Ryan's Chang: Hanakoa Valley to Kalalau Beach

I'm finally getting down and finishing up videos and photos from SPRING BREAK! If you haven't seen my Japan stuff I just finished all the blogging and videos on it. Look for it on this site.

Hanakoa Valley was a little wet and buggy; staying in a forested area for the night we woke up quite early after a night of talking story, drinking and a camp fire. We slowly packed up and said our farewells to Keahi who was going to spend one more night in Hanakoa and hike back the next day.

We shoved off in set for Kalalau Beach which was another 6-7 miles away from Hanakoa Valley. Our first obstacle a mile into the hike was known as crawlers ledge. We saw two guys coming out of valley literally crawling which spooked all of us and made us think this place was nuts when in reality it wasn't too bad. On the ocean side we saw boats stopped and taking pictures near this area as well. I guess they frequent this area a lot so if anyone falls into the ocean they might be able to save them. After crawlers ledge we finally saw Kalalau beach.

We hit eight mile where we were going to camp the first night, with the stream so close and a super nice view of the ocean the next time we do it that's where I plan to camp. We slowly marched our way to Kalalau hitting a few more streams and some mild uphill sections. We got to the Kalalau sign around 11, took our pictures and made our way down red hill. We hit a really grassy meadow and chilled there for a few minutes. It was a great break spot. Still a mile to go with a 30 lb pack we were pretty beat.

We crossed one last stream and made our way to the camp site. We finally reached Lei, Jason, Sheri, Dave, and Neal around 12. It was time for lunch and time to set up camp and relax! We talked story on how beautiful Hanakoa falls is and shared a few pictures at lunch. I set up my hammock and chilled in it for about an hour.

The group decided to go exploring and not waste afternoon time. Jodi, Jenny, Katie, and I decided to walk down to the beach and go to the cave at the far end of Kalalau beach. On the way there we saw the waterfall where everyone gets their water to cook bathe and drink with. We reached the cave and saw how deep it went. It was a really wet cave. We explored inside and poked around a bit. There were waves about a foot to two feet in size right outside the cave where we tried to look for shells and I shot some gopro pictures.

Before dinner we all showered enjoyed our first sunset from Kalalau beach and got ready to cook our meals. The sun went down fast or what I thought was fast because I was so tired. We drank, ate, talked story, and played some games around a camp fire before we all decided to turn in for the night.