Raw Hawaiian Power

On Sunday we woke up really early to meet our friends Baron, Cory, and Laura.  Cory suggested, when Katie and I were planning this trip, that they would be able to fly up one day to do two hikes with us not in any guide book.  Through internet research, looking at topographic maps, and some word of mouth he figured out two fairly good hikes for the day. 

At 5:30 am I started to cook breakfast.  We had some sausage eggs and toast and the night before some spaghetti to get some energy into our bodies before these two hikes.  We left the house around 6:30 am to meet them at 8 am.  (If you don't know Hana, know that it takes you a while to get to somewhere you want to be because of all the turns and one lane roads.)  Luckily that morning there wasn't too many cars on the road and we ended up waiting for them for a good 45 minutes.  We explored the area a little and tried to find the trail head but it was hard to tell where the trail would start.  We were looking for a waterfall that doesn't flow in the upper regions of the mountain, it only flows near the ocean.  Around 8:15 am Cory's group pulls up and we headed to the trail head together in the cars.

I put on my tabis and crampons and loaded my dry bag with only a camera and one Nalgene bottle.  I carried my tripod on my back and started off on the trail.  After 30 mins of walking through a jungle with muddy feet we made our way down into a stream bed.  When we hit the stream bed Cory pointed out how clear the water is and how many native fish there was in the stream.  It was pretty cool to see the water so clear and the stream so healthy.  In my time hiking in Hawaii I've never seen a stream so clear and teeming with native fish. 

After about an hour of rock hopping up this stream we came around a bend and that's when I saw it.  The waterfall was blasting!  From a distance there was some mist hitting me.  I stood up on a rock and took pictures from afar with the group heading towards this monstrous waterfall.  It was pretty damn amazing.  I got off the rock and quickly made my way to the base of the waterfall with Gopro in hand.  I got to the base and saw that the pool was giant and had lots of waves from the power of the water falling off the cliff.  Another thing I noticed was that the water was blue!  You NEVER see a waterfall this strong and powerful with the pool being blue.  Usually the waterfalls are murky and brown with lots of sediment.  The falls was about 200 ft tall and POWERFUL.  We hung out at the base for a good 30 mins.  I snapped a few shots with DSLR, this by far is/was the hardest waterfall to photograph up close with the exception of Ko'olaupoko Chutes.  The power of the waterfall in the gulch combined with the wind made shooting a long exposure futile with drops of water always falling on the lens.  Cory and Baron brought some inner tubes to float around at a secondary pool. 

On our way out near the ocean we explored the coast line a little.  The coast had black rocks instead of sand.  We looked in a cave and the cave didn't go too far back.  After the coastline we went back to the cars and had to jet to our next hike. 

The waterfall a little downstream looks small.


The power of this waterfall can't be captured by camera, seeing it in person is totally different.


Giving you some perspective on how big this waterfall is. 

The stream above it is dry.  You'd never think there was a waterfall like this. 



It was hard to shoot.  Water drops all over the lens, this was the first picture in the set of pictures I took. 


If you stand a little further back it's a little more manageable.  There are still drops on the lens though. 



Photo by Cory



The cave we decided to check out near the coast line after the hike. 

Raw Hawaiian Power from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.

Good finds and exercising the camera

This weekend was filled with work and lots of play.  Friday night I had to work a pool party with my kids at the Y.  But Saturday I had no plans to do anything until the night before.  Katie and I decided to try and find some waterfalls out in Kahalu'u.  When we got there we just saw a few trickles so we decided on a back up plan.

Not too far away we decided to hike in Waihe'e Valley and find two waterfalls.  It was her first time there so she was quite excited.  The weekend before I did the "Harlem Shake" youtube video there and it brought the most views to my Youtube channel ever in a weeks time.  We went to both falls and did a little exploring.  We climbed up three or four tiers at the second waterfall.  What was interesting was that after the third tier of the waterfall there wasn't as much water flowing above as below.  Meaning that there had to be a source of water coming from somewhere below or near where we were.  We looked around and found a few fresh water springs!  The water was coming straight from the rock filtered through the Earth.  Katie decided to look a little more and come back down... I asked "Any water up there?"  She replied, "Just a trickle."  So unlike most waterfalls where water comes straight from the top of the Ko'olau's and down and creates waterfalls this waterfall is spring fed!
That was the end of our adventure on Saturday, she had to be somewhere so I decided to check out the beach.  That day my kids and some of the advisors that work with me hit up the beach.  I met up with them at Waimanalo Bay otherwise known as Sherwoods.  I bodyboarded and enjoyed the waves for a few hours and called it a day.

Sunday I planned to hike with Josh, Baron, and a new person Janice.  We went exploring for some waterfalls.  What's amazing is that it's somewhere you would not expect... I'm not gonna delve into too much detail because it's probably one of the less frequented trails.  We were greeted by the bluest fresh water I had ever seen in pools on Oahu!  The hike took a little longer because we used the natural beauty of the area to TRY and capture it on our cameras.  If you know anything about shooting photos it's extremely difficult to shoot under a canopy because of the harsh contrast of sunlight and shade.  I did my best to capture our adventure on my Gopro and Canon camera.  If you ever do find this place please keep it the way it was found, it's really a true gem hidden on Oahu. 

Please enjoy the pics!

 It really difficult shooting under a canopy, the harsh contrast of the sun light coming in makes it difficult.  In the foreground there is a mini cascade and if you look close enough there is another small cascade in the back. 

 Josh and Janice shooting a small cascade and a really blue pool.  

 One of my favorite pics is this "Floating rock" picture.  

 Water flowing over the stream bed.

 The whole time it was pretty surreal because of this streams location.  

 There were a few flumes along the hike with water flowing through them.

 This picture was taken on top of the "Floating Rock" picture.  Check out the ants on the leaf!

 The tallest waterfall along our hike spilling into a blue pool.

 It was hard shooting what I wanted to capture because of the light along the way BUT the sun also gave us rainbows if you were in the right spot!  

 Here is Baron chillin in one of the final blue pools.  

Last shot is the low perspective shot of this tree. 

All of my shots were taken with my Canon T2i and kit lens.  A little editing of the photos were done but nothing drastic was changed with the photo.  

Shot on the Gopro Hero 3.  Sherwoods was a fun 2 ft windy sandbar. 

This video is from the Saturday hike above the waterfalls... looking where our water comes from!

Blue Water Gulch from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.