Hike to See Volcano

From Barry: On Monday night, the sky cleared of most of the clouds and we could see the orange glow of the molten lave reflected down from higher clouds. Tuesday morning dawned with the cone of the volcanoes silhouetted against the sky. This suddenly looked very promising for ascending to the rim of the cone to look down on the molten lava. Arrangements were made by Patrick and Rebecca to have a truck transport us from Ranon to Ranletvan village about 1 or 2 miles to the west to pick up the guides and then take us up the hill to the trailhead. We were leaving about 10:30 in the morning instead of the recommended 7 am. I was very grateful for the 30 minute truck ride, as it did a lot of climbing up the mountain. At the trail head, it turned out that the only guide/porter was Joseph. The other two NiVans in the truck were there to fix the truck as necessary. I had two day packs, two small sleeping bags (one for padding) and my large camera. The guide books said that the guides carried your gear up the mountain, but that was not their expectation. Joseph generously offered to carry one of my day packs and Patrick and Rebecca each carried one of my sleeping bags along with their minimal gear. Then the hike began, going up fairly steeply through the forest.

After about 2 ½ hours, we dropped down onto the "ash plain" composed of cinders in the old caldera. The plain is fairly flat and walking on it was like walking on a sandy desert wash. Never-the-less, the ash plain is heavily vegetated with brush, bamboo, tall grasses and a few trees. We walked in the dry river beds for 2 more hours until we got our glimpse of the closest volcano cone. To our dismay, we could only see the bottom, as the top was shrouded in cloud. Our prospects suddenly looked very bleak. In another half hour of walking, we reached the "hut" where we were to spend the night. The hut consisted of a thatched roof with no walls or floor. After resting for a bit and eating, we started hiking again across the ash plain to the base of the cone. After another half hour, we started ascending up a steep creek gulley and then up a steep ridge. When we reached a spot on the ridge where we could get a good view, we stopped and assessed the situation. The cloud ceiling was about 200 feet above us and the guide said that the rim was about another 1 ½ hours hiking away. We stopped and rested and waited to see if we might get lucky and have the clouds dissipate. Instead the clouds were getting lower and it was starting to mist. With no hope of seeing the volcano, we headed back to the hut as the last light of day dimmed.

It was very hard walking the last half mile to the hut in the dim light on black ground since we had not gotten out our flash lights. The guide had set up a large tent, but it was not clear if the tent was only for him or all of us. At bed time, Rebecca decided to go into the tent and I soon followed. Patrick said that he was content to sleep under the shelter. I offered Rebecca one of my sleeping bags, but she said that she was fine and did not need it. Later in the night, Rebecca got very restless and I asked her if she was OK. "No, I've been shivering for the last hour." She gratefully accepted the extra sleeping bag and went back to sleep. Two hours later, Patrick came into the tent and snuggled up to his wife. He had toughed it out as long as he could and had finally given up.

As dawn broke, the mountain was still shrouded in cloud. We ate breakfast, packed up and headed back to get to the trail head by 10 am to meet the truck. There was no time to start back up the cone in hopes of the clouds clearing. We passed two men with a dog going the other way. They were out hunting and their dog had caught a megapode. Between the locals hunting and the gathering of megapode eggs near the hot springs, the future for megapodes looks bleak.

All-in-all, my legs and feet held up pretty well on the first day, although had we ascended to the top, the additional hiking would have been pretty brutal for a person my age and who walks as little as we do living on the boat. By the time we had hiked back down to the trailhead, my knee and toes were starting to suffer from the downhill trek. So, I am back from a long exercise to futility! Or is that futile exercise? Whatever, I am back.

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