Kalalau Trail up the Napili Coast

Eight days later and and six pounds gained - we are back!

After spending 4 days in full relaxation mode in Maui, we jetted propellered over to Kaua'i for some adventure. Darren planned a day of hiking up the Napili coast - and we were not disappointed! This hike was crazy. Three+ hours of mud, slippery rocks, streams to cross... and amazing views. I was seriously amazed by the people we ran in to: older folks in their 60's, a couple with a 9 year old girl, and a guy that was about 300 pounds even completed a portion of it! And when we made it to the hidden beach, there was a couple there with a baby in a front carrier. What?? There is no way I would have ever considered taking on a slippery, stream-crossing hike with a baby on board!

Anywho, it was really cool. Here are some pics.

All clean and shiny before our 3 hour hike through the mud and rain

We laugh at you, warning signs!

We laugh at you, mud!

Still pretty clean part way through the 1st half

This was the payoff - a secluded beach that could only be accessed by water or by the trail

Here we are after 2-3 falls in the mud (Darren) and one impressive fall into a river (Kim)

We ain't playin' - we got our pant legs zipped off and everything ;)

1/3 of the way back the sole of my boot got pulled off in the mud. Not good.

Thankfully, when you have Darren around, anything can be fixed.

In fact, one of my favorite quotes from our trip was:

"Give a geek a leatherman, I can fix ANY problem"

He tied it up and secured it and it held together for the remainder of the hike!

The views along the coast were amazing

The adventure continued as we agreed to take some hitchhikers back to Hanalei. That was a first for us :) It's actually really common on that Island. He was in the coast guard and his girlfriend was a teacher. They had spent a couple nights camping 11 miles in and were headed to the airport for their flight back to Oahu. They didn't kill us and take our Jeep so that was cool.