Good morning.
I must have been very tired last night because I slept until the sun was almost up. OK, well, I knew I was tired, but this is the first time since I've been here that I haven't woke up while it was still dark. And it is very dark here after sunset, which happens around 6:30. You all just gained an hour because of the end o Day light Savings Time, but here in Hawaii, there isn't any daylight to save. It reminds me of Zambia, with the sunrise around 5:30 or 6 and sunset around 6:30. Boom. Dark. Something about it makes me want to be indoors, curled up with a book or a movie when it's dark.
The reason I was so tired yesterday was that I hiked part of the Na Pali coast. I had read many things about it and had even bought a camping pass and brought my camping stuff with me, in case I wanted to stay overnight. Saturday night I made the executive decision to leave home my hammock and gear and just do a day hike. I have mixed feelings about that decision, though I think it was the right one. More about that in the next post.
For those of you who don't know, the Kalalua Trail is an 11-mile (one way) cliffside hike ("pali" meaning "cliff") on the west coast of Kauai. It is rated 9/10 difficulty by the Sierra Club. The ultimate destination is Kalalau Beach, inaccessible (legally) except for this hike - no boats allowed to land on the beach. I had pretty much decided I wouldn't be making an 11-mile hike one day only to turn around and hike 11 miles back the next. I'm not a hiker, although I do run. Not many mountains to hike locally in Michigan. But because I run, and have run a few longer races (although not marathons), I figured I was fit enough to get halfway, which is a camping site called Hanakoa. There are a beach and a couple of waterfalls on the way; I decided to see how far I could get.
The sunrise is visible from the lawn of the condo, and my neighbor (who is the concierge) told me the sun comes up "around 6." Which was more like 6:40. When I woke up yesterday, it was still dark, but nearing 6, so I went out onto the lawn and waited with my camera. And waited, and waited. And waited. It was lovely to watch the sky change, and eventually I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise, but I was also anxious to get an early start on my hike, to see how far I could get. When I had told the concierge my plans, she pooh-poohed them and said, "You won't get as far as Hanakoa. Just go the the first waterfall, swim there; your skin will be soft as silk. It's very therapeutic."
Anyone who knows me well will know that I don't take kindly to being told something can't be done. I did keep it in the back of my mind, but her words didn't prevent me from giving it a shot. As those of you who know me also know, I have to see something for myself (within reason) to be sure it can't be done. This sometimes puts me in a postion where I have to backtrack, but at least I have seen for myself that it can't be done. And sometimes, it can be done - the advice I was given was wrong, or I found a different way to do it, or someone was too timid to try it himself.
Anyway, I had gotten much of my stuff ready the night before, and while it was still dark yesterday morning, so I loaded up the car and took off. I had been advised to get there early, and I had hoped to get there as early as 7, but since the sunrise happened later than I had been told (ahem), it was more like 7:30 that I left the condo. It's a half-hour drive or so to the trailhead. I needn't have used my GPS, because I discovered that one essentially drives west until the road ends, and there it is. I lost the signal halfway as it was. The drive there was a bit unnerving in itself, with a couple of switchbacks, thick foliage on either side of a narrow road (which lives up to its speed limit of 25 mph in places). I half expected a panther, or even a dinosaur, to come leaping out of the trees.
I drove through a town called Hanalei (where Puff the magic dragon lives, I would guess, though I didn't see him) and then there were several single-lane bridges with yield signs on either end. The etiquette demands that one let a line of cars through before proceeding (there are even signs of "local etiquette = 5 - 7 cars"). I guess that's more efficient than taking turns one by one in each direction, but it's still unnerving.
I got to the trailhead, packed up my stuff (including some last-minute jettisoning of my water treatment tablets and a couple of other things), used the bathroom there and headed up. I started on the trail at exactly 8 AM.
It rained a bit last night, so the trail was muddy in places, and very slippery there. The first two miles is to Hanakapi'ai Beach. It sloped steeply upward to begin, and was very rocky where it wasn't muddy. I didn't notice until the way back that there were also pine needles strewn liberally on this part of the trail, something that I didn't see in other places. I had with me a pair of trekking poles I bought at Walmart (one of the essentials I bought on Saturday) and that was probably the best $22 I've spent in a long time. My balance is good, and I have pretty good endurance, but I don't think I would have made it there and back again without them. I saw plenty of people (more than not) without them. Maybe they all are better hikers than I, but I did note that as the day went on and I went further that many of the people "hiking out" from Kalalau Beach (having stayed there overnight) had them. Some people had long wooden poles they had found as well.
I took it relatively easy on the first bit, although I was full of energy. Part of it was that I kept stopping to take pictures, also something anyone familiar with me would expect. I wish I had been able to stop on the road to the trailhead, because there was a huge beautiful shard of rainbow supermiposed on the green mountain as I rounded the corner. You'll just have to imagine it.
Anyway, I was passed by several people (with no poles), and at one point I noticed I was keeping just ahead of a young man who also had two trekking poles, and was making what seemed to me a great noise banging them on the rocks. He finally caught up with me as I took yet another photo, and I said hello. I made some comment about the poles, and noticed he had a German accent. Turns out he is German, but lives in Vienna. He was at a conference in California and took a few extra days to fly out to Hawaii (not too far once one is in California, especially if one normally lives in Europe) to do this hike. He was by himself, and had all his camping gear on his back, because he was going all the way to Kalalau. He is 10 years younger than I and about a foot taller. I spoke to him in German a bit (I'm so rusty); we discovered that we each were alone, and decided to join forces, at least to Hanakoa.
I think that is enough for now; today I'm going to check out our beach, and probably do some shopping. There may or may not be a helicopter ride later; we'll see.
Blessings
wb
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