Na Pali coast

(First two photos are dayhiking on the Kalalau Trail with Denise and ? (damn forgot his name), friends from the hostel, the day before hiking out to the Kalalau Valley; third pic is the night before, having some grub and a beer at a nice restaurant in Kapaa)...

I had a great trip camping on the Na Pali coast, which is the section of coast on the western side of Kauai, Hawaii, where there is no road because the cliffs are too steep. I spent about 10 days camping altogether, which included two days of hiking in and two days hiking out. Although it's only an 11 mile hike, it's rated as one of the most difficult hikes in North America, because it goes up and down so many valleys along the way. It's not a walk on the beach by any means. So the first day I hiked in to the unofficial camp at the 8-mile marker, and discovered a guy there who had been camping at that same spot for 4 months. He had hiked the trail I guess around early summer, and decided that the trail needed some maintenance, and the park service was neglecting it (it's a state park), so he decided to just camp there and work on the trail. Every two weeks he hikes out for food and then hikes back in. I was glad he was there because I got there completely exhausted and he already had a fire going. Plus he was a nice guy and good company.

So the next day I hiked the last little bit and then spent the next 5 or 6 days or whatever camped right near the beach, and the waterfall, at the end of the trail, where the cliffs become too steep even for a hiking trail. It was a bit cloudy and rainy the first few days, which leaves you a little bored, since mostly what you want to do there is swim and hang out in the sun. But I was still able to catch a few rays between the clouds, as well as hike up into the valley, where another 2-mile trail extends away from the coast. There's a river running down the valley with great swimming holes, and it's just interesting terrain for hiking through, pretty much full-on rainforest, although there are no large mammals, other than goats, but plenty of birds and bugs. Fortunately though there are basically no mosquitoes out there for some strange reason.

I was able to spend a few extra days out there because I met a backpacker's club, 6 guys from a few places around the country, who had hiked in with way too much stuff for just a few days. They sent up their tents in the same area of the campground I was in, then invited me over to their fire for dinner for the 3 nights they were there, as well as gave me a bunch of lunch snacks. One of them had 3 headlamps, so when he found out that I just had a flashlight he gave me one of his, which was great because I've been meaning to get one for years. But the main thing was that I was able to stay an extra 3 days, because otherwise my food would have run out, and I wouldn't have felt quite ready to leave at that point.

I also met some of the semi-permanent residents who live back there, people who, like the guy at the 8-mile point just set up camps and then head back to town every few weeks to stock up on supplies. You're technically only allowed to stay there for 5 days, but the rangers only check permits a few times a year, when they helicopter in. And although there's a bit of controversy over whether people should be living out there, there doesn't seem to be much negative impact from it, certainly no more than all the people staying in resorts elswehere on the island. And I think any time someone wants to live in the woods it's pretty much a good thing. So I joined some of the valley-dwellers for a few sunsets and some music jam sessions on a bluff overlooking the ocean and the beach.

After a week out there, though, I was ready to get back to civilization and start gearing up for the next part of my trip. I am now staying with a friend near Kapaa, which is the same town where I was previously staying at the hostel. She owns a house here but is in the process of trying to sell it, and so I'm helping around the place in exchange for staying here. I'll probably stay here until next week, when I get on a plane, Oct. 24th, and go to Thailand. I'm definitely looking forward to it. Hawaii has been nice but this is my 4th time here, and besides I'm still in the U.S., so I'm ready for a little more excitement and some new places to check out. I'll be there for 7 weeks, then I'm off to India for 3 months, then back to Thailand for another month, then I'll be flying back to Kauai again next April.