This was the first hike I took upon arriving in Maui and was supposed to be a "break-in" hike for me, starting me off on a short hike so I wouldn't exhaust myself at the start. It was only 2 miles round trip (plus an easy short creek hike next to the trailhead) and Christopher thought it would be duck soup for me. However, he did not realize that I was not conditioned for extremely steep hikes no matter how short. I was conditioned for much longer but also much easier hikes. However, this 2 mile hike was so extreme (for me) that it broke into my fragility zone and I found it utterly exhausting.

Almost all the way, it was a series of steep steps that strained my short, elderly legs, up and down boulders and sometimes slippery hard packed mud. So it exceeded my abilities both climbing and descending. I would do far better a few days later with the Haleakala crater hike, which was a 9 hour and 45 minute, 11 mile hike with a 3,500 foot descent from 9,700 feet to 1,600 feet and 1,600 foot ascent to 8,000 feet.

The hiking time for this ‘Iao Valley Hike was 4 hours, 46 minutes, and 53 seconds, absurdly long for a 1 mile hike to the destination for me. It was 2 hours, 54 minutes, and 30 seconds to the destination. The return time was 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 6 seconds. The hike was up a narrow canyon and the trail was "unofficial" and fenced off: very steep, narrow, and brushy, and crammed with young, energetic people. Not much fun for this old codger. The creek hike in contrast was an easy, very scenic 31 minutes and 16.6 seconds. Took 126 photos of which 72 made the cut.