The First Night

When I landed in Maui (direct from the mainland, which was awesome), I changed into -- perplexingly, I'm sure to my fellow travelers -- a thermal shirt and skullcap. In hindsight, I would have gone into full gear right away. Instead, I did that when I got to Hosmer Grove, which is near 7000 ft up, and naturally quite chilly. While I easily had the temperature, which was probably in the mid to upper forties, covered, it's much harder to recover from a chill than to prevent it in the first place. That said, I was never uncomfortable. It was a beautiful, clear night, giving a great view of the starry sky through the trees. The air was intoxicatingly fresh and clean, light with the scent of eucalyptus trees, which I love. Coming from Manhattan, by way of LA, made the freshness of the air almost drinkable. This salved the irritation of having abstained from bringing a more properly drinkable substance like whiskey due to weight concerns, but not much. Most of the handful of other campers had already gone to bed by the time I had changed and brushed my teeth, so I unrolled my sleeping bag and did same. Despite a bit of jet lag, the excitement and anticipation of seeing the mountain in sunlight and hiking into the crater kept me awake a bit. While I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked, I woke up the next morning before sunrise feeling fantastic.