The Ritchies, Cooleys(es), and Tonks did a week in Kauai. We spent most of our time in and around the Poipu beach house but ventured out to Lihue, the Wailua Forest, and Waimea Canyon. And Cooley and I put my Blue Hole hike research to the test, since that's the longest part of this post I put it at the bottom.


The Cooleys booked one of the few houses on the beach at Poipu. It wasn't cheap but it was great to be able to bounce between the water, lawn, pool and house.


There were sign-encircled sea turtles and monk seals throughout the week. The water was nice but just cold enough that Dani's teeth would be chattering after twenty minutes in the ocean (Dad's too). After grabbing a spring suit from a local surf shop the little one could spend all day in the water. I brought mine and it was sufficient for both swimming and scuba.

All of the sun and sand and water meant ample downtime in the house's huge common area with comfy couches.


We stocked up at Costco on the way out of Lihue but took full advantage of the ice cream and Puka Dog shop a block from the house. We did a picnic up at the McBryde-Allerton garden and made use of the Kiahuna Club passes that came with the rental.


Gear:

• D850
• D700
• Ikelite D700 housing
• 120mm f/2.8 with Ikelite dome
• 20mm f/2.8 with Ikelite dome
• 50mm f/1.4
• SB-700
• Ikelite DS-51 (in another bag)

I think my D700 is RIP so I didn't get any underwater shots.

Cooley brought his new underwater camera.

The Cooleys and I had intended to do a lot of diving on the trip. It was windy and the waves were choppy the first couple days we were there so the vis was not good on our Day 2 dive from Koloa Landing. The turtles were all taking shelter in the reef, though we did see quite a few of them.

We realized too late that we probably could have done a boat dive on the final full day. Regrets.


On Jon and Tori's recommendation, we did the Kauai Plantation luau. The train ride and animals were a big hit with the kids but at around 6:00p local (8:00p pacific) I took a very tired child home.



The original plan was to drive all the way up to the Na Pali coast and do the Kalalau day hike. Since Cooley and I had already scouted the Wailua rainforest (below), we audibled to the Kuilau Ridge trail... kind of.


We drove out to the Keahua Arboretum and went a little ways down the dirt road where we crossed paths with some kei truck enthusiasts. Then the Cooleys/Tonks did the Arboretum hike and the Ritchies got very muddy on the ridge trail.


Toward the end of the trip, Courtney had a mild cold, Chad and Kati still had a toddler, and Cooley and I were recovering from our adventure so we took the jeeps up Waimea Canyon to do the short, gentle Pihea Trail that looks down on the north shore. We had sandwiches and chips at the Koke'e picnic grounds before descending.


We got a late start so the clouds had rolled in by the time we got to the top. Doesn't matter, it's amazing up there.


It was not awesome that Alaska rescheduled our departure from 10:00a to 3:00p (11:00p arrival). Jes had not asked for Tuesday off. I had to do an Acceptance Test thing. Dani had school. On the plus side, the later flight meant Jes and I could do a sunrise horseback ride from the stables east of Poipu.



The Cooleys had a helicopter trip booked for Thursday but due to wind it was cancelled. I offered to instead take them into the shadow of Kawaikini on jeep and on foot. Only one of them took me up on the offer.

Prep

Fast-forward to lunch.

We packed a normal hiking lunch (bagel/sandwich, trail mix, etc.) and plenty of water. I went with those Vibram toe-shoes since they'd worked pretty well for the Kalalau hike many years ago. I let Cooley know that tabi water socks are the recommended footwear for this journey but he opted to wear his Solomons with boots as a backup (he didn't use them). I had my D850 and on the mobile I had offline maps and a copy of my research.

The drive out

Keahua Arboretum where the pavement ends.

Everyone had rented jeeps for the week so we had a choice between the Wrangler with all-seasons and the Rubicon with all-terrains. Not expecting anything too crazy, we left the Rubicon with Jes and took the Wrangler. Cooley and I hit the road at 6:30a and caught traffic into Lihue but made it to the Arboretum about an hour later.

Just past the arboretum is a fork in the road where the south path takes you off Google Maps and toward the trailhead. I was happy to see that the driving route was pretty unmbiguous when equipped with the directions I had found online.


We crossed some streams and standing water but since it hadn't rained much the water level was low.

Then, disaster.


The loud whistling from outside the driver's side window told us we had caught a puncture. While all terrain tires would have been more robust, this was more a result of one of our four tires being much older than the other three.

Our long hike was going to be a long walk to cell service if not for the fact that the rental had all of the required equipment to change a tire (including the two sets of wheel locks).

Without a spare, we nervously proceeded onward, wary of both our tire situation and the possiblility of getting stuck in the mud. Since the road is constantly subject to rain and runoff, there were a few sections that gave Cooley (a seasoned offroader) cause for concern.


We eventually made it to the Jurassic Park gate (which is just two pillars) and a bit beyond that we parked at a turnoff half a mile from the trailhead. After walking the last bit of road we decided it was driveable but didn't second guess the choice to play it safe - what's an extra mile of hiking anyway? We left the jeep at about 8:00a, buoyed by our lack of additional vehicular troubles.

Trailhead

The first stretch of trail introduced us to pretty much all of the challenges we'd see thereafter:

• A stream crossing with probably the strongest current
• Rock and boulder traversals
• Finding and following a minimal trail that sometimes proceeds invisibly up or across the river

None of this was surprising based on the reading we'd done.

We got gradually better with pathfinding as the hike progressed and I learned to look for small scrapes on rocks as breadcrumbs of prior traversals. Incidentally, I have a new perspective on the yellow paint debate.

The guidance we'd read claimed 6-10 hours to hike sevenish miles. I was hoping our pace would put us on the left side of that time window but after an hour or so Cooley's watch said we'd gone 0.92 miles. I'd like to have presented a GPS track of the hike but apparently when Cooley's watch ran out of batteries his phone deleted the entire hike.

Guardian Falls

After almost three hours we reached Guardian Falls. On another day this would have been an awesome place to swim and turn around, but we had a hole to see. This is also where my rough distance measurement diverged from the actual trail which follows the northernmost river fork before swinging back into the valley.

To the gate

After Guardian Falls the canyons narrowed considerably and the streamside trails became a series of miniature climbs that eventually led to a fence and gate meant to protect the valley from invasive stuff.


Some of the photos above are from the other side of the gate but are nonetheless indicative of that stretch of trail.

The Blue Hole

Approaching the Blue Hole, the green canyon walls were lit brilliantly by sun through thin cloud cover, contrasting the canyon head that opens north and had the appearance of being permanently deprived of sunlight. We traversed a handful of small ridges that each offered a more impressive view of the ominous 2500' canyon wall streaked with thin waterfalls.

The back wall

The back wall sits under and enormous overhang where the waterfalls depart the canyon wall and rain down on everything below. It's neither easy to describe nor photograph.

Lunch and return

We moved away from the canyon wall before having lunch; the boulders at the foot of the cliff reminded me of the rocks that fell throughout the night on Kalalau Beach.

I took a few screenshots of gmaps throughout the hike. I was expecting to have a nice GPS track from Cooley's app and I'd only need these if he fell off a waterfall or something. Note the last frame is the return trip, I was just looking upriver.

The return trip was quicker, though down is more perilous with tired muscles. We got back to the jeep around 3:00p, making it a seven hour adventure.

Couch time

I don't normally have cankles, this is either swelling or phone camera/perspective.

The Vibrams probably gave me +3 agility and resistance to trenchfoot versus Cooley's hiking shoes. But, like the Kalalau hike, I felt the trail in the bottoms of my feet much more. Additionally, my ankles were far less protected from missteps and a particular rock that rolled over my foot when I stepped next to it in the stream. I nostalgically wore the same forever-mudstained boardshorts I took to the north shore, light pants would have been a better choice. The low brush of the Hawaiian rainforest isn't especially prickly but there's no part of the Blue Hole trail where it isn't scraping against your legs.

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