Kauai From The Air

The morning after our luau Drew and I were up early and headed south along the coast.  We had scheduled an 8:30am helicopter flight for an aerial view of the island we'd already grown to love.  Knowing what Lake Michigan waves, roller coasters, and bumpy airplane rides all do to me I made sure to take some Dramamine right before heading off from the condo.

We made our way back to the Lihue airport and found our outfitter, Mauna Loa.  We'd chosen them because they offer private flights (the pilot plus a party of two or three) and because they allowed passengers to choose doors on or off.  As we waited for our pilot to get the helicopter ready (and meanwhile signed our lives away inside their mobile office) we noticed a few other outfitters taking off with larger helicopters and unfortunate passengers crammed in the middle without much of a view.  We were happy that we would each have the best view possible, and for the price you pay with any outfitter it's really a must.  I'd hate to pay $$$ for a helicopter ride only to be in the middle row and middle seat leaning over others to see - talk about a let down.  And doors off - you can't beat it.  We'd read reviews for both options but for Drew it wasn't even a question.  :)

We loaded up with our fantastic pilot (who went to school at CU-Boulder), got a quick run down on safety (Mauna Loa also runs a flight school and they are very particular about safety - which is good), and then without much fuss we took right up into the sky!  We were in a tiny little helicopter with the doors off, about to make our way around the island.  We had incredible photo weather, incredible flying weather, some easy listening Bob Marley over the radio, and not one second of turbulence the whole trip.  We toured the whole island and I'll just say I'm glad we hiked the Na Pali coast and then saw it from the air, because there would not have been a hike if it had been the other way around.  There isn't a whole lot else that I can say about the rest of the trip that can't be explained better in pictures (and no, I didn't do any color enhancing - this is what it really looks like).  Once I figure out how to upload Drew's GoPro videos, that will give it a whole new take, too.  Our ride lasted over an hour, which is one of the longest rides offered by any outfitter.  Didn't matter - I wanted to stay up longer...

Enjoy!

Smith Family Luau

Once off the trail and back into our red Mustang it was time to find our vacation rental condo and crash for a bit.  We found the rental company location easily enough and I sent Drew in to get the keys and any last minute check in things.  He was filthy and disgusting, and came back out with at least four bottles of water.  The woman at the front desk had taken pity and handed over everything she had in her little cooler.

We made our way to the condo, which was just a few miles down the street from the Aston Islander on the Beach that we'd stayed at our first night.  After a shower and a quick look around we ordered pizza takeout.  I ordered Hawaiian - how often do you think they hear that one?  I asked for green olives, too, and she paused to consider a moment - then said, "We have them up at the bar, I'll go grab a few and cut them up."  At least she was sweet enough, and the olives were for martinis so they were HUGE.  We combined pizza and Cokes on the lanai (balcony) and had our first real meal in days.  It was amazing.  I'm not sure we did much except relax and listen to the waves from our lanai for the rest of the evening.

The next morning we woke up, ate the complimentary macademia nut cookies and downed entire bottles of water, then headed out to the grocery store to stock our little vacation condo.  We bought things we needed, and things we didn't need.  Impulse buys and novelty buys.  We came home and made fresh fish burgers (trying to imitate the ones we'd had the first night in town) and grabbed our suits.  It was still beautiful weather and we intended to enjoy it.

Since there was road construction going on around the corner from our condo we didn't have the normal beach access.  I asked the front desk person and he told us to head the other way down the side road for a hundred yards or so and we'd come to a semi-private beach access.  And so we did - and it was better than the beach we would have had otherwise!  We found our own little nook and watched sea turtles float by, read, and relaxed.  We had nowhere to be.

That night I did some laundry and we got ready to head out for the Smith Family Luau (so named because tourists can't pronounce a Hawaiian name and Smith made for better marketing).  We were given a show by the peacocks, took a tram around acres and acres of beautiful grounds, and enjoyed a ceremonial unveiling of the pit roasted pig.  The ceremony has a name and I likely could have told you what it was a few weeks ago, but damn it if things aren't already fading away...

 

After the unveiling we headed to the pavilion for dinner.  We ended up sitting next to a late 20's couple who were on vacation with their parents.  We made small talk until the woman blurted out, "I know you.  You look so familiar!  Were you on House Hunters, the Denver edition?"  I said all I could think of which was, "Ummm, nope."  Haha.  We continued to make small talk until it was discovered that they had been part of the slow trudge up the last two miles to the trailhead the day before!  We'd actually exchanged a few words on the trail about how far, how long, and my goodness why is it so uphill.  As if to make me feel better for some reason she said at one point, "Well you clean up really pretty."  Aww, shucks.  Thanks.  :)  We wrapped up the evening with a great show and headed "home" to our condo.

 

Long Trip Home...

We weren't exactly headed home, but back to normal island life at least.  The "long" part, though - that's accurate.  After waking up before our alarm (You read that right; Drew set an alarm on his phone when we were in the middle of nowhere.) on Tuesday morning we packed up the tent quick, snacked on some trail mix and took one last look at our semi-private beach.  The sun was barely up, but we knew we wanted to get a move on before it started baking us on the sunny sections of the trail.

We barreled up the steep incline out of camp and passed the wooden Kalalau sign.  We covered ourselves in dry red dust (unintentionally) and thanked our lucky stars for three days of continual sun and absolutely no rain.  We hiked, stopped, hiked, stopped, and hiked some more.  And then we came to a mile marker.  Out of nowhere.  I just happened to see it carved into a rock.  It said "9".  I briefly wondered why I hadn't seen it, or any others like it, on the way out to the beach.  I then quickly concluded that my brain had subconsciously shielded me from the painfully slow progress we'd been making that day.  I'm entirely sure that on the way to the beach I'd thought we were at least a mile ahead of where we actually were at every point.  A rude awakening it would have been to see those mile markers then.  On the way home, though, they seemed okay.  I watched for them with renewed energy and ticked off "8", "7" and "6" through the cliffs, the red clay and the valley.

At some point along the way we stopped to allow a few people to pass and to re-apply sunscreen.  While stopped, with a clear view of the ocean below, we heard a thump.  More like a "smack"!  With our eyes on the water we finally spotted him - a whale!  I'd seen a whale jump when I'd been at the beach the day before, but Drew hadn't seen him.  Now, finally, Drew was having his whale moment.  The whale jumped again and cleared the water, landing with a loud "smack" and sending up plumes of water.  We stayed seated, wondering if the show might continue.  And it did.  We were treated not only to the jump, but a round of at least 15 (truth) tail smacks.  You could hear it all the way up the cliff wall, and since we were on a valley wall with rock fins reaching out to the water on either side of  us, the sound actually echoed its way to us. Smack....smack.....smack!  We could even make out his tail.  It was really an incredible moment and we hated to leave just in case he kept going.  Eventually we peeled our eyes away and started walking.  Since I'd nearly walked off the cliff 48 hours earlier, I left the "walk and watch" duties to Drew.

After hiking a little ways and leap frogging a few other hiking couples, we found our eyes opened wide again (Anne Lane, here you go!).  I happened to be hiking in front of Drew.  I was walking aroud a corner, headed slightly uphill, when from around the other side appeared a female hiker.  Naked.  With a backpack.  Beautiful naked woman with a backpack blasting Jack Johnson.  I smiled, nodded and said "Good morning!" (what else do you say?) and then whipped my head around behind me so as not to miss Drew's reaction.  I knew it would be priceless.  He hadn't seen her yet.  I grinned and waited for it.  And then it came - red cheeked and wide-eyed for maybe half an instant.  He recovered quickly and said something, probably "Good morning" like me - because again, what else is there?  Once she had passed us Drew looked at me and simply said, "Was she wearing any shoes?  'Cause if so I should have said nice shoes."  Lord.  Really?  Shoes?   Needless to say neither of us had looked, there.

And though we were tired, the miles continued to roll by without major incident.  We hit the downhill into Hanakapaia Valley and Beach around 1pm and enjoyed a little break by the cairns.  We watched the wild cats, listened to conversations, and answered questions about why were were so sweaty and why our packs were so big.  After 15 minutes or so we decided to head on, across the stream and into what seemed like an infinite uphill.

We'd pretty much finished taking pictures at this point - I was tired, sweaty, and just wanted to be back at the trailhead.  We went uphill steeply along with all those people who had spent the day at Hanakapaia Beach.  We all trudged in unison - kids, elderly couples, parents and crying babies.  We stopped in these two miles more than we'd stopped the whole rest of the way.  We talked to strangers, ran out of water, tried not to get mad at each other every time we came around the corner to another fin of rock ("It has to be the next one, I mean, honsetly.").  At some point the roller coaster ended and it was all downhill.  So steeply downhill and rocky that it hurt.  But then we saw the trailhead sign.  I reached up on my tip toes to kiss Drew, and we made our way across the parking lot to the pay phone to call the cab with the quarters the first driver had given us 48 hours before (no cell service).  Dirty, accomplished, and exhausted - we waited for our ride.  Already, I was falling back in love with it...

Kalalau Beach

Once we landed on Kalalau Beach we snagged the closest camping spot (under a grove of gnarly trees) and set up camp.  Well, no.  The boots came off first.  I set up camp barefoot.  I'm sure no one is surprised.  :)

We were losing light since it was about 5:30 in the evening so we decided to just take it easy and relax on the beach and wait for sunset (beautiful).  We had decided to stick around the following day and then to do the 11 miles back all the following day as opposed to splitting up the trip back.  After all, there was no more hiking after that - just relaxing.  After sunset we went back to the tent, browsed through pictures on the camera, and read a little bit since I don't feel the need to cut out necessities - books - like some ultralight hikers.  The sound of the waves felt as if it was on top of us as we tried to fall asleep. I  woke up at one point convinced the shoreline had moved to just outside our tent.

The next morning we woke up early and groaned collectively at our sore muscles.  We decided that the farthest we would travel the next day was the end of the beach - the Kalalau Falls/Valley were out of our reach.  I suppose that's a reason to go back someday.  Except I'll be kayaking that one with a full complement of cooking supplies.

We stationed ourselves on the beach for the morning - camera, books, and removable cast all in tow.  Drew dug a trench, because men just have to dig.  Imagine us on an adjustable bed with the headrest and footrest raised.  Which bodes well for those who lay on their back (Drew) and not for those who lay on their stomach (Brandy).  We read for a while like that and listened as the few others in the campground woke up and meandered down towards the water.  I pondered the fact that I felt like I was in Jurassic Park the way the fins of rock came right down to the beach. About an hour later I happened to be looking out at the water and saw a stream of spray - a whale blowing water!  :)  They were really close to shore, and stayed there for a bit throwing flippers and clearing their blowholes.  Later that day I would see one, way off to the right of the beach, clear the water in a jump and come crashing down in the waves.

After a while of beaching we went back to camp, ate, and then wandered down towards the other end of the beach.  At one point on the narrow trail we came upon a woman (fully clothed) hightailing it in our direction.  We tried to step out of her way, and instead of whizzing by she handed us a cinnamon roll.  Hot cinnamon roll.  She said something to the effect of, "Fresh from the oven - share!  Bye!" and picked up speed again headed towards the beach.  Drew and I sort of looked at each other, briefly contemplated wether to eat it or not, and then dug in.  And it was amazing...and we incurred no side effects.  :)  I can only imagine they had come directly from a little stone oven she'd built at her site to produce homemade baked goods. 

We found out on our way back to the other end of the beach that it had been a pizza extravaganza the night before produced by the same stone oven.  And wouldn't you know, I looked down at the trail and discovered a cherry tomato.  The more I looked, the more I saw.  I guess this is how they were creating their famous barter-worthy pizza sauce.

We stayed up for another beautiful sunset, made a water run in the waning light and ran across a whole herd of wild goats (they were amazing, and so loud, reaffirmed the whole Jurassic Park feeling, and didn't remotely care that we were there), and then made our way back to the tent.  Knowing it would be an early morning, we tried to get what sleep we could to the sound of the surf lapping at our tent (okay, not really, but it sounded like it).

Kalalau Trail Day 1, cont. :)

I was only able to fit the first two miles into my last post.  Whhiiiiich, means I'm wordy.  Sorry about that.  I'll try to wrap up Day 1 on the trail with this post.  :)

We relaxed at the beach on the rocks at Hanakapiai and watched others build cairns and get spooked by the wild cats (they looked like house cats and appeared to be well fed), and slather on sunscreen a few hours too late.  (That's one thing I did well on this trip - apply sunscreen).  After a few minutes and a few short conversations with people about where we were headed and how far it was we packed up and found the next part of the trail back behind a grove of trees.  And headed up.  And up.  And up.  Past a girl coming down in just her bikini, flip flops and a heavy pack.  And still up.  I didn't realize how much "down" we'd just done to get to Hanakapiai Beach until I had to climb it again on the other side of the valley.  That would be the story of our next 9 miles, honestly.  Roller coaster, my butt.  Now I remember why I don't really like roller coasters.  I make it sound like I hated it, and at times I did, but as with all great trails I fell right back in love with it once we were done for the day.  So let's get there...

There was simply a lot of hiking going on.  I can't even lie.  I am normally a 9 miler, and something about double digit day hikes always gets me (Don't worry Jason, I'll be cool with the 10 for Mt. Saint Helen's).  In between the ups and downs, the ocean views and the palm and flowers are the things that will define our hike.  The milestones (funny story for the Day 3 post - I missed almost every single mile post on the way out on the hike, and found almost all of them on the way back on Day 3.  Weird, but I have a theory...) and memories for me are:

Walking Off The Trail 
I literally walked off the trail three times over the next 9 miles.  Keep in mind that this trail was about 18 inches wide in most places, and almost always flanked on one side by a steep downhill tumble.  My right foot just apparently wanted to be placed a little too far right.  I don't even know how it kept happening. I would step left and then step right and do a nice one legged lunge as my right foot just slipped down the incline.  I always recovered well considering I had a pack on my back, but I guess that wasn't the point.  :)

The first time, Drew was right behind me.  I think he almost lost his lunch, and then he sort of yelled (more out of fear than anything else).  I think it was something like, "%$^*&, be careful!  I really don't feel like losing my wife today!"  Or maybe that was after the second time I did it.  The third time, I think he was around the corner already ahead of me and didn't see.  Probably a good thing. 

Hanakoa Valley
Our halfway point in the hike, Hanakoa Valley, was really beautiful.  We didn't get to hike back to the falls that give the valley it's name, but I can just imagine it.  We were having really wonderful weather (April is known to be the end of the rainy season and we were prepared for downpour) so the bugs were elsewhere, the shade was much needed, and I think my eyes got their fill of green to get me through a few Denver winters.

Mile 7
We continued through Hanakoa Valley, though we saw a number of people camping and lounging.  We wanted to end our day all the way out at Kalalau Beach.  We did talk to several hikers who split up the trail each way, and even considered doing so on the way back to the trailhead (depending on how we felt when we woke up the next morning at Kalalau).  A mile later we came to the dreaded Mile 7, where not much stands between you and a long drop to the ocean.  We'd been told that this was "not the place to be clumsy" and I can see why.  A trail sign noted "Hazardous Cliffs" and while it was definitely skinny, I think the most hazardous part was the gravelly trail.  It made it hard to get purchase when the trail tilted down off the side of the cliff.  I will forever thank the weather for giving us sun, though, as it would have been 10x worse in a typical rainy season drizzle/downpour.

Drew started down first, and turned a corner around a boulder.  I heard him talking with a fellow hiker headed the other way and then in a split second I was down on my knees on the trail, hanging on to a tree root growing out of the wall on my right.  Key word here being "on the trail."  I fell on the trail this time, and was hugging a tree root.  Geeze.  I shook my head, refused to look down at my knee since I already knew it was shredded, and picked myself up just in time to greet the oncoming hiker Drew had been talking to.  He took one look at me, smiled, and just said "You're doing awesome."  Maybe I looked like I needed a little confidence heading into the real cliffs a hundred yards ahead.

The Putting Green
At some point on the trail, maybe Mile 8, we were cresting a little uphill and Drew was trying to encourage me (uphill = my kryptonite).  I said something snarky like "I am by no means doing awesome so that "atta-girl" is way off the mark!" when a way-too-cheery hiker bopping along to his radio topped the uphill from the other side.  He definitely heard my remark (I think he was laughing at me) and told us that when we hit the top of the incline we'd see "The Putting Green" in the distance - a little patch of green field right before the drop onto Kalalau Beach.  And when we got to the top, it was right there.  And "right there" was still so far away.  We would chase that view for the next 3 miles before finally getting to the putting green, what we were told later was an ancient Hawaiian ritual ground.  I don't have pictures of the putting green, but Drew's got some GoPro action as soon as I can figure out how to upload it to the blog...