On
of the many highlights of our recent trip to Kauai & Maui (in
addition to getting married) was our trek to Hana, on the island of
Maui. The Road to Hana has long been immortalized in song and in
legend. While the road has seen some significant improvements since the
last time I was there over 20 years ago, it remains a scenic,
treacherous and breathtaking adventure. 
Nearly
80 miles from where we were staying in Kaanapali just north of Lahaina,
Hana Town lies some 52 miles south of the old plantation town of Pa'ia
- the last outpost for gas or food until Hana. That 52 miles is home to
some of the most beautiful scenery, lush tropical greenery, turquoise
ocean, brilliant flowers - not to mention 617 curves, 56 bridges (all
one lane) and hundreds of squeezils. 
The
road reminds me a lot of my home in Colorado with it's narrow winding
roads, blind corners, distractingly beautiful scenery and crazy tourist
drivers. In spite of all the warnings, it appears that many people
consider the drive for its destination, not the journey itself. 
Each
confrontation with an oncoming driver is a challenge to be won, each
one lane bridge is one way - their way, the epitome of the ugly
American - and we're not even out of our own country! Trust me, you're
going on the Road to Hana for the road part, not the Hana part. Hana's
a nice little town but it's not what you're going there to see (no
offense to the Hanaians). Take your time. 
But
with the top down and Brudda Israel Kamakawiwo'ole in the background,
it's easy to forget the rat race and just be in the moment - it's an
aloha thing. We did have a destination in mind so we didn't stop much
on the way down. You can stop every mile or so to see another
spectacular sight but we wanted to make it to Waimoku Falls, which is
another 8 - 10 miles of one lane road past Hana in the Haleakala
National Park. Even leaving at 8 in the morning and making no stops, we
didn't reach the park until after 11:00. From there it's a 2 mile hike
to Waimoku past the Seven Sacred Pools and numerous falls. 
The
trail is steep in places and winds over gnarled roots, mossy rocks,
past pillars of Banyan and through an amazing Bamboo Forrest that runs
for nearly 1/2 mile. The bamboo is as big around as your arm and spikes
30' - 40' in the air. It is so dense that it's almost dark on the path
and when the breeze blows through, the sound is like 10,000 drummers
doing rim shots. There's a track running through the bamboo because the
ground is so spongy from the regular rainfall and the fact that no
light gets in to dry it up. 
Along
the way you can pick wild sweet guava to munch on and the variety of
plants is incredible. Anthuriums and Orchids in every color of the
rainbow, Bird-of-Paradise, Red Ginger, the deeply scented Plumeria,
Pink & Rainbow Shower Trees and Hanging Lobster Claws, all
serving as home to a myriad of birds that emit everything from melodic
songs to bloodcurdling squarks. The sights, sounds and smells
are almost too vivid to be real. It's like a Disney ride except you
have to walk and sweat. It's so hyper-real you almost expect to peek
through the trail-side trees and see a painted backdrop with rainforest
sounds piped in and mechanical birds with brilliantly dyed plumage. 
This
is my second travel
log from The Garden Isle. As previous readers are aware, I came over
here to get married - which we did yesterday 8/8/08, right in our
backyard on the beach. To be totally honest with you - it didn't suck.
This is as gorgeous a place as I've seen on the planet - and I've seen
my share. I love my Colorado mountains and my cabin on Trout Lake, but
I could get used to a little grass shack on the beach here for the six
months a year when the snow howls in the mountains. 
So
Wednesday the Boys
(my son Dane, my daughters friend Scott & my soon-to-be
son-in-law
Danny) went fishing and caught a boatload of Yellowtail Tuna. We've
been eating like Kings all week snacking on fresh tuna tacos, sushi,
seared tuna and some great grilled Terriyaki fillets last night.
Figuring the charter costs and all, the tuna is like $58 a pound - but
worth every penny. 
Thursday
we went to a
Luau. Well if you're coming to the islands you've got to do some of the
touristy stuff and we did. It was a great show and the food is always
good - Kahlua Pig (slow cooked in banana & tea leaves
underground),
sweet potatoes, all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables. Of course no
Luau is complete without the Poi. Poi, I think, is the Hawaiian
equivalent to grits. The natives can handle it because they have
developed a taste for it and know what to add to make it palatable. To
the rest of us it's a lot like a light purple wallpaper paste and most
people manage no more than a bite or two before moving on to something
else. 
We've also been to
Waimea Canyon, which is a spectacular sight. Mark Twain dubbed it the
'Grand Canyon of the Pacific'. The dirt here is so red it
almost glows - it's the reason 'Red Dirt' clothing is headquartered
here where they manufacture a clothing line dyed with the red earth
that covers most of the island and makes for the great variegated
striations seen in the Canyon walls. 
Friday
morning most of
us ventured out early for a kayak and snorkel adventure up in Hanalei.
Hanalei Bay is up by Princeville and is the home to the mythical Puff -
you know, Puff, the Magic Dragon. In fact from a kayak in the middle of
Hanalei Bay you can see Puff from his great eyes to his scaly back
right around the far side of the bay to his long tail. According to the
our guide Harry Boy, it helps a little if you've had a
little.... well, I wouldn't
know anything about that. 
The
mountains in the
center of the island are the rainiest spot on earth averaging 400+
inches of rain a year. There are numerous waterfalls cascading to the
bay and you can kayak partway up many of the larger rivulets of fresh
water lined with gorgeous native flowers, hibiscus blossoms floating
down the stream, orchids seeming to drift in the air, the sweet scent
of Plumeria accompanying your every breath. We paddled as far up the
Hanalei River as we could then drifted back to the Bay to snorkel right
below the Princeville Hotel. Cheap rooms currently go for $599 a night
and up there. But if you don't want to slum it, they are closing the
place for several months of renovation and when they open back up you
won't be able to touch the front door for less than $1,100/night. I
know the view is superb but for that kind of scratch it better come
with hot & cold running maids. 
Snorkeling
the reefs
outside Hanalei Bay is also spectacular. The variety of tropical fish
just feet from shore is breathtaking. I've had salt water aquariums
much of my life and am accustomed to paying $50 - $100 for colorful
fishes no larger than a credit card. 
Those
same fish and many more
swarm around divers in these clear warm waters except they are huge -
the size of dinner plates and larger. Brilliant Yellow Tangs and Angel
Fish, Peacock Wrasses and Snowflake Eels and sea turtles the size of
compact cars doing ballets in the current. 
This
morning we did a
zipline adventure, which is not recommended for folks like myself who
have some natural aversion to high places and to hanging over 1,000
foot precipices traveling 300 miles an hour held by nothing more than
fishing line. OK, maybe I exaggerated that just the least little bit
but not much, I assure you. 
Well,
we've got one more
lovely day here and then our kids are headed back home and Lisa and I
are headed to Maui. Hope you're all having as wonderful a summer as I
seem to be. One of the things I love about real estate is the
flexibility of time it affords us - and of course we all need some time
off if we're to keep the batteries recharged and keep ourselves in
prime running condition. There's going to be a fine line here on
whether I'm totally refreshed and recharged when I get back, or if I'm
going to be so exhausted I'll need some time off to recuperate. I know
my Broker is hoping I actually do a little work at some point this
year so I'll have to work toward that goal. 
A few days back in
my post about Trout Lake,
I mentioned a historical factoid that Trout Lake
water was used to generate the first AC power station in the country.
Today I drove up to the Gold King
Basin, the site of the mine that inspired the
story.
So now, as Paul Harvey might say, here's the rest of the story.
In 1881 a washed up Leadville restaurateur named Lucien Lucius Nunn made his way to Telluride, Colorado to see what he could roust up in this newly booming mining town. During the next decade, LL Nunn opened a law practice, became a real estate developer, opened a bank and started managing the Gold King Mine, in the mountains south of Telluride.
Now
there were a lot of mines operating around that time ultimately
digging over 350 miles of interconnecting tunnels through the
mountains. But one problem they all had in common was how to power
them. See, many of them were built above timberline like the Sheridan
Crosscut, the Tomboy, the Smugglers Union and the Gold King, which
meant all timber for buildings, homes and to shore up the mines had to
be hauled in by mule or ox team. Wood or coal to generate power to run
the mines and mills also had to be hauled in and it was pretty
expensive, not to mention downright difficult in the winter.
In
1889 LL traveled back east and had a sit down with George Westinghouse.
In those days, Thomas
Edison had just developed DC power but it was not as
stable and could not be transmitted long distances, which was what Nunn
needed. Nunn convinced Westinghouse to buy up a number of patents from Nicola Tesla for
AC power for the princely sum of $1 million, quite a fortune in those
days. LL returned to Telluride and began construction of a 100
horsepower generator at Ames,
located at the base of a mountain where he could pull water out of Trout Lake
to run his new Westinghouse turbines, then run wires up the other side
of the mountain to his mine to power equipment, stamp mills, trams and
provide light.
As
you might imagine, Edison was against this the whole way as he owned
the rights to DC power. What was referred to as the "Edison Gang' liked
to portray AC power as unstable and deadly, taking some pleasure in
frying small animals with 'the juice' to show just how dangerous this
newfangled stuff was. Regardless, the venture soon proved itself out
and in October of 1891 the power line was extended to Telluride, making
this small town the
first city in the nation to enjoy widespread household use of electric
power. Old Timers tell of placing bets to see if they
could grab the wire, throw the switch sending power to the mine 7 miles
away, and let go of the wire before the circuit was complete. The Old
Timers who survived to tell that tale were never the ones placing the
bets, as you might imagine.
AC power revolutionized mining operations (along with most everything else) making it possible to run trams greater distances from mine to mill and to construct ever larger stamp mills. Previous stamp mills often employed only 2 to 10 stamps, large pounders that reduced large rocks to more manageable size for transportation and milling. With the advent of AC power, Nunn was able to construct a 120 stamp mill on Bear Creek near Telluride, which served to consolidate many of the local milling operations.
Ten
years later, Nunn and his brother Paul along with Westinghouse and
Tesla built the largest hydro-electric generating plant in the world
modeled off his original plant at Ames. This new plant was built for
the Ontario Power Company at a sight known as Niagara
Falls.
Amazingly
that original Ames Power
Plant is still functioning today providing power to the
Telluride area as well as tapping into the nations electric grid. It
has gone from powering the mining boom that built this area a century
ago, to powering the ski lifts and recreational facilities that are
providing another boom into this century. Most people outside this
area, (and probably not that many locals) know that the power plant
even exists and even fewer know it's story - but nearly every aspect of
modern technology owes it's start to the imagination of LL Nunn and the
little power plant he built high in the Colorado Rockies.
And now you know... the rest of the story.
I've been lucky enough to take a month off again this summer to spend at my old home in Telluride CO. You can track my travels here:
#1.
Myths & Legends of the Great Southwest
#2.
Trout Lake Colorado - My Slice of Heaven
#3. The
Smugglers Union Mine
- Travels at Timberline
#4.
An Ode to Roadhogs
#5. Leon Russell - Rico Colorado
#6. A Small Town America 4th of July - Telluride CO
There's
nothing quite so quintessentially American as a small
town 4th of July celebration - especially when the small
town knows how to do it up big. Telluride
Colorado has been celebrating the 4th in a BIG way since
way before my half century of memory comes into play. In fact the Telluride
Fire Department, who puts the shindig on, celebrated it's
130th birthday this year so they've got a plenty of experience doing
this sort of thing.
The
4th here always starts with a bang - a big bang called the Powder
Monkey Breakfast. The firemen - who have been up most of the night
tending to the 100's of pounds of beef roasting in an underground pit,
wake up the rest of the town by lighting off a few sticks of dynamite
around 6 a.m.. The festivities actually
get rolling with a parade at 11:00. Everybody in town is in
the parade - honest. Babies, kids, dogs, horses, Veterans, motorcycles,
floats, bands, people who just woke up and got in line - all 1,500
townspeople are in the parade that stretches the entire 4 blocks of
downtown. 
What's more amazing is
that even though everybody in town's in the parade, people are still
lined 6 deep along the street to see it. That's because 10,000 or more
people come from all around the country to experience this remarkable
event,
Naturally
we have jets fly over and there are floats of all types. 
Someone
loaded a bunch of kids on a pontoon boat; the ice hockey team rode
their Zamboni; there's always an old Prospector or two handing out
'honest-to-God gold' samples to the tourists; several ladies always pay
tribute to the original denizens of 'Popcorn Alley', the old red light
section of town; this year we had a ragtag New Orleans funeral marching
band; and as usual we salute 'Men Who Can't Dance' who come variously
themed as Elvis or Michael Jackson and dance down the street as only
men can't. 
After
the parade most folks make their way over to the Town Park where the
firemen serve up a delectable meal of that roast of beef, potato salad,
baked beans, corn on the cob and watermelon. 
The
past few years we've not braved the crowds at the park but have opted
for a smaller pot-luck at the Elks Club. Many old-timers who come back
to town for this day gather to visit, reminisce and remember those who
passed on. 
While
many cities did without this year due to a plant explosion in China
that destroyed a good portion of the world's supply of firecrackers,
Telluride Firemen order their stock a year in advance so
there was no shortage in this spectacular display. 
If
you're looking for a great place to celebrate next 4th of July, bring
your family to enjoy a healthy slice of small-town American
Independence Day. I saw Leon Russell perform the night before, Jonny
Lang gave a FREE performance the day after, most everything is FREE
except the BBQ, which'l set ya back $12 bucks. Come on up. It's a great
time and you'll make memories that'll last a lifetime.
Helping Buyers & Sellers Connect since the last Century. Specializing in the Temecula Valley, Murrieta, Southern California's Premier Wine Country, La Cresta & De Luz.
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I am a firm believer that our success as Realtors during the next 10 years will be as dependent on our success in our state and national legislatures as on how hard we work as individuals. If you're not at the table, you'll probably be on the menu.
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