The swamp at the top of the world

Sunday evening we spent some time perusing The Book and all of the various advertising magazines that we had picked up, planning the rest of our week. I should say, I perused and planned and Jeff nodded his head and grunted in agreement. 

We knew that the first thing we wanted to do was see Waimea Canyon, as it had been suggested to us by several people. There are several possible hikes in the canyon, none of them easy and some requiring a 4WD vehicle, so our choice was easily narrowed down. The Pihea trail begins at the last lookout, Pu'u O Kila, and after two miles you can turn onto the Alaka'i Swamp Trail, which takes you through the highest swamp in the world. It is a most unique trail, unlike on other, so the choice was easy.

We got (what we thought was) an early start, first driving south to the entrance of the canyon, then twenty miles of canyon and views from the lookouts.

The canyon was formed of lava, cut through deeply by river and floods that were fed by the rains falling on Mount Wai'ale'ale, one of the wettest places on earth and almost always covered by clouds. The canyon is ten miles long, one mile wide, and 3,500 feet deep.  

We were here!
We were going to do a self-portrait, but, as happened several times, a kind stranger saved us from ourselves.

Hawaiian geese, know as nenes, hang out at the lookouts.
Don't feed the nenes!

We asked about the condition of the trail at the Koke'e Museum and were happy to hear that, even though it had rained all night, the trail wasn't very muddy. So we drove to the end of the road and girded up our loins.

I had taken two disassembled hiking poles with me on the plane. I was having trouble reassembling them and asked Jeff to help. He, of course, promptly broke one, but then I got it figured out so that at least I had a pole.

And I am the most important person in this twosome, so it worked out!

This is the view at the beginning of the hike.

I dare you to find the line where sea ends and sky begins.

The trail descended at first and was a bit slick. I began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach about this hike.

Then up up up it went.

And up some more.

There was a lot of up and down on the first couple of miles. In this next photo, you can kind of see where the trail follows the top of the next ridge.

Sometimes, it was so steep that we had to put our feet in the footholds made by hundreds of hikers before us.

Every now and then, the trees would open up and we would be treated to views of the Kalalau Valley, and the breeze would blow softly and give us a little break from the heat.

Then the boardwalk began and life was a little easier. This boardwalk was built in the late 90's and is often in need of repair, but it beats slogging through the mud.

One of the many species of Hawaiian ginger. These bloomed along the trail and they scented the air rather nicely.

Things started to look a bit different after we turned off to the swamp. The trees got smaller and the air was cooler.

We had caught up with a friendly Californian named Henry, who seemed inclined to join us. It was nice to have someone new in the conversation. He had pink hair. 

There are no tall trees in the swamp itself, just shrubs and grasses. The swamp is a 20 square mile plateau, sitting at 4,000 feet on top of impervious lava rock. It isn't a true swamp, but a very boggy tropical rain forest. Most of the water on Kaua'i comes from Alaka'i. When it rains, which it does almost every day, water overflows and seeps through cracks and fissures, creating waterfalls on the mountainsides. This may be why almost all of the island's streams and rivers are infected with the bacterium leptospirosis, which can cause some nasty diseases and even death. The water in the waterfalls looks so clean and pure, but you have to keep reminding yourself that it comes from The Bog!

The fog rolls in and out and it's a little spooky. I wouldn't want to hike this on my own.

Old power poles line the trail. They were built by the American government during the Second World War as an alternate power source in case the Japanese took Lihue.

We seemed to be hiking through the swamp forever, much longer than two miles.

Finally, we made it to the Kilohana Lookout, where, if you are very lucky, you will be treated to one of the best views in the world, looking all the way to the Napali Coast in the north. 

Or so they say.

We were not. Which is okay, because we enjoyed many great views and persevered to the end of the swamp, so we felt very mighty.

We sat and rested our feet and ate power food for half an hour or so, while I chastised the fog. We shared our nuts and cranberries with Henry, who thought I was pretty hilarious.

And then we turned around and hiked back.

And then we went home to the geckos.
It was the second hardest hike of my life, eight miles of fairly grueling terrain, but I loved almost every minute of it. If you are interested in this hike, there is a good description of it here, with some other historical tidbits and a photo of the view we missed.

Casualty of the day: one hiking pole.

Mad dogs and pooping geckos.

Before I start the narrative of Sunday, I should tell you about the first place I booked through my usual suspect, airbnb. The website has served me well over the last few years, but I bombed a little on this trip. 

Both of the accommodations were somewhat lacking in different areas. The first was a comfortable room in what seemed to be almost a commune of new-agey women. The owner of the house was on the mainland, looking after her mother, so her friend and house-sitter was our host. Also living on the property (in a yurt) was another older woman and (in a small cabin) a couple of young things who came and went at all hours.  The house was comfortable and decorated with Buddhas and Zen-like inspirational sayings. There were two cats that necessitated a lot of rules about which doors could be open to the outdoors and when, which I never seemed to quite get right. There was no microwave, of course, although the kitchen was modern in other ways. The two older women appeared to only eat fruit. 

There was a rather primitive outdoor shower, in which one had to use a flashlight after dark. The shower was right next to a pathway that was well-traveled by the other residents, which made Jeff extremely uncomfortable, being the only male on the premises. I should mention that there was no door, only the hope that no one would peer slightly askance through the opening as they walked past.

The bed was surprisingly comfortable and we should have slept well, except for the roosters crowing until about midnight and then starting again three or four hours later. More on island roosters later.

All in all, I should have spent twenty dollars more a night and gone for something a little more high-class.

We were checking out of this place on Sunday morning and into our new one later in the day.

This spider resided outside our door.

The plan was to do a minor sort of a hike in the morning, to some falls that had been recommended to us, then catch the afternoon shift at church before checking into our new place.

We drove down to Kapa'a and found the road that was the entry point to Ho'opii Falls. We had a copy of the definitive guide to Kaua'i, which described the location of the trail.

Tip #3: You need this book. They were selling it at Costco in Lihue. It is updated with a new edition every year or so and is witty and informative. We took their recommendations for tour companies and were not disappointed.

We parked as directed in the book and took what looked like the obvious trail. It was a lovely wide trail that wound between houses and was lined with fruit trees. Suddenly, what looked like two pit bulls came running at us, barking their heads off. Jeff pushed me behind him (he's chivalrous that way) and I yelled at the dogs to get away. We were immediately confronted by an angry dog owner who said NO, YOU GET AWAY! We tried to explain that we were looking for a waterfall  (damn tourists) but he kept yelling at us and told us we were trespassing. We backed away and retraced our steps, very confused because we hadn't seen a No Trespassing sign and we figured we would have to give up the search for the waterfalls and that maybe the omniscient book had been wrong in this case. 

What should we see but this, when we reached the road.

It was not particularly obvious, but we felt a little bad, because locals often feel harassed by tourists.

Luckily, a young couple turned up who were also looking for the falls, so we put our heads together and found the entrance to the trail a few yards down the road.

There's something about the instant bond that we made with other hikers on this trip, almost all of us carrying the same darn book and scratching our heads, trying to find obscure trails and marveling at the views.

The trail follows the stream/river most of the way.

The falls were not overwhelming, but the hike was fun and challenging in its own way, as secondary trails constantly led us astray.

Tip #4: Do not wear jeans on Kaua'i. Ever. You will die of sweat.

There was a second waterfall further down the trail, so on we went, scrambling up the hill and holding onto roots, hoping we were on the right trail.

This young man was sitting on a rock in the middle of the river, reading aloud. We couldn't distinguish his words because of the noise of the river.

Sometimes, ya just gotta roll your eyes and walk on.

Shampoo ginger was plentiful along the trail, only I didn't find out what it was until after we had passed it. It's the same stuff that Paul Mitchell uses in his very expensive shampoos. You squeeze the red part and it's very nice for washing your hair. 

I would have totally done it.

Sometimes the trail was like this, and we had to clamber under and over tree branches.

Sometimes it was like this and we were swishing through the undergrowth.

This flower grew abundantly in African tulip trees. Not much of the flora that thrives on Kaua'i is native.

Philodendrons are like the English ivy of the Pacific Northwest. Their huge leaves cover many trees.

This old dune buggy was in the middle of nowhere, almost absorbed by the undergrowth.

We reached the second falls, but did some backtracking along the way so didn't have time to go all the way down the cliff to them. We returned on a trail that ran higher above the river and went to our new abode to take a quick shower before church.

The church services were quite delightful, so familiar yet uniquely Polynesian. Afterwards, our rental car guy met us in the parking lot, as our 2003 old Dodge Neon had developed some brake trouble. He gave us the Hyundai Santa Fe he was driving, which we kept for the rest of our stay. A nice free upgrade. We were very happy with Gingerbread Rent-a-Car, thank you very much, at $25 a day.

We checked in at our new place, which had been described as a "rustic" cottage.

Well, rustic it was, complete with outside shower (albeit nicer than the last one) and pooping, croaking geckos, who appeared in large numbers after the sun went down and who pooped and croaked all night. And did I mention the mosquitoes who could not be kept out of the house, no matter how hard we tried.

Oh yes. Life is good on the island of Kaua'i.