On Friday, April 26, my wife Patricia
and I (and of course the kids) took an
island hopper from Honolulu with our
friend Eric Wong and his student Guo Jia
(Tim) to Kauai. The he sight of us
checking into an airport is amusing. We
had four huge bags to check (two large
Samsonite bags and two large duffel
bags), four rather large carry-on bags,
and two child car seats - two mountains
of luggage and two kids in a double
stroller. The flight and the minivan
pickup was incredibly easy. We quickly
drove up to Princeville, dropped off our
stuff at the condo, and made a quick
drive to Hanalei to pick up some
supplies for the trail: water, sesame
squares from Papaya grocery
(indispensable on this trip!), and a few
things for dinner and breakfast, and had
dinner back at the condo. I was starting
to really feel worse from the cold I had
just caught that day. Lucas was not
feeling well that evening - so Patricia
and I had not much sleep. Nevertheless,
at 5 AM the next morning, I was ready to
go!
This was going to be my 8th
overall hike of Kalalau trail all the
way to Kalalau beach:
1) 1998
April- with Ted DeYoe [camped 2 nights],
2) 2003-4 Dec Jan with Paticia [camped 5
nights],
3) 2005 January - with
Patricia [camped 7 nights],
4) 2006
April- with Patricia [camped 5 nights],
5 & 6) 2006 Oct - in and out in one day
by myself x 2,
6) 2008 March - in and
out in one day by myself,
7) and now
2009 April - in and out in one day with
Eric and Tim.
I guess I'm a
veteran now. I feel I know the trail
well at least. Most of the time, I've
been lucky with the weather. Other times
- notably with Patricia on our first
trip in, hiking in a monsoon - not as
lucky! This day, Eric, Tim, and I are
lucky. It's perhaps the best weather
I've ever experienced for the hike -
about 75, sunny, and a good trade wind
breeze. Perfect.
We
stated at about 6:30 AM. Patricia stayed
back with the kids. The sun rose just
after 6 and was setting at about 7 PM.
This is critical information as it
gauges how fast we need to hike. We
mostly took our time, taking pictures.
The first person we met on the trail was
a guy called Bill Summers. I met him on
my last hike. He is basically taking
it
upon himself to repair the entire 11
mile trail by himself. The Kauai
government is not helping and at times
is a bit obstructive to his efforts
since he is technically breaking the law
by doing this himself. He's an
ex-military person who is spending his
entire life savings to do this. It was a
great to see him again. He seemed very
happy as well. He has a camp near mile 7
of the trail.
The
next person we met
was....amazingly...Ted DeYoe! Ted is a
vision scientist from the Medical
College of Wisconsin to also does
functional MRI. We've worked together
when fMRI began in 1992. This is amazing
since Ted was the person I went with
when I first did this trail in 1998! He
has not done it since, so he must have
been more stunned that I was! Here's a
picture. Ted was with his wife and
travelling slowly. They arrived the
evening before and hiked in the dark. We
parted and met up with them again on our
way back.
The hike was one spectacular view
after the other. It's very difficult to
convey the feeling that one gets being
so isolated in such a stunningly
beautiful, natural, and comfortable
setting. One can imagine how the first
people on this island felt. At six
hours, we arrived at Kalalau. Just
before our arrival, we stopped at an
amazing lookout point. Blue ocean on one
side, amazing cliffs and beaches on each
side, and 4000 foot "pali" or cliffs
behind us. Here these four pictures
attempt to convey the scene as you look
from your left to right - facing the
ocean:
You can see Kalalau beach in the picture
on the left. It's about a 1.5 mile hike
from this point. Looking straight out,
there is no major land mass until Japan.
This is particularly dramatic when the
waves are large. You can see the sets
lining up and crashing into the rock
below. Today was pretty calm. Below is a
composite panorama of the scene.
Once
at the beach, we were lucky again.
During the year, the beach expands and
contracts, allowing exploration of the
caves at the far end - or not. This
time, we were able to walk over there.
Here's a picture.
Lastly, we had
to actually dip our feet in the ocean on
the huge pristine, Kalalau beach. Here's
a picture of us coming back from that.
After the beach, I took a quick shower
in the falls (with clothes on)...here's
a link to a video showing that...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hps71YsLV9o
The trail has some spots that require
one to focus more intensely on their
footfall. They are not really hazardous
in that they don't require any extra
skill than simply walking in a straight
line along a two foot wide path. If one
is not able to do this, the fall looks
pretty bad. I'm sure people have fallen,
but I think it's less common than one
would think.
Here are a few
pictures of these spots, along with one
of me crossing a stream - which is
potentially more hazardous than the
cliffs.
On our hike back, we took our
time until we realized that we would be
hiking in the dark for an hour if we
kept our pace. From about mile 17
onward, we almost ran back - a very good
workout! We managed to get back just
before sunset - after hiking almost 12.5
hours. Here is a picture on Ke'e beach
at the end and, later an "after" picture
by the sign again. I was very impressed
with Tim since he does not usually do
endurance activities. His relative youth
helped a bit I'm sure!
Finally, below is a google earth
overview of our hike. Each star stands
for each hour as marked on our gps. K1 =
hour 1, and so on. Overall, it took us
all a few days to recover, but the one
day in and out is very do-able and not
that hard if one is prepared. We didn't
carry more than 64 ounces of water since
at several streams we stopped to filter
the water. This kept the weight down.
Other essentials: poles (reall help the
knees and to distribute the weight on
the rough spots). Electrolyte mix (I use
Cytomax in one 32 oz bottle and
Accelerade in the other), first aid kit,
water filter (and iodine tablets).
On the second half of the trail,
the shoes which I used for every hike
but the first finally gave out. The glue
holding the sole onto the shoe
apparently dissolved. I fixed these with
duct tape at about mile 18, which also
gave out by the end of the trail. I
decided that it is time to finally
retire these shoes! Here's a suitable
final picture from this blog!
