Advertisement
Published: December 8th 2010
Saturday 12-4
We rised and shined at 5am (ugh) and said our goodbyes to Miranda :o( We started the 11 mile hike thru the Na Pali coast at about 7am and all seemed to be going well for the first few miles until my left knee decided it wasn’t going to bend or allow any weight on it anymore. I think I sprained my knee or did something to it last week in San Francisco over Thanksgiving. The pain went away before we started our trip, so I figured it was fine. But ugh, that sh*t hurts now! We made the decision to keep going and after limping another 8 miles or so, we made it to Kalalau Beach. How to describe the trail? The pali (cliffs) are breath taking and the top-down views of the expansive, blue Pacific are amazing. Well worth the trek. But the trail itself – holy crap – it was treacherous at certain parts. Sure, the Inca trail was 4 days thru the thin air of the cold Andes Mountains, climbing to over 13,000ft. But never on that trail did I slip & slide up & down dangerous muddy rocks, try to safely navigate mud slides,
and strive to remain on the 6” wide path that is called “the balcony” because all that stands between the side of the mountain and the 700’ drop into the rocks below are those mere 6 inches! It was crazy! Nick made the comment that he’s never been on a trail with so many warning signs before! I actually did slip at one point – thank goodness there was a rock to hold onto before completely falling. I slipped in the mud several times and Nick fell into the water at one of the river crossings (coming out with a huge smile on his face, though!). It was a really challenging trek, but a great one! We really lucked out with weather; some people do this trek in the rain (can you imagine how perilously muddy?!), we were very lucky it stayed sunny & dry the whole time. Note to self, though, don’t lead with your hands going thru head-high grass – you come out with giant orb spiders on your hand.
8.5 hours after starting, we got to Kalalau Beach and made camp. There were a couple sea caves that we walked thru, which was cool. Unfortunately, when
we got there, a rescue helicopter was doing a search and rescue for a base jumper who never made it down to the beach. Turns out he crashed landed in the pali and never made it out alive. As I mentioned, there are warning signs everywhere. People drown in the currents and rip tides, they fall off the cliffs or have any number of accidents on the trails. We met a couple along the trail who said they had to help rescue a lady the day before who had broken her ankle on another hike. I guess I should be glad all I have is a injured knee and 3 black toes. One cool thing about seeing the rescue workers was that they left behind a stash of food for the rest of us to use. I had my first ever military issued MRI (Meal Read-to-Eat, Individual). It was amazing how much food was included and how bad the food was. We went to bed under a huge blanket of black sky and shiny stars with the sound of the ocean lulling us to sleep. All in all, a great day.
Sunday 12-5
Woke up early to watch the
sunrise at Kalalau Beach, then started out on the return hike to the 2 mile camp. The first 5 miles seemed to go by fast. We stopped for lunch and met up with a couple of young surfers from San Diego. (Oddly, we seem to be some of the oldest people doing this hike – a little weird.) The guy had just quit med school and was about to fly down to Patagonia to volunteer for a few months and then work his way back up thru the New World. Another group of folks had just left everything behind in Florida. They worked in the tourist industry and couldn’t take the devastation after the oil spill. They say the toxins and dead animals are a lot worse than the media is letting on and it’s a real health hazard to the communities down there. So they drove cross country and ended up in Hawaii, where they plan to live in the Kalalau Valley for the foreseeable future. We gave them our blankets, as they seemed to be in more need of them than we were. Apparently, there are a lot of young, homeless-by-choice folks that live on the Na Pali
coast. Some stay for a few weeks or month, camping out and living off of a community orchard that they’ve grown back in the valley. One guy was rumored to have lived there for 25 years! Pretty hard to believe, but I guess if you’re going to be homeless, lush, tropical Hawaii isn’t a bad place to do it.
6 hours later, we reached Hanakapi’ai Beach and made camp. We had the place pretty much to ourselves, aside from all the spiders and ants which seemed to be everwhere. Nick decided that after 2 days, he needed a shower, so he took a dip in the ice cold river. No thanks! I do just fine relishing in my own stench while camping. Too bad there’s no smell-avision, otherwise, you too could enjoy my ripeness after 4 days of the same sweaty clothes ;o)
We visited some more sea caves and then decided to call it an early night. A lost hiker came by our tent a little before sunset. Poor guy had gotten lost on the trail to the Hanakapi’ai Falls and ran out of water. We gave him two of our bottles and wished him well –
he was trying to get back to the trail head before night fall, where his new bride (they were on their honeymoon) had been waiting for him for over an hour. We hoped she wouldn’t be too mad at him.
We had slept well our first night on the trail, but the second night was pretty miserable. We gave away our blankets one day too early – it was freezing the second night! We tried to huddle together for warmth under the tent, but neither one of us got much sleep.
Monday 12-6
Last day on the trail. We got up lazily and headed into the valley 2 miles to see Hanakapi’ai Falls. One thing the Kalalu Trail needs is better trail markers! It’s very easy with the mud and rock slides and numerous river crossings to lose the trail. Thank goodness one people had left ropes and tags along the trees – otherwise, we’d be lost! The falls were beautiful, very peaceful and scenic. Looks very much like the scenes in Jurassic Park (which was filmed in Kauai). On our way back out, we decided to swim in one of the swimming holes created by the falls.
Shortest swim we have ever done! We jumped in and Nick screamed out loud! It was ICE cold water. We were in there for no more than 5 second before scrambling out onto the rocks. If we weren’t awake before, we damn sure were awake now! On our last 2 miles back out to the trail head, we passed lots of day hikers – we looked and smelled so filthy compared to them! Upon exit, we treated ourselves to some shave ice (Hawaiian version of a snow cone) – it’s over rated (nothing like a Costa Rican granisado!) – and Taco Bell (ugh, I hope I don’t regret that later). So here we are back at “home” and now I need to go fold laundry (thanks for the laundry sheets Sarah & Yuri!). :o)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 68; dbt: 0.0957s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
anitza
Anitza
Amazing
While the photos and your survival are amazing, I am absolutely terrified after reading about that hike. Love that shot in the sea cave!