Cory had been planning a trip to Kauai to explore two trails and take us on one he's been to. It was a big trip in the making and required three full days of hiking consecutively. Easter weekend seemed like a good weekend since most of us had Good Friday off.
The crew that Cory put together from Oahu were Katie, Will, Amanda, Garvin, Lynne, and Matt. All of them split a room in Kapaʻa for cheap. Katie and I stayed with her sister Jenny and Christian.
The first hike we did was on Friday. The group from Oahu flew in on the first flight to Kauaʻi. We rented two jeeps since the hikes required 4wd to get to.
By 7:30 we were off on the dirt road. We went across two streams to get to the trailhead with the vehicles. During that time between the streams and trailhead we started having problems. The low tire pressure gauge went off and when we arrived at the trail head we found out we had a flat tire. We quickly changed the tire in the rain and decided to wait to fix the flat.
The trail was really wide open. We were making up some time but we realized that we had missed a turn somewhere fifteen minutes in. Then we spent almost an hour lost in a bamboo jungle. We tried to look for the easiest way through but we were met with dead end after dead end. We decided to push through and see if we could connect with a trail. When we did we finally linked up with the trail we were supposed to be on all this time. We saw it was clear most of the way now and we weren't following pig trails. The trail contoured for a really long time. The uluhe was unrelenting to those that decided to wear shorts. The mud was more worse than the northern KST. Hiking through this section took a toll on the group, especially me. We finally reached a stream (Maheo stream) to rinse off a little, or so I thought.
Matt and I were really tired but I continued to encourage him. I knew that we had to reach a tunnel and we'd take a break there. But when we reached the stream it was so nice that we inadvertently took a short break. We looked back up and the group was gone! We wandered around for a bit but we didn't catch up to them. We hooted and heard nothing but the stream. We decided that the only way was up the stream so we kept going up. We hooted and hollered again. This time we got a hoot back. They weren't that far ahead. We when reached them they continued on. After five minutes more we finally reached the tunnel we were supposed to go through.
I was excited but drained at the same time. I told Matt our next landmark was a dam and that was right after the tunnel, I knew we were both struggling with our hunger now but I thought it wouldn't be that much longer. I promised him we'd take a good break soon. We strapped on our headlamps and found out that the tunnel was way longer than expected.
Katie did a little research after the trip and found out that the tunnel we were going through was over 6,000 ft long. It diverts waters that was used for the sugar companies a long time ago. Now that Kauaʻi doesn't produce sugar as much the tunnel fell into disuse, diverting thousands of gallons of water a day.
We now were in a dark tunnel and at the end of it you could see light. The light looked as small as a pin head. We walked for ten minutes and the light didn't seem like it got any closer, that's how far this tunnel stretched. After 20 minutes of hiking through the dark tunnel we reached the end. This was not where we were supposed to be. We backtracked a few feet and took a right in the tunnel to find out we needed to hike through the tunnel another 10 minutes. The tunnel spit us out in another forested area. It looked the same but from the GPS we were in Hanalei!
We went up and over a hill and down into the Hanalei stream. We finally took a break near the stream. It took us about 3-4 hours to get here. This place was beautiful. It reminded me of Kalalau Valley and the stream that flows through it.
We filtered water and started back on the trail again, this time on the stream bed rock hopping. We reached the dam and usually where most people go through another tunnel. We decided to push on up Hanalei stream to see what we could find. It was already 1:30 and now that we were rock hopping it took a little longer to get where we needed to go. I thought why not just go through the second tunnel and see some kind of waterfall; I suggested it to Cory but he decided to push on.
I was glad I followed. After forty five minutes up stream we were greeted by a big swim hole. A lot of us didn't have dry bags so we dropped our packs and swam across. After the big pool we saw a small waterfall spilling over the left side canyon wall and another big pool with a 15 ft healthy flowing waterfall. The waterfall didn't look climb able so Garvin and Cory led the charge up the right side of the waterfall. With little to no handhold Garvin found a way up. He helped everyone up with a rope he carried. We all made it up safely. The next big obstacle was a fast flowing waterfall flowing through a narrow canyon. The water accelerated through a bowl like feature in the rocks and made it impassible for most people. Cory was ready to call it quits after I tried to swim up and try and get onto the right side where we could climb up. I failed because the water was flowing so fast it pushed me back with a really strong current. Garvin decided to go up on the left side and jump across. (For those of you that are reading this, I highly suggest turning around at this point or even before scaling the waterfall before this. It is highly likely that you could get seriously injured or swept over the waterfall and land on some nasty rocks.).
Garvin made it across with his jump and I second. Everyone else followed suit and we all made it across safely. After that obstacle the hike returned back to rock hopping. At around 2:30 we decided to turn around. Everyone was exhausted and some of us were even cramping but we had to do everything in reverse.
The obstacle Garvin jumped across we had to let the current take us downstream a little. It was nerve wrecking because if you didn't grab onto a rock then the water might send you over a waterfall. I went first and aided in safety by catching everyone flowing down stream. The next obstacle was the waterfall. Lynne safely down climbed with the help of Cory and Garvin but with little hand and foot holds the safest way down was to jump. We all took turns jumping off into the deep blue pond. After that was the long journey back to the car. We made it out just in time before the sun went down.
Katie and I returned back to Jenny's house and the rest of the group went back to the hotel. Some had to get food while the other had to go and swap out the car because of the flat tire. Tomorrow was gonna be another long day.
.jpeg)
We rented two jeeps to get to the trail head. Crossing the stream in the vehicles were pretty fun.
The tunnel was scary if we didn't have our flash lights. It's over 6,000 ft long!
After the tunnel we were near the heart of Hanalei stream. This man made spill way was pretty cool.
We left our packs at the beginning of the pool. Only bagged items and our selves could journey on.
Immediately after we were confronted with another deep pool and healthy flowing waterfall. We needed to figure out a way up the canyon walls safely.
Garvin led the climb up the right side of the pool. The holds were far and few and extremely slippery. I tested out a route closer to the falls.
Lynne carefully hiked near the fast flowing stream.
I helped people across the stream. The stream was flowing really fast here, this wouldn't be a good place to slip and go down stream.
Take a 180 degree turn in the other direction you are faced with this obstacle. You couldn't swim against this force so we found other ways to go past this. Unfortunately we were running out of daylight and we turned around just after this major obstacle.
Hanalei stream from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment