…you could not imagine, i was woke up by the first cars arriving here. I thought that tourist will came after they had their breakfast in the Hotels or where ever they stay. No, a handful of them was there at 6am and tried to get the sunrise above the canyon. It was still really cold and the wind made it worse. Tourists with short trousers and shirts, freezing, with camera on statives tried to shoot pictures of the canyon with the upcoming morning sun. I got back to the car because i checked the time for sunrise and i choose to wait this 20 minutes in the car. This day started also really cloudy but the sun was rising under it and it looked nice, even with iPhone i got some nice pictures.
Okay, time for breakfast, so i got back to the Lodge and waited for 9am till they open. Okay,at 9-ish the doors open and i got a big breakfast with good coffee, a good start in the day (and found power plugs to charge my MacBook, because i already was in 1,5 weeks backlog). It was still cloudy but no tourists, so maybe get to the both lookouts at the top before it gets too crowed. Again i got disappointed by the clouds and i thought that i might have to wait a few hours till the hight of the clouds may change by the rising sun. The best way to do this was go hiking on a lower level and i choose the Awa Awapuhi trail who leads 3,5 miles down to the sea, next to the Napali Valley.
I was surprised by this trail, because it was the first one who mets my requirements for an trail. Every quarter mile there was an marker how far your already hiked. More closer i reached the end of the trail more better the weather got. The end of trail welcomed me with sun and an awesome view to the coast. A couple reached just after me the trail, and we had a nice talk. A group with an local guide arrived and he told me that it’s a bit scared to walk further more, behind the edge, but it is worth to do. So i did. Wow, that was really scared but satisfying at the same time. On the way back i was rewarded again by sun and almost no clouds for good pictures and views of that nature here.
Driven by this emotions and the fact that i have still some time today for another hike, i drove up to the end of the road with the Pu’u o Kila Lookout with famous Pihea Trail which my sister already hiked and wrote a blog about it. NOW, i really understood what she was writing about! You cannot imagine yourself how this track looked, so i took some pictures. Sadly you cannot get the ascent of this muddy walls, but they where really difficult to get up. I’m not so good in describing and writing things like she is, but i can tell you, this was the most adventures hike i ever did. At one part i was so lucky not to fell into a deep mud puddle, where i made a picture few seconds before 🙂 The top was also like an meeting point to chat with the other new arrivals about the trail and myself was welcomed there with an handful Oreos. Yummy!
On the way back, down to the car, i followed the fence where the trail was going down, but then recognised that i’m now hiking on wooden panels which made me wondering. Damn! I missed the junction and was already hiking on the Swamp Trail which was on my list for the next days, but i wasn’t alone two other people where also miss leaded and had to hike about 5 minutes back. Okay, i have to think loud again: “Why are people hiking so dangerous trails with slippers/flip flops/barefood !?!?”. Never mind!
Back at the car i had to made a picture of my feeds, because they was covered by so much dirt that it looked funny. At all, only my feet where a bit muddy, compared to other hikers who came back with half of their clothes covered by mud. The road down to the sea is very curvy and steep, a pleasure for people who can drive a car. Most of the tourists seemed to have a problem to drive a 10 mile road down. The smell of overheating breaks was always in front of me. The only good think was, that they always drove to the side and let me pass. It was real fun to drive this road up and down. Worst sighting was a pickup with almost burning and smoking breaks driving down.
Perfect timing as i reached the beach with an beer, sandwich and Reese’s for desert when the sun came down. Leaning my spin to the heated stones, enjoying the ice cold beer and dinner let me thought again. Why spending $300 for a sunset dinner at the beach when you can have this for less then $10. After enjoying the best sunset since i started traveling around i tried to find a new sleeping place for this night, of course in the car, because my permission for camping at Polihale will be valid in 2 days. But what was that? I tried to turn around the car and got stuck in the sand. Oh no! There was no chance to get out by myself because the frame of the car was already on the sand. Somehow i though about being a burner as just in this moment two guys with an pickup stopped, towed me out. Wow, amazing, that was fast 🙂 I thanked them with two ice cold beers and $3 tip for their gas (i would tipped more, but i hadn’t more with me). I stopped at the Russian Fort Elisabeth Park and felt asleep after writing a new blog post…(2014/12/27)