Hanalei-Okolehao Route

Richard and I hiked up the fairly steep Hanalei-Okolehau Route. Just after the first one-lane bridge an the highway past Princeville, a sharp left put us on a narry road next to a river (flat and gentle here). Parking is limited, but the hiking book and our experience is that it never fills up.

There were plenty of Richard's favorite guavas along this trail.

Also, good views of Hanalei.

Canyon Trail Adventure

I went by myself today for a nice loop combining the Canyon and Black Pipe trails, the Kumuwela road and trail, and the Halemanu-Kokee trail. Once again I had the bad set of camera batteries, although this time I was able to diagnose the problem so that it won't happen any more.

There were various other groups of hikers up to and at the Waipoo Falls. After that, though, I saw hardly anyone.

The first part of the trail goes out onto various ridges overlooking the canyon. I do not know what process formed these natural arches.

The "Kaipo Perch" has a nice butt-shaped indentation for anyone who wants sit and watch the canyon.

'Round about here is where I met a couple of German tourists who asked me to snap their picture in front of the canyon. They also offered to take my picture, but that's when my batteries went south. They took my picture with their camera and offered to send it to me when they got home, so I'll put it up here if/when that happens.

They also wanted to know how far it was to the Kokee Museum. Gee, uh, does this trail even go to the Kokee Museum? They weren't sure, but apparently someone had told them to "just follow the trail" to get there. I showed them the map in my hiking book with the dense interwoven trails, and invited them to hike with me and I'd at least get them back to civilization. And thus Sebastien and Rebekka became my hiking partners for the rest of the day.

From around this point the trail veered in away from the canyon edge, so the best views were mainly of flowers from that point on. We had a nice conversation comparing the hiking in Hawaii, California, and the Alps; discussing the current economy and our respective countries' recovery efforts; and various other small talk.

When we got to a multiway intersection near the Halemanu-Kokee Trail, I looked deeper in my hiking book and found the proper route for them to take to the Kokee Museum. However, they decided that they'd had enough, so we headed back to my car, and I gave them a ride back to their car.

Moalepe Trail

Richard and I finally went on the gentler trail that we'd intended two days ago, and I finally got my calves properly stretched out without overworking them.

The Moalepe Trail starts as a fire road/ranch road, although the ranchland to either side seems to be mostly abandoned. Certainly it's very lush and rugged, so rounding up the animals can't be easy.

The views are limited until you get to the picnic area. From there you can see the main Kauai mountain range, depending on the cloud level.

The clouds were playing hide and seek. Different cloud layers made it look like the clouds were tearing apart.

Since we'd seen so many different flowers on the way in, I figured I'd photograph as many as I could on the way back. Unfortunately, my macro photography skills are not that great, especially when it comes to getting the right focus.

This trail had a few more people on it than the others we'd been on, but they were still pretty sparse.

Iliau Nature Loop

Today Richard and I roped my mom to come with us to the Iliau Nature Loop at the head of the Kukui Trail. The nature loop has signs giving the names and a paragraph of information about various native plants in the area. Unfortunately, my memory for plant names is very bad.

Also, the views over the canyon are spectacular.

It was starting to spit rain, so I hurried back to the car and got our picnic supplies, and we set ourselves up for lunch in the sheltered picnic area.

The rain was sporadic, but occasionally quite hard. After finishing our lunch, we found ourselves having to wait patiently for the rain to stop. During a lull when it had calmed to an occasional spit, we decided to make a dash back to the car. Our timing was perfect, as rain fell in torrents as soon as we got inside.

We stopped in Hanapepe for Lappart's ice cream. For Halloween they had Pumpkin Crunch flavor, where the Crunch seemed to be a mix of pie crust and pecans. It was strangely good.

Alii Vista Hale, Nonou Mountain

Yesterday I played a few games of beach volleyball with the locals who come out on Saturday. 'Twas fun, but after a plane ride and a steep hike the day before, beach volleyball was an excellent way to make my calves hurt even more. I looked forward to a gentler hike to stretch them out again. As it turns out, I mixed up my intended route with this one, so today's hike was steeper than I intended. But it was still good.

Richard and I have hiked this trail before, so it was familiar terrain. It starts next to a horse pasture, then crosses a wooden bridge. It's been repaired now, but the last time we were here it was fascinatingly bowed by the weight of trees and other plant material that had washed against it in a recent flood.

Across the bridge, the trail climbs gently along the side of the ridge and behind the rather large yards of the richer locals.

At an intersection, the trail turns steeply uphill through a stand of Norfolk Pine (supposedly planted by Captain Cook for future use as masts) and up to a pair of picnic tables under a shelter.

Today I had a bad set of batteries in my camera, so there are no more photos.

Kukui Trail to Waimea River

My plane to Hawaii got in early, and my parents' plane was getting in late, so I had time to go for a hike. It's an hour's drive from Lihue to the Kukui Trail (the first good spot to hike into the canyon). Richard and I have hiked here before, but I wanted to go all the way down to the river.

Downhill was easy, although in retrospect, five hours on a plane followed by an hour of steep downhill was probably not the best idea for my calves.

I saw only one couple heading uphill as I was heading downhill. Other than that it was very quiet, even heading through the campground near the river.

It clearly hadn't rained much recently. Although I've never been to the canyon bottom before, I assume that the river flow is usually higher than this.

Some relative of the mangrove was making itself home on the cliffside via an unusual hovering arrangement.

Near the river, the forest is pretty thick, and the trail is indistinct. I had to keep my eye open for blazes (generally a clear strip of plastic [or perhaps a baggie] tied around a branch). At one point I startled a pair of goats, one tan and one black. It was difficult to get a good photo through the forest.

About halfway up, you leave the forest and start up a red-dirt ridge with sparse trees. Here, the views were made more varied by the spotty clouds.

Closer to the top, the trail falls off the top of the ridge and switchbacks up the side instead, thus generally hiding the views. At the very top is a nature loop that I figured my parents would enjoy doing later.

The hiking book says 2.5 miles to the river, with 2500 feet of elevation change. That's pretty steep. I went down in only an hour, then took about 2.5 hours to come back up.

Mission Peak 2011

Jamshid and Chuck and I climbed Mission Peak via the main route, and it was good. We saw people, cows, crows, turkey vultures, paragliders, a hang glider, and an RC glider. The gliders seemed to come out later in the afternoon when it was warmer. (More updrafts, I guess.)

Sierra Azul 2011

Jamshid and I practiced our hill climbing by hiking on the Kennedy Trail in Sierra Azul. It's a basic fire road, but it goes up and up and up. It was a bit hazy, but we could see Shoreline and Moffett Field to the north.

Black Mountain 2011

Chuck and I hiked up the Black Mountain Trail from the Rhus Ridge Road entrance to Rancho San Antonio. From the peak (among the menhirs) we could see Skyline Road and Page Mill Road at Montebello OSP.