to appear in 2014 called rapid Ohia death and it is spread by the wind and as you can see it's very very windy here and by touching the blossoms so we really really should not touch them and it's also critical that we like spray our shoes and make sure that we're not bringing it to new trails because it's very pervasive and it's already affected over a million Ohia trees on all of the islands of Hawaii yeah that's another reason why it's very important that we don't touch them but this is probably one of my favorite trees on the island and it plays a huge role in the ecosystem of Hawaii specifically it also feeds the scarlet honeycreeper so they sit in the blossoms and they you know sip on the nectar and help pollinate the tree as well that's pretty cool let's go though are you coming okie dokie so I came from way up there past that ridge and I'm headed way down there to the ocean okay so I mentioned uh-uh lava a little earlier and we finally have stumbled across a whole bunch and it cools off more quickly which results in a flow that really does bulldoze over terrain and you can see this entire ground is covered in lava and it breaks off these little crumbly fragments that kind of look like brownies and even though it's heavier than pahoehoe lava it's still quite light because of the gas bubbles on the inside it feels like it's about 35 degrees celsius right now and I am hot real hot so imagine my extreme pleasure when I see oh my gosh are you joking me are you joking is this real life no no it's not real life okay okay okay suddenly I'm not so tired anymore okay I gotta put all my stuff down I gotta set up camp I gotta I gotta rest for a minute and then I gotta go swimming holy cannoli that's what I'm gonna do okay okay so I think I've just found possibly the best campsite that I have ever camped at in my life are you ready yeah so this is a prank right holy okay let's set up now I've got a hard time thinking I'm gonna need a sleeping bag at all but it's good I brought one the only thing about this place is it's covered in fire ants get on get on find a new home for now I'm going to borrow this thank you I forgot how hungry I was so I think we're gonna do lunch before a swim but I mean look at this is this real life I couldn't be more grateful right now oh my goodness let's dig into some lunch so for lunch today we've got peanut butter but not just peanut butter sandwich thingy too but no jelly because I don't like jelly maybe I'm crazy or maybe you don't like jelly too let me know because I'm a jelly hater I'm starving holy cannoli yep that's good I added some electrolytes to my water because it is critical that we stay hydrated out here there is a water cache but it's not guaranteed the quality of the water because it is you know rain water and you have to use tablets to purify the water and I do have some tablets but it's easier to just bring all the water because those tablets require the water to sit for quite some time before you can even drink it so I brought about four liters of water and honestly I fully anticipate also needing to refill at the cache delicioso I reckon it's time for a swim the water is just incredibly clear here I don't know if you can see that or not but it is absolutely stunning unfortunately the current is quite strong and so I need to be incredibly careful with it and I think I'm just going to stay around this alcove area because I don't want to be scooped up by the ocean because you know I kind of like making videos for you guys and this is kind of nice so oh my gosh I am unheavened oh my gosh what a treat yeah those fish are no joke these ones over here must be at least 20 feet and I know that the camera's not doing it any justice at all yeah but that's a strong current so not too far in hey oh my gosh that was pretty cool thanks for hanging out with me happy stepping the sand here is basically black a lot of sand fleece here how would you like it if someone came in in new york if you got you if you wouldn't like it the amount of fire ants is noticeable but that's okay I'm not gonna bother them hopefully they don't bother me because I'm hungry and it's dinner time for dinner tonight we have can you guess can you guess what it might be it's becoming a constant it is some dry salami and some that has been aged 10 months she's looking mighty fine yeah oh my goodness oh my goodness gracious and I almost forgot I got some animal crackers from the diamond bakery and they are made in Hawaii and I am so excited to try them because I love animal crackers and these are sea creature shaped isn't that cute this little dolphin and yes the taste is enhanced by the shape scientifically proven fact all right let's try the salami yeah yeah that will do yep that will do I don't know what it is but it always tastes so good having food obviously but specifically after a swim big fan big and of course I've got to have my sweet treat I've been snacking on these since I got here I'm obsessed so I brought more than I need they're so light and airy they're really making me wish that I had some milk well gang it's getting late but I think I'm gonna hang out here and make friendship bracelets until I get sleepy I'm gonna listen to my audio book and enjoy the ocean breeze I'm so lucky to be here I'm so grateful wow time to get started well I didn't get done as much as I wanted to have gotten done see I'm still missing a little bit but I swear one of these days I will finish a project I will start and also complete a project on one of these trips so that I don't leave you hanging but I'm tired I think it's time for me to hit the hay I will see you in the morning good night good night for real but first check out this view yeah yeah yeah okay good night good morning oh it's like 4 30 I slept pretty well I think I'm not going back to sleep again because it is so windy it's I don't think it's gonna happen so I think I'm gonna get up now and honestly start moving back because second that sun hits it's gonna be hot obviously oh my gosh let's get cracking shout out to nightcore for sending me this headlamp I really like it um it's insanely light which is you know right up my alley and also insanely bright which is a oh which is a huge whip so thank you thank you she's dark she's pretty dark out there I drove my tent stake into a coconut what okay fun so I wasn't sure if it was gonna rain or not so what I did to make a pack liner was I took a bag that you cook turkey in super light and I lined the pack with it so my stuff doesn't get wet so I think I'm gonna wear my pants over my shorts because my legs just got completely teared up by all of the wild grass and shrubs on the way down here and I don't want to repeat it out again my legs are also a little bit sunburned so it kind of feels like a nice relaxing sandpaper uh type of feel so breakfast this morning is granola I've been munching on this for the entirety of the trip and I have enough left for breakfast which is perfect and it's really good I love granola I'm gonna munch on this as I begin my walk back the sun's almost up so I don't have to hike too much in the dark but this is really good practice because I hate hiking in the dark and I need to get over that this spot has been such a blessing and I'm so so grateful that I got the opportunity to stay the night out here I honestly can't even believe it we've got about eight miles-ish to do and it's gonna get to be about 27 degrees celsius by nine so we better get a move on gotcha man you can't beat this view so I'm not nearly as tired as I thought I would be five miles in here even though the sun is out and there's no shade at all the wind is really helping and I keep singing random songs and walking to the beach and it's uh it's helping me keep a steady pace but man am I ever ever glad that I got up early so that I didn't have to be out here at like two you know because that would have been gross okay locking in almost done okay so I finally stumbled upon a plant that I actually recognize this is kukiawe and it is a native plant here on Hawaii and it produces these white to pinkish berries you can see most of these are white but there's some pinkish ones means that they are approaching ripeness these are not edible that's why I know what these are because I wanted to get a good idea of what I could or could not eat in a survival situation out here but these berries do feed the nene which is the Hawaiian state bird and it's a goose that kind of looks like a fancy schmancy Canadian goose that's how this plant's seeds get distributed is the nene will snack on the berries and their scat will disperse it throughout sub alpine and alpine regions like this one right here oh and there's another ohia beautiful just gorgeous okay let's keep moving well I'm back on the lava fields which means that we're almost done but I wanted to show you do you see how that's quite shiny on that side this is because as the molten lava was solidifying the top layer hardened first and it turned to glass so there's a layer of glass on the outside it's just so fascinating crazy well gang I think that was what the cool kids call epic anyway that's all I've got for you I hope you enjoyed if you did make sure to like this video and subscribe to my channel if you feel like it and check out some of my other backpacking videos because I think they're pretty cool I'll see you next time happy stepping