Day 11

The day started the same as any other day so far; wake up, make lunch, eat breakfast, apply sunscreen, apply bug spray, more sunscreen, and head to the Valley. Once everyone had met at base camp, we had a restructuring of the survey teams. Shelby and I were split up and joined by members of the geology and hydrology team in order to cover more ground. Dr. Lipo then drove Thomas, Gordon, and myself around the south wall of the valley to investigate the rock walls that run down the slope of the hill from the base of the cliff towards the ocean.

Study Area as seen from the road

As soon as we got out of the car, I realized that we were in for more than I had anticipated. The climb was pretty steep and so densely vegetated that you could not see the ground in most places. Fortunately, the cattle are allowed to roam this area so there were a few predefined paths for us to follow. It didn’t take long to identify the first rock wall thanks to the linear orientation of the koa haole trees growing out of the rock features. The length and construction of the rock walls was amazing to see in person.

Rock Wall

At 11am we headed back to base camp to eat lunch and plan our next moves. After watching a few UAV flights provided by Williams Aerospace, Shelby, Jeanette, Thomas, Courtney, Cole, and I headed out into the valley to survey the one last area we had not yet covered. Although we only had less than two hours in the field, we covered a lot of ground and took a few points on the Trimble GPS units. We then headed back home and stopped for Hawaiian Shave Ice on the way. It was a delicious end to a long and hot day in the field.