Maui - Stream

This was on my first full day on my visit.  The plan was to hike inland up the valley to see how far we can go.  Our guide was Chris B. who has lived on this island for over 25 years and has intimate knowledge of the land but it was his first time on this trail.

It was a great hike going up and down the valley and following the water supply line to it's source.  Even though we went a good ways in we were not able to finish the trail as it ends at a hill with a tunnel that has been locked.  It did give me an opportunity to test out my new camera toy, a new Hoya ND x16 filter.

There was a small stream at the end of the trail and I followed it up to see if I could take something nice but this is all I ended up with.

[caption id="attachment_368" align="aligncenter" width="900"]

Stream deep in the valley.[/caption]

I know this photo doesn't do the FULL resolution justice as I currently have it as my desktop wallpaper (1920x1200).  I guess to make it easier I have cropped the image down to focus on the main subject.

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Cropped - Maui Stream with Mosquito Swarm[/caption]

What is not shown here are the thousand of mosquitos that are swarming me.  I usually always carry bug spray in my camera bag but due to TSA regulations I had to leave the canister at home and being my very first morning I haven't had the chance to buy a new bottle. To compound the whole problem I was in shorts and cut off shirt.  As expected I was badly eaten up while I was taking these photos and could only hope that they will turn out well for all the trouble that I had to endure.  At the end of it I believe it was worth it but it still makes me cringe and very itchy thinking about the swarm of mosquitos buzzing all around.