One of the things I wanted to do on Kauai was the 8 mile hike on the Napali Coast to the waterfall. Hanakapi'ai. My neighbor/bff/Spartan buddy Sherri happened to be going to Kauai the same time as us and she informed me that the hike was inaccessible. The road washed out last April when they received somewhere around 50-60 inches of water in 24 hours. The road washed out and they haven't been able to repair it. I was really bummed. BUT there are plenty of hikes in Kauai. I decided on this one after browsing AllTrails for awhile. Sherri and her husband almost came with us but decided they had better stay with their family (we do get to see them regularly at home, after all). We had debated on doing this hike the day before when we first arrived on Kauai but Ryan wanted to watch a game and I wanted to run. So we put it off until the next day. As I was looking at the AllTrails app again I pulled up a picture and it said the person who posted it was Ashley Coombs, who happens to be one of my good friends and also lives by me. And it said she posted it 19 hours ago. So weird! So I texted her and asked if she was in Kauai and she's like, "how did you know???" Such a small world. I was laughing about how we could've ran into them the day before if we had gone. I swear half the people I know were either in Hawaii, going within a week, or had just left.
After the helicopter we got ready and headed off for the hike. It was windy, but the sun was mostly out. And once we got up into the trees it was not windy anymore. It was lovely actually.
We were fascinated by this bamboo!
Sometimes the path crossed the river/stream and we had to climb on boulders or rocks. Sometimes the path was muddy, or there were downed tree branches covering it and we just preferred to climb on the boulders.
The first part of the path had been maintained fairly well. Someone had clearly taken a chain saw to all the trees blocking it. There were chunks of logs all over. But further in, the path was unrecognizable. On our way back I got tired of trying not to slip on the rocks so I tried to stay on the path. I had to keep pulling out my phone to check and see if the little dot that represented me was actually near the path mapped out. Thank goodness I had a bit of service.
Ryan had fun jumping around on the rocks. But on the way back we had wet feet and it was harder. He ended up slipping and falling hard on a boulder. I was in the trees trying to follow the path at the time. He says he got pretty beat up. Thankfully nothing too serious, though. We need better hiking shoes for that!
But that was all the journey. Here is the destination!
So fun!! We were following the river and it split and we went the wrong way for a little bit. Again, so glad I had a little service. It was easy to see our mistake and head back. By the time we got there I was ready to swim! Well, kind of. It wasn't exactly hot. But it wasn't cold. The air I mean. The water was definitely cold. I've never met a warm waterfall.
We decided to warm up with a jump from the side. A couple that was just leaving gave us some tips.
After we both did that, Ryan took his phone out and said he would video me climbing and jumping. I geared myself up, told myself this is what I train so hard for, and went for it. At first I tried to do it like the slip wall in a Spartan, but that is smooth and not straight up and down. I was using too much arms, and didn't realize I could use the notches in the rock for my feet. Once I did that it was quite easy. Other than the cold water pounding on your head and the slippery rock at the top. Ryan was convinced if we fell we would die. I was pretty sure if I fell I would just fall straight back into the water. It wasn't that high, maybe 20 feet. It was AWESOME!!!
This was a highlight for sure! And I'm glad I saw Ashley's pictures and talked to her to know it was safe to climb and jump.
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