Brian York's Life

Notes from the Summit

Written on June 19, 2008

You know, the ride down from the summit is scary. Imagine driving down a mountain road, at night, and you’re not allowed to use headlights (to keep from interfering with other people’s observations). So we used the four-way flashers to light our way down.

In the cafeteria at Hale Pohaku, there’s a trash can right next to the spot where you drop off your dirty dishes to be washed. There’s a big note by the trash can saying “For garbage only. Note: Silverware is not garbage” I wonder how much trouble they had with that before they put the sign in.

On the way up tonight, our truck came close to breaking down (it stopped being able to shift out of first), so we went back down to Hale Pohaku to trade trucks (given that the road is unpaved most of the way, you really need an SUV for that road). Speaking of which, we passed a Neon which was struggling its way up. I guess someone didn’t read their rental agreement about not trying to take their little car up a mountain that doesn’t have paved roads.

We also stopped on the way to help some people with a flat tire. Two young women in a rather smaller SUV who, unfortunately, got a massive nail in their tire and discovered, most of the way up the mountain, that the tools in their truck weren’t the right size to take off the flat tire. Fortunately, we had the proper tools in our trunk (along with the medical kit and a bunch of other stuff). Strange times.

With luck, we’ll have good enough weather to actually do some real observations this time. Maybe even on my program (since the weather is bad enough that mine is one of the few that might be able to run).

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Entry last updated October 29, 2005