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Published: March 7th 2009
Sunset at Kalalau Beach
The entire 11mi trek was made worthwhileHitchhiking is the best way to get around Kauai. The bus is only $1.50 but it doesnt run on sundays or holidays. and the bus only runs to 730pm. and the buses dont go everywhere. people really do pick up hitchhikers on kauai. noone should drive in a car without at least one passenger to lighten the carbon footprint. it is pleasant. i like being able to have a 15 minute personal conversation with a stranger. you get all of their attention so you get to learn alot about a perfect stranger. the first question is always, 'how long have you been on the island?' so far only one person has told me that they were born here. everybody else has a story about how they came to be on the island. it is interesting to know how people get by. you can also learn useful information about cars, jobs, events, etc. the problem with having a car of your own on the island is that saltwater rusts everything. anything made of metal or really anything at all gets worn down by the saltwater. also the island has deep red dirt so the interiors of used cars are invariably stained red.
Sunset at Haena
our tents are both green the island gets its fair share of rain also. there is one point on top of one of the mountain peaks that has held the record for having the most rainfall on the planet. wood rots easily, metal rusts quickly, plastics and rubbers wear away quickly between the extreme damp and the scorching sunlight. anything that does not recieve regular upkeep will decay.
the stars are really bright at night. it is so easy to pick out satellites zipping across the sky. the beach is great for stargazing at night. but there are some small tensions between natives and westerners or haoli's. i have heard 'i grew here, you flew here.' some places are better left alone.
so i was in a routine. dustin clippinger came to town. i started hanging out with dustin. we camped at a beach for a few days. permits were $3/night. but it was a pain to get the permit you had to somehow get to a town where they sold permits, then they wouldnt take credit cards or cash. you had to go to the postoffice to buy a moneyorder. then find your way back to the office and hope that the
Kalalau Trail
Best hiking view ever campsite is not full.
all of the people that i had met from the north shore came to cookouts we had at the beach in dustin's and my campsite. Rob brought his grill, everyone chipped in, it was great. Dustin and i camped and walked and fished and kayaked. after the weekend i headed back to the farm. but something strange had happened. i dont know what it was but after that weekend i fell out of contact with everyone that i had met from the north. i didnt see or talk to anyone again until after new years. strange.
but i had just gotten a new trailermate. jasper had studied horticulture and had come to kauai from Germany after graduating. jasper soon found that i was the only person that would take time to really talk to him. he had grown lonely, homesick, and bored when i left for the past two weekends. he needed a companion and friend. i told him that we would go to kalalau as soon as work was done for the week. he was hesitant at first but i pulled him along. we took a bus to lihue to get permits. they
Kalalau Beach
the view from our campsite in the sand under a palm tree. told us they were out. then i just stood there for another twenty minutes and they offered us permits. ?!? anyway. we took the bus to hanalei and stocked up for the days of camping ahead. we bought cous cous, granola, tetrapak rice milk, iodine tablets for water, pitas, and hummus. we hitchhiked to the end of the road and camped at haena so that we could get an early start on the rugged 12 miles ahead. we packed our tents and gear at sunrise and started our hike. within the first handful of steps my flipflops had gotten lost in the mud and i decided to hike the 11+ miles with a 30-40lb pack barefoot. after 2 miles, Jasper and i stopped for breakfast on hanakapiai beach. we pushed on up and down, seaward and inland along the narrow path. we had lunch on an outcropping with great views down the coast in both directions. after pitas and hummus and vegetables we soldiered on. we stopped briefly at the halfway point where we were supposed to camp that night as part of our permit compromise. we ran into a couple of girls from germany. i stood at attention while
Jasper and Kalalau Valley
jasper sits back and drinks it all in jasper and the girls chatted in german. Pia, one of the girls, tried to include me with her excellent english. The views were absolutely breathtaking. hundreds of feet over the crashing waves below, we could see for miles out into the distance where the horizon faded from blue water to blue sky. lush green mountains rose inland veiled in mist with rivulets of water cascading in thin white lines. the island seemed to reach, fingers outstretched, toward the ocean. the path was winding inland then seaward. the last couple of miles are dry and narrow. the mountain goats prancing about the sheer cliffs with ease, sent rocks and boulders down the dry mountainside a little too close for comfort. we reached a large patch of red dirt and could see the kalalau valley open on our left as we approached kalalau beach. my feet were raw hamburger. jasper and i were greeted by girls camping on the beach under a tarp stretched between two rocks and a tree. as soon as my sore feet hit the soft sand i dropped my pack and stripped down as i ran to the raging waves that pulled me in but immediately tossed me
Na Pali Coastline
taken from the kalalau trail to my back. so cool and refreshing. after a soak i gathered my things and headed to fill my water bottles at the end of the beach where we found a waterfall plunging down the steep hillside to a pool that snaked its way through the sand to the ocean. we soon learned that the split pieces of bamboo beside the freshwater pool were tools to extract fresh water from the waterfall without gathering pebbles and dirt. you hold one end of the bamboo in the waterfall and hold the other end to the mouth of your bottle. after gathering water and adding iodine tablets, we went up and down the beach in search of a suitable campsite. we chose a soft sandy clearing under a palm tree and surrounded by guava and lemon trees draped in lillikoi(native passionfruit) vines. jasper and i set up our tents and went to work setting up the campstove loaned to us by dave and zuleika, the recent addition to the farm. we made cous cous and flavored it with some sauce and some seasoning. it was easy and filling. after washing our bowls, silverware, and pot in the waves we slept like the
Kipu Falls
jasper is swinging as i take the picture from the top of the falls dead. i woke and watched the sun rise. i walked the beach and splashed a bit in the surf. we had granola, guavas, and lillikoi for breakfast. we packed a small lunch and some supplies and hiked into the valley. we had heard from others that there were oranges in the valley. we found lemons, guavas, lillikoi, mangoes, and a couple gardens. the valley is home to many wanting to escape modern life. there are some tucked back in the hills that have lived there for decades. they have diverted waters for gardens. the community hunts wild pigs and goats, they farm, gather fruits, grow tobacco, etc they often have community meals. outsiders are allowed to share in if they have managed to pack in a valued commodity such as; rolling papers, chocolate, flour, alcohol, etc things that are hard to come by in the wilderness. after a long morning and afternoon hiking through the valley along the stream up to the falls and the pools all the time looking for oranges and other fruits to fill in where our supplies left off. jasper took a nap when we got back to the beach. i gathered lillikois and began sharing
Na Pali Side of Kokee
the hike wasn´t really this difficult them with everyone that i could find. one couple gave me a can of beans in return. one long-term valley resident told me the story of the previous weekend when there was a birthday party for one of the 25 year residents. everyone brought valuable ingredients together and they made a pizza and a pie. a goat attacked my new friend´s girlfriend for no reason that they could tell. it kept ramming her so the guy killed the goat with a rock. they found the ex-green beret who lives in the valley because he had the most experience making goat stew. i made my way back to jasper. we swam. took pictures of sunset. we prepped water and made dinner. we packed and left the valley at sunrise. the return trip was just as beautiful and breathtaking as the trip in. i wore flip flops. we hitchhiked back to kapaa on 3 different rides. we shared a burrito and went back to the farm to start our week in the morning.
after we finished our hours. jasper, zuleika, dave, and went together and visited a rent-a-dent in lihue. we gathered supplies and took the rental south to koloa for
Camping Crew
Na Pali coastline in the background stove fuel. our first stop was kipu falls. there are no signs for the falls. we followed some directions from friends and followed a narrow dirt path for 5 or 10 minutes. the falls are only 20ft high but the attraction is a large tree with a rope swing dangling over the deep pool at the bottom of the falls. some people were doing flips and acrobats. we just tried to hold on as long as we could. it was great fun.
we headed south and west to waimea then headed up into the high country. it was noticably cooler at the higher altitude. we had tried to get tent space at the kokee state park but they claimed it was full. it wasnt. but we got space at a private campground called camp sloggett. we set up our tents and used an unlocked kitchen to make dinner. we found that there were other campers at sloggett. the german girls that jasper and i had run into on the kalalau trail were at the camp. the six of us played games and talked. the next morning jasper and i had breakfast and talked to the german girls until zuleika
Kalalau Valley
this is the north side of the valley as seen from the lookout and dave were ready to drive to the trailhead. we hiked along the peaks on the seaside. the views were breathtaking. after hiking most of the day we drove to the kalalau valley overlook. now we had seen the valley from both angles and both were beautiful. we got into some of the sports equipment at the camp and made some dinner.
the next morning we packed our rent-a-dent and parked outside the camp. we hiked inland, this time, to waimea canyon. it has been called the grand canyon of the pacific because the stratification and coloration resembles the grand canyon. the views again were gorgeous. after a few hours of hiking we came to a fork that seemed to separate on a gradual rise and on a steep grade, but seemed like it would come together just ahead. well i took the steep grade and enjoyed a few more incredible views of the canyon. the other three took the gradual rise and the map with them. so when the paths came together at last i wasnt sure if i was ahead or behind them. i guessed behind and was right. some of the forks that came up were
Waimea Canyon
from here i could barely hear the waterfall obvious but others werent. i soon found myself on a narrowing path. at one point i had to duck under a thicket. the trail came directly to the trunk of a tree and vanished the shaded area had little to no undergrowth which made it difficult to see a path. i thought i found a path but it was just an animal trail. of course i didnt come to this conclusion until i was way to far to turn back. judging by the distance travelled and the direction i was going, i felt like i could run into any one of the many paths. of course i didnt for a long time. i was climbing, stumbling, crawling through thickets and undergrowth and mattresses of ferns. i still felt like i had some idea of direction because the sun hadnt set yet, but i felt lost. one second i saw nothing but endless woods then i stumbled down a bank and i was on a path. i had wasted a lot of time though. i took my flipflops off and ran down the path. it turned into an overgrown dirt road. i hadnt seen anyone since leaving the other three, now
Waimea Canyon Falls
taken from atop the falls in the last picture there was a couple approaching me. after a few words we realized that we were trying to get to the same place, but that it wasnt in the direction that they had come and it wasnt in the direction that i had come. a little perplexed we just looked at each other and said ´well, good luck´ and headed in our opposite directions. i headed through the woods as the road turned in a direction i knew was away from our vehicle. i ran into a path i recognized and finally reach our parking space. i say space because the vehicle was no longer there. there on the ground was my name written in sticks with an arrow pointing down a road. so i followed the road and after a while found the vehicle in a parking lot. dave and zuleika called to me and we went to pick jasper up from where he was waiting for me at another park exit. we were almost out of fuel and coasted down to the coast. we fueled up and bought a lillikoi pie for dave´s birthday. we drove to polihale, a 17 mile long beautiful beach known for its sunsets, as
Polihale Tentsite
Zuleika watches as Jasper put up his tent. my tent is just to the right. note trucks in the background on the beach and how the beach ends as the Na Pali coastline rises out of the ocean the beach faces west. on the north side the beach ends abruptly as the mountains of the na pali coast rise out of the ocean. we set up tents on the beach. i played in the ocean. the sun set directly behind lehua, a tiny cone island inhabited only by birds, rabbits and rats. we ate dinner and fashioned birthday candles out of dried palm leaves. we woke in the shadow of the mountains to the east. trucks had driven up and down the beach and some were still parked about the beach. we had breakfast and drove near poipu where exposed lava rock was pummelled by the waves. we saw some monk seals sunning themselves and enjoyed the views. i dropped dave and zuleika at the airport then dropped jasper and my pack at a bus stop. i dropped the vehicle at the rental place. i walked to the airport and said goodbye to dave and zuleika, then i walked another mile to the busstop and headed back to kapaa with jasper.
jasper and i hung out until he left for germany. we went to the beach and to town on occasion. we visited daniel and jon in
Polihale Sunset
the sun is just over Lehua and .7 miles to its left is the edge of Nihau, the forbidden island. princeville and walked to queen´s bath. we hiked the sleeping giant, a chain of mountains whose profile looks like a man sleeping on his back. i drove jasper to the airport with geo´s truck and said goodbye.
i booked a flight for thailand. the last few weeks went by. russel came to the farm we began building an outhouse but he only lasted a few days with geo. i finished the outhouse after he left. i hung out with a ranger from alaska named katie. she worked on the farm but only for a couple days. then her austrian friend, karine, came to the island. they drove around but stayed on the farm every now and then. i found work the week before my flight. but only got to work two days. the newest member of the farm, james derocher, and i went to harvest the pommelos from the best pommelo tree in the world. i was cleaning some vines from the tree when i stepped on a thorn, which went through my flip flop and about half an inch or so into my foot. the thorn secured the flip flop to my foot. i had to remove the
Monk Seal on Mahaulepu Beach
just napping. a killer whale had been beached near here the day before straps so that i could drop the flip flop with the thorn off the bottom of my foot. it bled profusely. i cleaned it best i could. i had just gotten work and i couldnt work. just a few days before my flight to thailand. i kept the puncture wound clean and hoped the bacteria and viruses, which thrived and flourished on the island, were kept at bay. the girls, who were still hanging out and visiting me, drove me to princeville, where daniel and jon were living, to drop off a bag and then to the airport. i limped through the airport with my single carry-on to my gate. i stopped in taipei, taiwan and then on to bangkok.
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