Week 2
[a little vocab.
Haole - white kid.
Kalalau Trail- 11 mile hike on the northern coast of Kauai, also known as the Na Pali Coast. When I say "2 mile" or "6 mile" I'm referring to how far I'm in the hike]
After a good day's rest at the hostel, I left for Lihue to get a camping permit for the Kalalau Valley. After getting the permit I ate plenty of junk food, bought 10 cans of beans, and bussed to the North shore where I was left to hitchhike another 7 miles. This road is prolly the easiest place in the world to hitch hike. I got picked up by this crazy old dude who was playing the beach boys, and he threw the shaka after every sentence that was spoken. He drops me off and his crazy old friend strikes up a conversation with us. This two toothed, white frizz-haired hippy was so fried by the sun that folds of his skin hung from his body. I told him I was going to Kalalau, and he wide-eyed replied, "Stay for a month!" I was just like hmmm, byby now. That day I make it out to the 2 mile point, meet some campers and find a dude to stagger the trail with.
Next day, me and that dude start at 7:00 a.m., not as early as I wanted, but I was pretty tired. We went our own pace, and I make it to the 10 mile point first, sit down on a rock next to the river, wave to some big fat dude sitting across the river. And I am staring straight at him, but it must have been a good minute before I realize that he was completely naked. Yeah, Kalalau is full of hippies who live in the valley, and clothing is completely optional.
We make the next mile, and set up camp. My buddy seemed to have some kind of method for picking out campsites. He was looking at a bunch of different places. I didn't really understand it. I threw my stuff down at the first clearing, and pitched my tent. Walked out to the beach, and to my surprise, I came across Aaron, a friend of mine from Maui. I felt popular. Aaron filled me in on some things to do in the valley, and he always used the word "cats" to describe people, like he was from the 20's or something.
I was deadly exhausted, but after 9 miles and about 4000 feet in elevation changes, I wasn't quite yet done. So I walk to where the beach ends and there's a huge 1000 foot cliff coming straight out of the ocean that is blocking further passage. However, peering around the corner of the cliff, there's a 100 yard swim to another beach. At this point I have to decide how safe it is. The waves are crashing onto the corner of the cliff, so I decide to swim out just a little bit, and then swim back in. Now, I'm not afraid of the ocean, but that might be from ignorance, because I've heard that Hawaii's currents can be really strong, and I'm swimming in a place that gets 30-40 foot waves pounding the shore during the winter. That said, it was an easy swim, but it was quite scary to only be 20 feet away from the cliffs, and see nothing but deep blue depths of the ocean. After that I walked along the beach, and under this massive 100 foot archway in the mountains. After that, I was in my own secluded beach with 1000 foot inward cliffs on all three sides. I jumped in the ocean and just floated, letting the waves bounce me up and down, back and forth, all the while staring up at the cliffs on all sides.
I made it back and that night my ankle was killing me. I wondered how long it had been neglected because it didn't hurt until I finally stopped and relaxed for a bit. I had 4 small cuts on my feet that made walking really painful, especially in sand. I really didn't want to get an infection 11 miles from civilization, so I pulled out the water purifying tablets (Iodine), and I rubbed them on all my cuts. How do you like that, Survivor Man! Actually Survivor Man would live like a king in the Kalalau valley. The whole episode would be about how to enslave hippies and make a castle out of bamboo.
Well, I wish I could have stayed forever, but I didn't want to stretch my food situation. I hike out to big pools, and there were these huge moss covered stone walls that must have been placed there by the original Hawaiians. I was pretty sure a hobbit was going to jump out at any time. I make it out to big pools, which was a nice site to go for a bath. At one point I'm standing completely still, enjoying the serenity, and all of a sudden, BAM, my feet slip straight out from underneath me and the side of my hip slams straight into the rocks. Ohhh, the pain.
That day I made it back to 6 mile, which has a campsite at the halfway point. I make a half mile out to a 1000 foot waterfall surrounded by cliffs on all sides. When I get back, I come across a couple haole hawaiian kids, a dude and his girlfriend. I found this kid to be a little odd. He kept asking me stuff like if I know Kung Fu. Real nice though. He literally offered me every single piece of food that he brought with him, but my donuts would suffice. He reminded me of Heidi.
Running out of time, I camp out for one more night. The next day, I do another 2 mile side hike to another waterfall. Get back to the trailhead. Back to civilization. Change into my last set of clean clothes, and stick my thumb out. I don't even care if I never get picked up, but I'm not moving another foot today. Total I had done over 2 miles of elevation changes and 30 miles of hiking - 10 miles of them done that day. Luckily it wasn't 5 minutes until I get picked up by a family of three. The mom had done some hitchhiking in her youth and was glad to pay it forward. I made it back to the hostel, and had some good and interesting times there, but that will be continued on my next post.
Here's my first view of Kalalau Beach. A beautiful site to see after 8 miles of walking.
A closer view of the beach. I don't know if you can see it with this resolution, but there is waterfall that flows onto the beach.
A waterfall I went to.
And another one.
Me after 30 miles. You can see my tooth is falling out, and I had to put the towel under my backpack straps because the rubbing had caused some nasty breakouts.
[a little vocab.
Haole - white kid.
Kalalau Trail- 11 mile hike on the northern coast of Kauai, also known as the Na Pali Coast. When I say "2 mile" or "6 mile" I'm referring to how far I'm in the hike]
After a good day's rest at the hostel, I left for Lihue to get a camping permit for the Kalalau Valley. After getting the permit I ate plenty of junk food, bought 10 cans of beans, and bussed to the North shore where I was left to hitchhike another 7 miles. This road is prolly the easiest place in the world to hitch hike. I got picked up by this crazy old dude who was playing the beach boys, and he threw the shaka after every sentence that was spoken. He drops me off and his crazy old friend strikes up a conversation with us. This two toothed, white frizz-haired hippy was so fried by the sun that folds of his skin hung from his body. I told him I was going to Kalalau, and he wide-eyed replied, "Stay for a month!" I was just like hmmm, byby now. That day I make it out to the 2 mile point, meet some campers and find a dude to stagger the trail with.
Next day, me and that dude start at 7:00 a.m., not as early as I wanted, but I was pretty tired. We went our own pace, and I make it to the 10 mile point first, sit down on a rock next to the river, wave to some big fat dude sitting across the river. And I am staring straight at him, but it must have been a good minute before I realize that he was completely naked. Yeah, Kalalau is full of hippies who live in the valley, and clothing is completely optional.
We make the next mile, and set up camp. My buddy seemed to have some kind of method for picking out campsites. He was looking at a bunch of different places. I didn't really understand it. I threw my stuff down at the first clearing, and pitched my tent. Walked out to the beach, and to my surprise, I came across Aaron, a friend of mine from Maui. I felt popular. Aaron filled me in on some things to do in the valley, and he always used the word "cats" to describe people, like he was from the 20's or something.
I was deadly exhausted, but after 9 miles and about 4000 feet in elevation changes, I wasn't quite yet done. So I walk to where the beach ends and there's a huge 1000 foot cliff coming straight out of the ocean that is blocking further passage. However, peering around the corner of the cliff, there's a 100 yard swim to another beach. At this point I have to decide how safe it is. The waves are crashing onto the corner of the cliff, so I decide to swim out just a little bit, and then swim back in. Now, I'm not afraid of the ocean, but that might be from ignorance, because I've heard that Hawaii's currents can be really strong, and I'm swimming in a place that gets 30-40 foot waves pounding the shore during the winter. That said, it was an easy swim, but it was quite scary to only be 20 feet away from the cliffs, and see nothing but deep blue depths of the ocean. After that I walked along the beach, and under this massive 100 foot archway in the mountains. After that, I was in my own secluded beach with 1000 foot inward cliffs on all three sides. I jumped in the ocean and just floated, letting the waves bounce me up and down, back and forth, all the while staring up at the cliffs on all sides.
I made it back and that night my ankle was killing me. I wondered how long it had been neglected because it didn't hurt until I finally stopped and relaxed for a bit. I had 4 small cuts on my feet that made walking really painful, especially in sand. I really didn't want to get an infection 11 miles from civilization, so I pulled out the water purifying tablets (Iodine), and I rubbed them on all my cuts. How do you like that, Survivor Man! Actually Survivor Man would live like a king in the Kalalau valley. The whole episode would be about how to enslave hippies and make a castle out of bamboo.
Well, I wish I could have stayed forever, but I didn't want to stretch my food situation. I hike out to big pools, and there were these huge moss covered stone walls that must have been placed there by the original Hawaiians. I was pretty sure a hobbit was going to jump out at any time. I make it out to big pools, which was a nice site to go for a bath. At one point I'm standing completely still, enjoying the serenity, and all of a sudden, BAM, my feet slip straight out from underneath me and the side of my hip slams straight into the rocks. Ohhh, the pain.
That day I made it back to 6 mile, which has a campsite at the halfway point. I make a half mile out to a 1000 foot waterfall surrounded by cliffs on all sides. When I get back, I come across a couple haole hawaiian kids, a dude and his girlfriend. I found this kid to be a little odd. He kept asking me stuff like if I know Kung Fu. Real nice though. He literally offered me every single piece of food that he brought with him, but my donuts would suffice. He reminded me of Heidi.
Running out of time, I camp out for one more night. The next day, I do another 2 mile side hike to another waterfall. Get back to the trailhead. Back to civilization. Change into my last set of clean clothes, and stick my thumb out. I don't even care if I never get picked up, but I'm not moving another foot today. Total I had done over 2 miles of elevation changes and 30 miles of hiking - 10 miles of them done that day. Luckily it wasn't 5 minutes until I get picked up by a family of three. The mom had done some hitchhiking in her youth and was glad to pay it forward. I made it back to the hostel, and had some good and interesting times there, but that will be continued on my next post.
Here's my first view of Kalalau Beach. A beautiful site to see after 8 miles of walking.
A closer view of the beach. I don't know if you can see it with this resolution, but there is waterfall that flows onto the beach.
A waterfall I went to.
And another one.
Me after 30 miles. You can see my tooth is falling out, and I had to put the towel under my backpack straps because the rubbing had caused some nasty breakouts.
posted by robbo at 10:18 PM
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