Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Kalalau

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Kalalau

    I hiked the Kalalau trail 3 times. It was great. It was a very hard hike but well worth it, the best hike I have ever done. A couple of weeks before Kalalau 1 I had hiked the Grand Canyon, I got into shape for it and it was pretty easy despite its reputation, but Kalalau was definitely tough. Kalalau 2 was also great. However by Kalalau 3 the authorities had stationed guards at the beach. First morning of Kalalau 3 one of the guards, a well trained Hawaiian, woke us at 6 am to inspect our papers, fortunately we had our permit so they did not destroy our tent. If I had wanted to visit a police state I wouldn't have wasted my time and money going to Kaua'i, obviously I haven't been back. As a camper I never spent a lot of money there anyway, they probably want just high rollers coming in and paving over their island with elegant mini malls, make it just like north Maui and Orange County. Money trumps nature every time.

    We were nude the whole time there the first two trips. So was everyone else. It was great. Its a nice, liberating feeling, to be the way God made you out in the middle of magnificent isolated natural beauty. The stone walls of the Hawaiian village there still stand, it was a community into the 1920's. Surf at Kalalau was very powerful, I saw a large shark swimming thru one wave. One night on a nature call I walked nude out to the beach, blown away by the vast amount of stars overhead cut off in stark black by the pali. The lore of the place is impressive, the hippie colony back in the valley in the '60's and '70's financed by the son of a famous Hollywood personality and the legends of the cones.

    The Kalalau hikes were some of the greatest, most beautiful experiences of my life, I will treasure the memories forever.

  • #2
    Re: Kalalau

    Several excellent hikes take off from Koke'e State Park, which overlooks the Kalalau Valley. The Awapuhi Trail takes you eventually to an overlook of Honopu, it is spectacular. You can also hike the Alakai Swamp trail. But our favorite was one whose official name we unfortunately forget but we call The Ginger Road because you pass huge stands of yellow ginger. You end up at a pond surrounded by yellow ginger, on the edge of a cliff above Waimea Canyon with a view down the canyon out to the Pacific. It is utterly absolutely incredible. A waterfall drops from the edge of the pond into the canyon.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Kalalau

      "Your Pehpas, pleez!" I hope you had some covering when the guard was making his rounds that morning!

      The hikes sound wonderful; I have heard good and bad about Kaua`i hikes. If you don't mind, how would you rate the terrain on a scale from 1-5 for difficulty? Would hikers need to take climbing gear? How extreme are the grades?

      My questions are based on the injuries I see and problems I have heard about from friends, especially with the Na Pali hike. If I look from above with Google Earth/terrain settings, dramatic is an understatement.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Kalalau

        The Kalalau trail goes thru some very muddy terrain but truth is regular tennies worked fine for me, I think hiking shoes or boots would have been added inconvenient weight. I met an old hippie who had lived at the valley commune and he hiked the whole trail barefoot, but of course he had been doing it for decades and was well used to it. He also smoked, which amazed me because the constant up and down and up and down often left me winded. It is a serious trail, you do have to be in good physical shape for it. It remains the most difficult trail I have ever done, a 5 for difficulty but I am no mountain climber. People actually have had very serious injuries on the trail, compound factures, etc, and had to be helicoptered out. Its an 11 mile hike. Some of the trail is straight up, there is one section near the start with some astronomical number of switch backs. No climbing gear is necessary. You need a lightweight tent and a waterproof tarp to put under it, water purification tabs and some food. Some people spend a night at Hanakoa on the way in, we did that on Kalalau 1 but it isn't really necessary. The scenery is utterly fantastic. Its one of the best things I have ever done in my life and I am so glad I did. It is said that in pre contact days part of the initiation of young men was to swim all the way from Ke'e to Kalalau; what incredibly good shape they must have been in for such a swim!

        I don't know if they still have guards at Kalalau, there isn't much good about hard economic times but it does force governments to cut back on extravagances which might hopefully include the Kalalau guards. The guard who rousted us at 6 am was pushy and rude, I think he expected us to not have the camping permits (you get em in Lihue at the state building, I think you can write for them in advance) and yes the authorities do destroy your tent if you do not have proper documents. Your tax money at work, ha ha. As I recall he took no notice of our being nude as we had been sleeping innocently in our tent until he rousted us.

        You can also google-image the trail to get a good idea of what you will be seeing. However people don't seem to have put pics of the switchbacks or mud zones on.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Kalalau

          Do you have any...decent...pics you can post? This sounds beautiful and one thing I've always regretted is the lack of hikes I got to do. (Well, and the inability to travel to any other islands. And having to leave early. And...)

          Can't think of anything creative this time

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Kalalau

            A. Here is a great description of one of the hikes with a few pics and a good list of information re permits and backpack contents.

            B. Lots of postings here, with good information and links. I think this is the same hike as described in A.

            C. Here are a bunch of videos about the hikes.

            D. And last, but not least, here is the Backpacker Magazine take on it.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Kalalau

              I did a partial hike of the Kalalau Trail as part of the film crew for a United Airlines commercial...must've been early to mid 1980s. It was absolutely beautiful and a bear of a hike. IIRC, we hiked one hour in with all the film gear, camera, lights, grip equipment, yada, yada. The big challenge came while hiking back to base camp...at night! All of us wore miner's lights and the plethora of rats scurrying across that trail in the dark and the uneven trail terrain were unnerving at first. It took us 1.5 hours to hike out. One of my top 10 favorite career memories!

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Kalalau

                Originally posted by tutusue View Post
                One of my top 10 favorite career memories!
                I'd love to know what the other 9 are, and I'll bet others here would too. Someone start a new thread about Favorite Career Memories!
                .
                .

                That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Kalalau

                  The recent apparent deaths of the Lindquists near Hana underscores the danger of flash floods. I had met them once long ago and the community is deeply shocked and saddened by their passing.

                  A few years ago friends & I were hiking the Waimoku Falls trail near Hana. I crossed a stream bed about 10 minutes before my friends got to it, but by the time they did it was a raging torrent--water from a flash flood in the hills had filled it, they had to wait over an hour for it to become safe to cross.

                  There are several books about Hawaiian hikes. Two that I wish I had done would be the Mokuaweoweo summit trail on Mauna Loa and the trail from the peak of Haleakala to Kipahulu. There are several interesting and fairly easy hikes at the Volcanos National Park on the Big Island, my favorite being the Kilauea Iki trail. We also loved hiking Waipio Valley and Pololu on the Big Island.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Kalalau

                    hiked in and out three times and kayaked there twice; yup, great, great place.

                    first time i hiked there, i was a complete idiot (i'm now just a partial idiot!); by that i mean, i was packed with stuff to the gills! i felt like i was carrying a kitchen stove on my back! really naive; by hike 3, i had a filtered pump and just drank water from the streams.

                    been a while since i've been there; i hope it's still as beautiful...
                    525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Kalalau

                      I will always love Kalalau.

                      Hiked in twice. Meditated on a promentory halfway out; my love told me that while I did a tropicbird circled around my head. A similar thing happened to me on a ravine off the old Pali road.... Later I was told the same thing happened to Kawai Hewett, FWIW (who also has the heptastar tattoo).

                      I still have a penny from New Zealand left behind by another visitor where we camped.

                      A magical place.

                      K K!
                      Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
                      ~ ~
                      Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
                      Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
                      Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X