Monday, December 22, 2008

More hiking, more sore muscles

Not a lot has been going on for the last week. Not worth blogging about, anyhow. I'm sure it's pretty similar to what everyone else in the U.S. is doing - last minute shopping for presents, making sure the right foods are in the house before you realize you're out of butter on Christmas Day, wrapping gifts, wandering through the malls looking for a deal that looks like it might be worth the effort of standing in line.

Worth blogging about?: Zac and I decided to go on a hike yesterday morning. We heard that there was a trail not too far from where we lived, so we headed out around 8:30 yesterday to get a nice walk in. Zac was told that the hike was relatively easy, so we brought Toivo (our one-eyed Finnish Spitz) with us. We drove inland, up the mountain, for about 20 minutes. Up and up we went. We got to the trail head with relative ease and at least that part is well marked. The sign said "Manana Trail". Some subsequent searching has resulted in my deduction that trails aren't always called the same things by all people. There are lots of local nicknames that are used in place of the official names. Also, there doesn't seem to be a well-organized Hawaiian governmental unit that is in charge of parks. In Minnesota, for example, you have the state, county and city parks, plus the Department of Natural Resources. I haven't quite figured out who is in charge of what here on Oahu yet, but the signage isn't particularly helpful.

We started out on the trail which, for the first 10 minutes, was paved. Then in turned into a cleared trail of dirt and volcanic gravel. It was a pretty easy walk. Gentle slopes up and down. After about another 10-15 minutes it became a little more intense. There were lots of trees about that have extensive root systems. The roots are what hold the topsoil together, and their exposure results in a kind of stairway-like pattern for going up and down the hills. Like I said, it got more extreme the further we went. Finally we had been walking for about 30 minutes and we got to a nice stopping point.

Then we noticed the sign. After seeing no signage for the first 30 minutes to indicate the presence of the trail, we saw a random wooden sign that had the obligatory arrows. One pointed to the left indicating another 5 miles to get to a Ridge. I can't remember the name at the moment. The other arrow pointed to the right, claiming that Waimano Falls was 3/4 of a mile that-a-way. Five miles was out of the question, but Zac and I figured we could handle another 3/4 of a mile to the falls and back, so we out-voted Toivo and headed to the right.

Down the Rabbit's Hole we went. Well, we went down anyway. There was a long, steep decline that started the trek to the falls. Again, the roots made it pretty easy to handle, but in the back of my head I knew that this was going to be a pain in the butt on the way back. Not Koko Crater-bad, but pretty bad. (I later found online that the descent/ascent is about 700 feet at this point. Not chump change.) As we got down towards the "bottom" things started to change. The relatively dry, forest-y feel of the upper trail gave way to straight-up tropical rain forest. Mosquitoes, muddy trails and all. This is where it got interesting.

I should also note that about halfway down the hill we saw a cluster of fabric. It looked like part of some one's boxer shorts. About 20 feet further, another piece. Another 20 feet. Another. And so it went. We came to depend on these four-inch-square pieces of fabric as we kept moving. They were the best indication that we were still on the correct route. When the blue boxers ran out, they switched to some black fabric - maybe a t-shirt? I'm pointing this out because we were dependant on Hansel and Gretel to get us through this hike. Thanks, State of Hawaii.

Finally we could hear the water crashing in the distance. We kept pushing ahead. Both Zac and I wiped out due to the slippery conditions. I banged up my leg pretty good when I did a face plant on the trail. Zac landed on his hip and wrist. We were muddy, and tired, but we weren't about to give up. We finally came to a part of the trail where someone had tied a rope to help people get down a particularly treacherous part. We thought we were close at that point, but we still had another 20 minutes to go. Toivo was actually handling everything much better than I thought he was going to. He was still bounding along, tail up, and his four legs served him much better for the conditions than my two.

Finally we got to the falls. The falls were about 40-50 feet high. Nothing awe-inspiring, but nice. The falls had carved out a nice series of two pools and smooth rocks that looked enticing. The only problem was that we had to get down there. The pools that had been carved out resulted in the pools being surrounded by rock walls that were about 7-8 feet high in the low spots. There was a rope there to help Zac and I get down, but Toivo isn't great at handling ropes. It's that opposible thumb thing. So Zac scampered down first and I tried to hand the dog down to him. Let's just say Toivo wasn't a fan of this idea. He freaked out a little, but Zac grabbed him and Toivo made it down, safe and sound. Because the pool was confined, we took Toivo off his leash and let him walk around. He drank some cool, Hawaiian spring water and laid down in the mud to relax.

Zac and I enjoyed the view and the chance to sit down. Zac went wading. I thought about going in too, but my socks and shoes were so muddy and wet already that the thought of trying to get them off and back on again didn't appeal to me. We sat for awhile and rested, enjoying the coolness of the ravine. We could have continued down the creek to investigate further, but we knew we faced a helluva climb out so we decided to start back. Of course this meant getting Toivo out of the pool area. I grabbed the afore-mentioned rope and scaled my way back up to the ledge. Zac lifted Toivo out and I grabbed him as well as I could. Toivo freaked out a little and tried to jump up, whacking his leg on the rocks. I'm sure it hurt him, but he seemed to be okay. We headed back.

Ever notice how when you're going somewhere unknown the first time it seems like it takes forever to get there, but when you're heading home you realize that it's not as far as you thought? The hike was just as treacherous and difficult on the way back, but it went much more quickly. Until we got to the foot of the 700' hill. That kicked my butt. Big time. We went slowly. All three of us were pretty pooped. Every time we'd stop we'd tell the dog, "Toivo, sit." He'd just lay down. Good idea. We finally made it back to the paved part and the three of us emerged from the trail head feeling pretty good, despite the bug bites, scrapes, bruises and being covered in mud. All of us needed a bath.

We got home, Zac and I had a beer and took a shower. Toivo had some water, a Milkbone, got hosed down, and then was left out on the patio to dry out. It was truly a team effort for the day.

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