So this adventure was one for the books and most deserving of it's own post. All this time we had been deciding our adventures from
this guide book. It was super helpful and I'd definitely recommend it if you need a guide in Kauai. So in this book there's an adventure labeled "The Jungle Hike". It said it involves hiking through mile long irrigation tunnels to get to a hidden waterfall.The book gives plenty of warning that this is an unmaintained trail, it's sketchy, super muddy and long. I love caves, I love waterfalls, I love adventures, especially filthy ones, sounds right up my alley. Ben and I set out earlier, like maybe 10am. The hike was muddy from the first 100 yds. It was more of a pig trail through the undergrowth with plenty of ducking, and crawling for our 6'2" scrawny frames. More than once we almost fell off a ledge or hole that was hidden by the thickest vegetation I've ever encountered.
After a long hike we arrive at the first tunnel. It feels like Indiana Jones or something. You can see the light at the other end even as you enter the tunnel. There's about shin deep water and a slightly silty bottom and most of the time the ceiling is about 6 feet tall. After adventuring through the first tunnel, there's directions to get to the "slightly more sketchy" second tunnel. Of course we're going. So after crossing a river, scampering through the undergrowth, coming upon a makeshift campsite with discarded Ramen wrappers, we stumble upon the entrance to the second tunnel. Sketchy doesn't begin to describe it. The tunnel looks about 3 feet tall and we have to climb down this ladder into an irrigation canal with crotch deep water.
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| Actually the less sketchy tunnel exit, but you get the idea. |
We have to walk hunched over for the entirety of this tunnel. The water is thigh deep and worse that that there's a foot of silty mud on the bottom of the tunnel. There's a point with rotten wooden timbers you have to crawl through. It seemed to me they were holding up the tunnel, adding to the sketchiness of the adventure. Finally the light at the end of the tunnel is close and we emerge, seemingly in the middle of the Kauai interior. After such a long, filthy, sketchy hike one would expect the most glorious view ever, considering the effort put in to get there. Now I'm not saying it was a let down, the waterfall was cool. But it's the experience to get there, not the final view.
Now we just had to turn around and hoof it out before dark. We made it, our shoes didn't fair so well. After several washes I still wear mine. I believe Ben threw his out.
After that adventure we pretty much chilled for the rest of the trip. Book reading on the beach, swimming and such. Ben flew out a day before me so we got a taxi to the airport and he caught his flight as I disappeared into the night to find a place to sleep. Let's just say the shore area around the Lithue Airport has a lot of miscellaneous junk lying around: Toilets, ropes, refrigerators, whole cars, car parts, mattresses, etc. It was like a dump. Eventually I found a nice junk free bit of sand beach and enjoyed my last night in Kauai sleeping on the sand as the waves crashed on the beach. Yes I did account for the tide coming in so I didn't get washed away in my sleep.
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| Beach Camp Site |
I awoke early the next day to get some good sunrise pictures.
I never get up early enough to view such events.
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| Sunrise near Beach Camp Site | | | | | | | | |
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After that I hiked some more, found a beach to chill on and read and killed some time before I went to the airport to fly back to reality. I left Lithue arrived in LAX and arrived in D-Troit. As I exited the plane, there was a blast of cold wind and I hurried onto the Jetway. I exited the Jetway and the attendant at the desk announced, voice laced with sarcasm, "Welcome to beautiful Detroit, where the temperature is 45 degrees." If I could only go straight from Hawaii weather to Pow skiing and skip the "in between" season.
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| This about sums up the trip. The moral of the story is that if you are planning a trip to Hawaii, add an extra two weeks. Forget your watch. Adventure. Chill. |
That being said the epic face shots in the Canyon and hucking myself took its tole and resulted in this. (You can see how it happened at 10:19 in the above video.) Now for an anatomy lesson for the less inclined. This is a MRI of my left knee from the lateral (outside) aspect. The top bone is the femur and the bottom bone is my tibia. The stringy band in the middle that is angled backwards is my ACL. This is good news as a blown ACL looks like an exploded pack of Ramen Noodles. Just below my ACL on my Tibial Plateau you will see a white area. In short the top part of my tibia is basically crushed slightly, and is the reason my knee has been hurting and why I haven't been able to run.
