A little bit of everything...

After the waterfall hike in the morning we were running a little behind.  We got back to our cars a little after 11:30 am.  The next hike was going to take 5 hours (to be on the safe side).  On top of that we were at least an hour or hour and a half away from the trail head.  We quickly packed our wet things and headed to a park.  On the way there we ate some sandwiches and made a quick restroom stop.  When we got to the trail head it was almost 1 p.m.

We made our way through some cow pastures and onto a river bed.  After 10 minutes of going the wrong way we turned around.  We rocked hopped up stream and came to a point where we had to get in the water and swim.  I was one of the last to get into the pool because I wanted to film the group going through it.  The next obstacle was the hau tangle.  Some went under, some went through it, but I went above it.  It was pretty cool because it was like a jungle gym.  After the hau tangle the difficulty increased.  We came to a choke point where the water goes through a narrow gully and flows downstream.  The gully made a small waterfall about 10-15 ft high in which you had to climb.  This was the most difficult part of the hike.  You had to climb some really wet rock that was unstable.  The rock was clay like and if you didn't pick your footholds and handholds correctly it might break off.  The group opted to "stem" this route where you use all four limbs with opposing forces against the walls to make your way up.  The straight up the waterfall method might work but you'll have to face a little overhanging ledge with water blasting in your face.  One slip here could be disastrous.  The water here flows over a rocky bottom with nothing to cushion your fall.   Toward the top, there was a chain to aid our final move up the waterfall.  Everyone made it up safely.

The next leg of the hike involved hiking through a dark cave.  We climbed up two waterfalls with some light shining through the entrance of the cave.  After that it was completely dark unless you brought a headlamp (which I did not).  Cory set up a shot of us climbing a 20 ft waterfall in pitch black.  After the waterfall we swam through a few more pools and made our way out of the cave.  We had to squeeze through some grating and took a right to overlook where the water used to flow.  The water was being directed into the cave by a man-made ditch.  The ditch was most likely used to feed the pastures, which we crossed at the beginning of the hike.  If the water didn't flow into the ditch it would feed a giant 80ft waterfall.  After looking over the edge of the cliff, we followed the stream and came to a nice large pool with a 35 ft waterfall.  We stayed there for over an hour and enjoyed the sun while Baron and Cory went to go look for the trail. 

Most people do this hike in and out.  However, Cory knew of a trail that made this hike a loop.  After about an hour, Cory and Baron came back to give us the good news that they had found the trail.  We bushwhacked through some ginger and eventually found a ridge.  We made our way down the ridge via a contour trail.  Some of it was a little sketchy and we had to tromp through tunnels of uluhe.  At the bottom of the ridge we were at the terminus of another popular hike.  There was another waterfall with a big pool to relax at.  Now that the technical part of the hike was done, all we had to do was hike out... I mean swim out!

Right after we passed the waterfall with the pool we came to an even larger pool.  We had no choice but to swim.  This pool was giant!!!!  It is probably the biggest natural pool I've ever seen.  To give you an idea, it's almost as long as an Olympic size pool.  I opted to jump off the rocks and start to swim.  We all had dry bags which made swimming across it a bit easier.  The dry bags had air in them so they floated, which made for great floatation devices!  After the gigantic pool we hit a number of smaller waterfalls.  Most of the group made their way around these waterfalls, but I decided to jump in and swim across.  The group walked through a bamboo forest, crossed a plank bridge and found ourselves a little way down the road from where we parked. 

This was probably the most fun hike we did on the trip.  We got to climb, swim, hike a ridge, and see some waterfalls...all rolled up into one short 5 hour hike.

Some hau you have to navigate through or swim...

The narrow gully.  Matt stemming up the waterfall while Katie watches on. 

Katie trying to figure out where to place her hands and feet.

She tops out soon after

Me goofing off!

The group going cave spelunking!

Us setting up for the shot! 

The shot!  By: Cory Came out good for a pitch black cave!

 After the cave you have to squeeze through this gate!

After emerging from the cave.  The water supposed to be flowing to here but is diverted to the cave and out to the pasture land. 

   

I had a blast doing this hike/swim/climb.  It tested out all of our abilities and the group did well!  Definitely going to come back on this hike soon.  Gopro worked really well... didn't even bring my DSLR because I was afraid it was gonna get soaked!

A little bit of everything from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.