Kapaa, Hawaii
Sunday, September 28, 2008
We were up easily before dawn thanks to the jet lag. We left around 7am and headed counter-clockwise around the island toward the northwest corner where the road terminates at the Na Pali cliffs. From there, the Kalalau Trail winds in and our of the valleys for 11 miles to the Kalalau Valley, which overlooks to the clockwise endpoint of the islands highway. Our plan was to hike as far as we could and still make it back with enough water and daylight. Even leaving at 8am, we were only able to make it to the halfway mark before having to turn around. The trail has almost no flat parts, almost always alternating between uphill and downhill. While there weren't any seriously steep parts, there weren't many gentle slopes either. By the end of the day we were thoroughly worn out and ready to never hike in Kauai again! The trail had some really nice views though, and was fairly free of other hikers. The views in our pictures tell most of the story, but at the turn-around point, we went out on this barren cliff and looked out into one of the final valleys.
By the end of the hike we were starving, so after showering we went down the street to this Asian food restaurant (had dishes from all around east asia). The food wasn't that great and mine was really bland. With all of the hiking, our stomachs couldn't really take this kind of food right away and we had to box up almost all of it for tomorrow. We rounded out tonights meal with just a banana from the next-door grocery store.
