This will end up being a long story, with more than a few pictures, and it is all thanks the kind folks here at HF.
Recently my wife and I took a trip to big island Hawaii to visit her sister who is a traveling nurse currently living in Hawaii. A friend had told me about an awesome trail to check out while we were there, so we decided to check that out.
Prior to this, we'd only dabbled in backpacking once, so we were quite the rookies, but I think it all ended quite well, all things considered. I had decided early on that I'd rather backpack with a hammock, so that's the setup my wife and I chose. Her sister decided to hammock at the last minute as well, so she used a walmart hammock and I made the suspension for her. The only thing she didn't adequately end up with was a tarp. We tried to make do with a Tyvek tarp from walmart, but the one she bought wasn't quite big enough to keep her totally dry one of the nights.
Anyways, enough with the words, it's time for some pictures!
Here is a picture from the Waipi'o Valley lookout, which is where we started:
We didn't have a 4 wheel drive rental (something to do with a recall on jeep on the island), so we had to walk down the jeep road to the bottom of the valley, it's 3/4 of a mile, and 1200 feet elevation drop:
Here's a look at the jeep road from the side of the valley:
Once to the bottom of the valley, we walked along the beach to the other end of the valley, to begin our ascent up the "Z Trail". It easily one of the most difficult sections of hiking I've encountered, it totals around a mile, to make up 1200 ft of elevation gain. Here's a look across the beach, if you look closely, you can tell why they call it the "Z Trail":
Unfortunately, upon clearing the Z trail, it began to rain, and didn't let up for the next 4 hours or so, so I had to put my camera away. I kept it tuck away on the trek back as well, so I didn't get any pictures of that part of the trail. It was 6.5 miles of up and down through 12 gulches, much easier hiking than the Z trail.
The final mile was the descent into Waimanu Valley. It was another steep descent, this time with the added bonus of it all being wet from the 4 hours of rain. It took us 1.5 hours to get down, which, amazingly, was the same time it took us to get UP on the way out. That's how steep and slippery it was going down.
Once we got there though, it was all worth it:
That literally was the view from our campsite. We had campsite 2, which, while easily having the best view, was not the most accommodating to hangers.
The issue was not with the amount of things to hang from, as there was enough for the 3 of us, the issue was with the WIND. Other campsites in the valley gave up the views we had for more of a windblock. We did not have the windblock on any side. This made putting up our tarps EXTREMELY frustrating after a long day of hiking. We eventually decided to hang with the wind, and let it blow through the tarp. That in conjunction with pitching the tarps very low, allowed us to make a nice camp.
An idea of just how low we went:
We used rocks to help secure the tarp as well, I am glad these were cheap tarps:
Now then, why was it so WINDY? Because we were right next to the ocean:
It was tough to capture the camp and the ocean in the same picture, but just know that about 30 ft past the rock wall in this picture was where the above pictures were taken from:
We spent a day just hanging out in Waimanu, during which we treked to the nearest waterfall:
There was also a black sand beach we spent some time at, the waves were a little rough for swimming though:
Overall, it was one of the coolest things I've ever done, and I would go back in a heartbeat.
Thanks again to all the wonderful people here at HF, I've learned so much since joining! I would not have had nearly the trip I did without all the knowledge I've absorbed here.
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Originally Posted by OutandBack
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