Perfect for tubing

The brunt of the cold front hit us Friday through Saturday giving us scattered showering throughout the weekend.  Ever since Friday I've been watching the stream gauges figuring out what I wanted to do for the weekend.  Waterfalls or tubing?  The heights for North Fork Kaukonahua stream on Sunday were prime for tubing.  The last time I went tubing the height for the stream wasn't ideal for it and made me not want to do it again for a while.  Fast forward to almost a year and I got a real bad itch to finally understand what all the rave was about, tubing down Kaukonahua stream.  Besides the stream heights being at the perfect level the sun came out and made for a not so chilly ride down the stream. 

Joining me were Cory, Amanda, Will, Lynne, and Katie.  We've been holding off on tubing until we had it perfect like Sunday.  We met in Wahiawa and started hiking around 9:45 a.m.  We set up our finish line and made our way to the end of the Wahiawa loop trail where the stream meets the trail.  We blew up our tubes and had our first sips of alcohol to give us some courage to brave the rapids.  After going through a several rapids we'd stop and take pictures.  It gave us a time to enjoy each other company and take more sips.  Near the half way point there was a section of rapids where we could do it over and over so we could get the perfect instagram picture.  Taking several pictures and dancing to music we never knew our other friend Garvin would come around the corner.  We were all happy to see that he could join us.  The last stretch of the stream was quick.  We flew through the rapids and I suggested to do it again but, it was getting late and the stream height was already dropping.

On our way out since this tubing expedition has been so popularized by blogs and videos such as this one we found a BUNCH of rubbish and tubes just lying around on the trail.  My group and I were quite disgusted at the fact that people can't even take out their trash and tubes so we decided to pop a few and deflate them and carry it out ourselves.  I stress to all of you that read my blog and watch my videos that if this kind of stuff continues, we won't have any of these trails open or nature to enjoy because of the disgusting filth people leave behind.  If you see rubbish anywhere try and pack it out, even if it's not yours.  I'd very much appreciate it.  After picking up we headed to Dong Yang Inn to get our Korean grind on.

On a happier note enjoy the pictures and video! 

All pictures were taken by Katie unless otherwise stated. 

Katie and I picked up a few extra back up tubes.  You never know if your main tube will pop going down stream. 

Most of us had loungers while Lynne had a little more expensive floating device.  Lounger can be bought at Walmart for under $20, beers not included. 

Most of the time you are relaxing and floating down river. 

The group relaxing and taking a break after the rapids. 

Cory took this excellent picture of me going through some of the rapids. 

Dong Yang Inn kalbi meat chun combination plate.  Grinds after tubing. 

 



Tubing Kaukonahua from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.