Saturday north shore day

I've been running around getting situated here: finding a longer term place to live, selecting healthcare professionals, and meeting friends along the way - both planned and unplanned. Weekends there is little progress I can make on these fronts so I get free days on Kauai.

This will be a long narrative of my day which should make for a decent travelogue. Photographs can be viewed in full fidelity in this photo album. 

Saturday morning I left Anahola before sunrise heading north, planning the day out while driving. Naturally, I decided to head for the end of the road. Traveling past Hanalei Bay it was apparent that the tide was well out with unfamiliar rocks showing here and there around the bay. Still early, I sailed through the one-lane bridges and arrived at Ke'e Beach with plenty of parking still available. Already a community group had been doing cleanup work there and had an impressive collection of trash bags filled awaiting disposal. This area has recently (just in the past 3-4 years I have been visiting here) become very popular as a tourist destination and one sees way too many cars for the limited road and parking space there is. (Of course I am one of those, but at least I don't park squeezing the car into the vegetation and jutting out into the road as one routinely sees. There is talk of having a gate and charging admission. Good for the community supporting the park under the stress of so many visitors.)

 

The Kalalau Trail begins just off the parking lot, climbing a rough hewn natural stone stair case for the first stretch that before long gives way to dirt with rock trail. This is one of the world's great hiking trails and very popular but I'm early enough (7:30am) that for the next two miles I only encounter a handful of folks and often have my section of trail to myself. This is shot from the second vista as the trail winds in and out of valleys in the mountain, steadily climbing.
On the makai side are the lush mountain slopes that make this area so strikingly beautiful and exotic. Further down the coast this all becomes even more so.

In this first two mile segment the trail follows the terrain, winding into valleys, then back out along the coastline. Soon you are hundreds of feet above the ocean spreading out below. This is the edge of one of the largest expanses of open water in the world: there's nothing for thousands of miles out there looking north from Kauai.


Soon the trail levels off and the first good view down the coast toward Kalalau to the west appears about a half mile in.

Small waterfalls and streams cross the path often at its deepest penetration into the valleys or crevices along the terrain.

Here's an example of the more rocky portion of the trail. While it gets a little muddy from the water trapped between the stones, when it gets really wet the rocks provide traction compared to the slick all-dirt sections, especially further along on the descent to the first beach.

Here's a classic shot of this shoreline looking down the Na Pali ("the cliffs") coast.

And again at another vista: if you were there you would know why one can't help but shoot this over and over.
I came upon a couple here both standing with cameras pointing down the coast. I took their photo so they returned the favor. The view is great but this early in the morning the trail is shadowed making for difficult shooting. Fortunately they prioritized the scenery over the person just getting in the way.

Approaching Hanakapiʻai Beach on the descent to the stream that empties into the near side of the accessible shoreline.

This area can be very dangerous as well as beautiful. This year there have been a number of people lost in the waters of Kauai, and this stream and beach have taken part of that toll. Watching the weather and using common sense it's fine and today was sunny and clear. With no recent significant rains lately the stream was a little over ankle deep and easy to cross.

 Hanakapiʻai Beach is a nice wide white sand beach, festooned with a large number of stone cairns.

To the right is a view of the sea cave to the west end of the beach and showing some of the surf - moderate today. People go out into the water a bit but you need to use caution: no lifeguard here, no cell service to call 911.




After watching the waves and walking the beach I walked back the way I came: four miles round trip. More on the return hike in another article to come.

 I strolled up Ke'e Beach for a while heading east, back toward civilization. I thought this shot on the left might make a nice screen background for my computer (haven't tried it yet) because it is easy on the eyes.

This beach is nicely protected by a coral reef out there where the waves are breaking (right). Instead the reef it's very shallow and flat. In the view of Ke'e from the trail you can make out a couple of guys walking out there with spears looking for fish at that low tide.

In those shallows were small schools of tiny fish skittering around. I wasn't the only one to notice: a dog was chasing along the fringes of the surf. Impressive that the dog noticed them.

Back at the edge of the sand stood trees whose roots lay exposed from erosion. And of course there are chickens everywhere.




I washed up and turned over my nice parking spot to some lucky visitor and headed back toward Hanalei.





Next stop was a quick visit to the Limahuli Garden where I had helped build a hale to see if the finishing work was any further along (it wasn't). It looked great standing there above the lo'i of kalo (taro). Buildings much like that must have been in this valley many years ago (except for the use of nylon cord and cement). At right is a shot of the interior ceiling and supports.

Just as I was leaving someone called my name; the garden director noticed me (from a good distance) so I joined them for talk story in the hale. He was showing a visiting scientist around the grounds with another staff member who took a very nice shot of me, her first time to use a rangefinder camera.

Lunch at Hanalei Pizza was excellent, this place deserves an entire article. I've gotten to know the chef there and learned a lot of tips for pizza making. Go here for more on the pizza and cooking tips.

I was planning to have a frosty from Banana Joe's on the way back but they are closing for a month (travel perhaps) and the kitchen was closed. I bought a papaya instead and headed home. Immediately I headed into the ocean for my late afternoon swim.

If this is what a typical day in retirement is, I think I'm going to like it just fine.