A Soul-Searching Journey on the Kalalau Trail: A Place where Treachery Meets Peace

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to Real Talk. I am Tina and.

Speaker 2: 0:11

I am Ann Tina. I mean, I could scream. I am so excited to hear your voice and you are back.

Speaker 1: 0:21

I am back. Thank you so much. I missed you and I missed doing this. I missed my family so much more than I ever thought. It was such a great trip that I took to Kauai Kauai and I can't wait to share the details with you.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Yeah, I mean you have to share all the stuff, all the feels, everything.

Speaker 1: 0:44

Okay, well, I was on a backpacking adventure. I've been a hiker my whole life. I've never done an overnight backpacking stay anywhere, so I decided go big and come home. Right, I changed that quote a little bit at my husband's advice, so I decided I'm going to do the Kala Lao Trail. The Kala Lao Trail is an 11 mile well, 22 mile, I should say switchback trail. 11 miles in, 11 miles out. Switchback means you go up and down and up and down to get to your destination, and so I picked this trail because my husband and I honeymooned there in 2009., and when I first laid eyes on it by boat, I said one day I want to see it from my eye level. I want to go deep into that valley. There's just something about it. There is no other coastline in the world that looks like Kala Lao. There are these deep emerald cliffs. It is the backdrop for the Jurassic Park films, so that'll give you a reference of what it looks like there. It is fantastic. It is such a special place, so I trained for seven months and got myself in the best shape of my life, and nothing, though, could have prepared me for the elevation. That was a true kicker, but obviously we did it and I am back.

Speaker 2: 2:07

Yeah, I mean we can talk more about the elevation because I want to hear every single detail, but I did want to mention that when you landed in, one of the very first pictures that you posted when you were, when you reached your destination, was you posted a double rainbow of you right before you went on the trail. I mean that was so cool.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Yes, I think, if I'm not mistaken, hawaii might be called the rainbow state. I have not fully researched that, but we saw rainbows almost every single day that we were there. It was one of the first things I noticed when we landed and got to our condo. We stayed in a condo in the North Shore, princeville area before we went on our hiking adventure, our backpacking adventure, for five days, so that's where we were at before we hit the trail, and I loved seeing that double rainbow. It reminded me that God is with me.

Speaker 2: 3:07

So that happened, even when it wouldn't rain the rainbow.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Yes, I think we saw a rainbow that day. I don't think that it rained at all, maybe, maybe an ever so light sprinkle. That's the difference between the weather we get in the Midwest and the weather on an island. It could say 100% chance of rain here in the Midwest and it is a complete washout. And then in Hawaii it could say 100% chance of rain, but that really only means for a few minutes and then it moves on. So that was the good news. I can't remember if that day, that first day, there was any rain. It could have just been minuscule, but we did see that double rainbow and it could have even been farther out. It could have been raining out way out there in the ocean or on another side of the island, but Princeville gives you those cliffy hillside views way up high and we were able to see so far out.

Speaker 2: 4:02

You know my son, who's so simple, and you know from the mouths of babes. We went and saw the pink concert the other night and what were the entire stadium for like over an hour which was crazy that it even lasted that long was a big full rainbow. It was just absolutely beautiful. And my son is just sitting there and he's saying well, you know, god promised, he promised, he's keeping his promises. And I was like wow. And then we saw another rainbow a couple days later and he said he's promising again. There he goes, he's just making all these promises. And I was like, oh, my goodness, that is so precious, so precious. So you were in that area before you actually went on the trails for a couple of days. What did you actually get to do before you went on your adventure?

Speaker 1: 5:01

Oh, it was so beautiful. We did so, so so many things. I can't believe how much we were able to cram in in three days. So we explored. Where we stayed is actually called sea lodge, and sea lodge has its own walk and private beach that you can hike to and it's a nice like mile there and mile out trail. So it was nice to be able to do that and, you know, just get a little idea of some of the terrain in Hawaii. So we did that one day. Another day we went and got ice cream. We drove to the South Shore, which is the Puepu area, where we saw some monk seals, which was amazing.

Speaker 2: 5:42

And we're not being able to see wildlife?

Speaker 1: 5:44

Yes, they beached themselves rolling around in the sand. It was really, really cute. No fantastic pictures of it because I did not bring my really nice camera, but I saw them with my own eyes, I watched them. We saw lots of sea turtles. It was absolutely fantastic. So we saw the spouting horn there, which is like a circle in the hole in the lava rock that when the waves come, it blows the whole, you know, blows water out of the hole like a whale would. So we went to the spouting horn, which is one of my favorite places. We also went to one of my favorite beaches called Shipwreck Beach, and it's a beautiful. The terrain is different everywhere you go. So North Shore is different from South Shore is different from the West Coast. You know, it's really neat that you get so many different things. It's almost like four seasons on one island. It's four different types of terrain on one island. Oh wow, we went to Shipwreck Beach and explored there and then we decided you know what, we're already down here, let's make the next like 45 minute to hour drive all the way as far west as we could go. And that is where we went into Waimea Canyon, which is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It's all of this red dirt and it's just absolutely beautiful. And, of course, it had been sprinkling just on and off, and so we saw a rainbow over the canyon and it was spectacular, so beautiful. Then we finished the drive on the west side of Kauai, all the way up to the Kalalao Lookout, and our hope was to be able to see down to where we would be hiking or staying, and so the best part about this adventure was we were hoping to catch a sunset, but it had been really cloudy and you're so high up that you're literally in the clouds. We were in the clouds being rained on. It is such a cool thing. I would have preferred no rain, but it was neat to be in the clouds. And when we got to the Kalalao Lookout, there is a board there that shows you what it's supposed to look like. You know this beautiful blue sky, the water, a little strip of the sand beach and the cliffs. Well, when we got there, much to our chagrin and our surprise, we saw just cloud cover. If you didn't know what was supposed to be there, you would have just thought it was complete clouds. You couldn't have seen. There was a sky, there was water. You couldn't even see any cliffs. So a family came up. There were a couple of different couples there at that spot, and then this amazing family came running up and they were like, yes, this is what I hoped. It would look like what I always dreamed of seeing. And they were laughing so hard. And it turns out they told us that they had gone to the Grand Canyon and the very same thing happened. It was so completely cloud covered they didn't even see the canyon, and so they were just the best of sports about it. So my friend and I were laughing because of course that's how it goes and there was a gentleman there who said just wait, it'll clear out at least a little bit. We waited and we waited and we waited. Now it's eight o'clock, we know we have a two hour drive back to our condo and we're like we're gonna head out. So we get into our car. All of a sudden my friend's like I see the sunset through these clouds, I think it's clearing. So we run back over to the lookout and, sure enough, it had cleared up a bit and you were able to actually see that there was a little bit of the sky, a little bit of water, and you were able to see some of the cliffiness, so I think it was worth it. It was just really funny. At first we drove back home, adjusting to a six hour time change. We drove back to the condo in Princeville and then the day after that we went to one of my absolute favorite places. We went to a place called Queens Bath. We also went to a place called Connolly Bay earlier in that day, which is a wonderful pier with mountains and waterfalls, and it is fantastic. But Queens Bath is one of my favorite places and the actual bath is a tidal pool which was said to be used as a royal bathing place and so the tides can change drastically and quickly there and there's this wooden sign that notes the number of deaths from being swept out to sea by road waves. I think it's something like in the 80s. So the pool itself is not my favorite part. It is before that, where there's this lava rock coast that swells and shrinks with the waves that come in and I'm talking 10, 15 feet it will sink down and then the next wave comes and it fills it back up and we were swimming with and saw at least five to seven sea turtles that just stayed right by us the entire time. My friend Jen even jumped off the tall cliff there. I couldn't do it. I respect the ocean in my abilities too much. I don't want to be swept out to sea. Yeah, my shoulders burned so bad, they blistered, and I was really upset about it because the next day it was gonna be the start of the start of the Kalalao trail, where I knew I'd be backpacking for hours and hours and hours and hours, you know, with rubbing on my shoulders, with the backpack rubbing on my shoulder. So I was a little frustrated. But if anyone listening ever goes to Kauai, you have to go to Queen's Bath. It's quite a trail to get there, but it is so, so fun. So that is what we did the three days before we hit the trail.

Speaker 2: 11:15

Wow that was jam packed.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Yes, that's what I mean. I can't believe we squeezed it all in.

Speaker 2: 11:21

How exciting to be able to see all of that and see all the variations in the terrain and just experience everything in that short amount of time.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Yes, it was truly incredible. I'm really glad we did it that way where we didn't just get off the plane and have to hit the trail. I'm glad we kind of worked up to see a lot of things before we did the trail and the seals and the turtles. I mean, come on, yes it was so awesome, absolutely so awesome.

Speaker 2: 11:52

Okay, so then you hit the trail. I mean, yes, I'm sure.

Speaker 1: 11:59

Yeah, a wrench got thrown at us the day that we were leaving a hurricane, calvin, was forming in the Pacific Ocean. And so we had seen the forecast that by Wednesday it was supposed to hit and it had strengthened and then it had weakened, and then it had shifted. It was supposed to hit the east side. We thought, okay, we're gonna be hiking north and heading west, so maybe the coast will shield us from the hurricane. So the day before we left we were watching the news and reading about it and it had weakened to a tropical storm. So we knew that we were not gonna break up the hike into two days. We were gonna have to hike the full 11 miles on Tuesday so that we could get our tents up and hunker down for when Calvin was supposed to hit on Wednesday. So we started the trail at 5.30 in the morning and we were greeted by a sweet lady who asked us, you know, to see all of our paperwork at the entrance. And we did our thing and we started on the trail. And the first two miles it takes about. Let me just tell you, if you've never been to Hawaii, a mile there, even driving, takes forever. It's not like here, where it's like a mile a minute oh, no, no, no, and a mile an hour there. So it takes a really long time, I think the first two miles where these steep was a steep two mile incline straight uphill with huge boulders, slippery mud, it had been raining, bug bites galore, and that was the first two miles. And then from there the whole rest of the trail was so incredibly narrow in your feet we're kind of like you were walking on the insides of your feet they were. Everything was just slanted. It was really really tough. My ankles and my knees have never hurt so bad in my whole entire life, so can you describe the drop and what would have happened if you kind of missed? So that was one of the interesting things that I noticed the whole time. So my anxiety was kicking in. I was very nervous because of the condition of the trail. Then you have the added element of the wind from the storm. We were getting some pretty good winds 50, 65 mile per hour wind gusts that were coming through as we're on the trail. The trail itself, throughout most of the trail, was only as wide as your two feet. Every single step that you took was made to make you slip, trip, fall, bruise, scrape or break you. It was the most intense hike I've ever done. It's not one of those hikes where you can just have your phone out, be perusing and taking pictures as you're walking. No, you had to stop, turn carefully, you know, with your pack, look at what you wanted to look at, take a picture, you know, not fall over forward or to the sides and then put your phone away and then continue on. It was not anything that you could do all at the same time. You'd have fallen and broken your leg, face ankle, you name it.

Speaker 2: 15:16

Yeah, I was so interested in what you were doing that I actually looked up the trail and I was looking at pictures that other people had taken along the way. And I'll tell you what, tina, I wish I hadn't done that until you got back. Yeah, I was so nervous for you when I was seeing these pictures.

Speaker 1: 15:40

It was very nerve-wracking. So as you're moving along this very narrow trail, the elevation is killer. You know you have to stop because you can't breathe. You have to stop at river crossings and change your shoes. You have to stop and fill up at river crossings and use your filter system or your chlorine tablets. I had both because I was a little bit paranoid about clean water, and so you're doing all of those things and there comes a part where everybody talks about. It was mile number seven, crawler's ledge. I could see it from one of the switchbacks I was on and I started sobbing. I was like I don't think I can do it. I don't think I can do it. But when I got to it, the reason it didn't then seem as scary is because the whole trail was narrow and so that part of the trail was no more narrow than the rest of it. It was just that the other narrow parts had greenery, which gave you a false sense of security. Okay, this was. You had your shoulder to the mountain side. You're ever so slowly stepping on the cliff side and a hundred foot at least drop down is lava rock into the ocean, so that was the difference. There was nothing. On my right side, looking down, you know you feel like, oh, maybe if you would have slipped which I slipped many times but if you would have slipped where you saw the greenery, maybe something would have caught you. I don't actually think it would have, but it gives you that false sense of security. And so being out in the wide open, like that, it was like, okay, the only difference is there's nothing there that would quote catch me if I fell. So all in all, it wasn't any different than the rest of the trail width. It just made you really realize that every step absolutely matters which it should on the whole rest of the trail anyway. But right before you get there was a complete gravel like washed out spot of about five to six feet. Oh my, that was the street slope that we had to crouch down and literally bear crawl across and if you slipped it was like a gravel slide down to your death. That was the spot that really scared us and everyone else doing that trail that we saw the most.

Speaker 2: 18:08

I'll tell you what, tina. I don't know if you're crazy or brave or both or what, but this is just so amazing that you were able to conquer this, and that's what I'm talking through. My mind, too, is conquer.

Speaker 1: 18:25

And that's what I called. It was. You know, jen and Tina, conquer Kalala. That was my friend who went with me and I feel like we really did conquer something. So, as we're finishing the trail, you had to go through a gate that said there was feral pig snaring ahead. You're like, okay, don't really know what that entails, but hopefully there are no hunters out, or if they are, they will be able to see us. We saw goats, all about. We saw goats crossing rivers. We saw pigs. One scared us so bad, it was so, so big and it ran about three feet in front of us, just down, just barreled down the hill I'm talking a few seconds later. If that would have barreled into one of us, we're toast. We are completely falling down this hundred foot cliff and we are toast. In fact, we had heard once we got to Kalala out beach there was talk about there was a man who, a few days before us coming in, got bucked off a 30 foot ledge and had to be airlifted out by a goat. Oh my goodness. We hadn't taken the goat seriously on the way in, at least when I say that they didn't scare us. But I'll tell you what they did on the way out they were blocking away for us to go through and we had to wait 10, 15 minutes to make an all kinds of noise to try to make them leave. So it definitely. I feel like we got the whole Kalalao experience because we got it with the weather, we got it with the people, we got it with the fruit. You know. We got it with the animals. We saw all the things. You know, we saw rain, we saw wind, we saw stagnant air. You know what I mean? I feel it was just, it was just the best. I mean we couldn't have asked for anything else and it was. You know, when I got to the end and I saw the beach and I was just like wow, I did tear up, I was emotional, but I wasn't as emotional as I thought that I would be, and I think it's because I knew two things One, I still had to make the journey back and two, I was missing my family like crazy.

Speaker 2: 20:34

Oh my goodness, so you did 11 miles.

Speaker 1: 20:37

We did 11 miles. It took us 10 hours and 45 minutes to hike into the valley.

Speaker 2: 20:44

That is insane, tina, you must have been exhausted, I was so exhausted.

Speaker 1: 20:52

What was really nice was we were able to soak our legs in the stream for a while and our feet and I think that they needed that coldness Angles were swollen Literally. I felt like one wrong move and my ankle was going to snap off. I was in a lot of pain as I went into it with the right foot overtraining injury to start, with Right Metatarsal, and I was a little nervous how that would go. I did really great, all things considered, but I had to take an ibuprofen once on the way in and once on the way out. But it really did its job because I was in tears with the amount of pain that I was in actually more my left foot than my right. Going in, it affects your left foot more, and then going out, it affects your right foot because of the slopes and the slants, is my best guess. So it was definitely something I felt really proud of. And then, when we were there, one of the things I noticed first and I knew it would be this way, but still, whenever you go to the beach, you notice people looking in which direction? Towards the ocean Right. This was the only beach I've ever been to where people's backs were to the ocean because you were looking at those stunning emerald cliffs and that waterfall. It was just a really cool thing to see that you're at the beach but the ocean is behind you, because you're looking at the magnificent mountain.

Speaker 2: 22:16

Oh my goodness, that's just amazing. I mean, it just must have been so surreal.

Speaker 1: 22:23

It was so surreal, I think, that I spent the first day there just in awe. I was in absolute awe. I was in awe that I did it. I was in awe that I'm hanging onto the cliffside with being pelted by 50, 65 mile per hour wind gusts. Covered in black shirt.

Speaker 2: 22:39

Yeah, how bad was the tropical storm.

Speaker 1: 22:43

So the tropical storm, I think, ended up being downgraded again to a tropical depression. We did not get any rain at Kalalao, but we did get the wind. So the funny part is I put my tent up. We go to sleep for the night and wake up. I'm not sure what time I woke up, but I did wake up to serious wind gusts and I took a video of me in my tent and the tent just being rattled by the wind and sand is blowing in everywhere, even though my rain fly is down. Sand is just pouring in and I'm like, oh my gosh, like I'm wiping my face off. It woke me up. I'm like what is happening? It's so loud. So I spent a good portion of the day in my tent, just hunkered down. But I had to come out and eat with my little fuel canister and my little portable meals that I had brought in these bags, and so I was eating just a little ways away. There was a ranger station there that would be for if there was an air landing, and there was just this bench to sit on with this little shack. So we were making our food over there and all of a sudden this gust comes and my tent goes flying. Oh my gosh, my tent blows away. It goes one way, the tarp goes the other. There's a man who makes a dramatic catch of my tarp and I go running after my tent and I end up taking it down for the day, because the wind is just all day long. It was just so, so, so strong. And so you walk on the beach and you're just pelted with sand. It feels like little BBs that are just hitting you the whole time that you're walking. So we ended up taking refuge in the sea cave, one of the several sea caves down at the end of the beach, and boy was that a nice place to just cool off and get shelter from that blazing hot sun and that gusty wind that was whipping you with sand.

Speaker 2: 24:37

I just, I have no words, tina.

Speaker 1: 24:41

It was a special trip and, just for the sake of time for our listeners, a few things that we did while we were in the valley. We hiked all the way up into the valley when we went to a spot called the Big Pool, where you can swim, where locals drink water. It was about a two hour hike to get there and along the hike were all of these amazing fruit trees. We were throwing up bad oranges to get the good oranges down out of the tree and after about 15 tries I finally got one, and my husband was so proud of me I knew he would be, he would have been able to do it on the first try. It took me a little while, so I did that. We had limes, we had the oranges, mangoes and we had lemons, and just nothing like the fresh fruit there. And I had been on the hunt for bananas and I never could find the bananas myself. But there were a few people who were locals, if you will, who live in Kalamao for periods of time, maybe a month or two at a time, and so I find them and the locals were telling you they're up in the valley, and we looked and, looked and looked and couldn't find them. So we met a lady. Her name was Leanna Montana and they give themselves names there for people who frequently visit. Her first name is her real first name, then Montana is actually where she's from. So I thought it was cute. Oh, that's cool. Yes, there was Maui Mike. There was Freddie Mango. He's known for his mangoes. Mike is from Maui, you know. It was cute to see that that's what they did. And so I met Leanna. She's 65 years old. It's her second time hiking the Kalalao Trail this year and she has hiked it every year since 1985. Oh, my goodness, yes, and she said you just do it differently. She's a tiny little thing 115 pounds, because, she told me, and she just breaks the trail up into two different days. So on our way, and she kind of stopped my friend and I said hey, can you find someone back at camp named Freddie Mango and let them know that Leanna Montana is going to wait out the storm and I will hike in either Wednesday or Thursday. And so we're like okay, you know, like sure, we'll do that. So she's the one who found me a banana and just was really a source of comfort for me there. We got to see each other multiple times and I thought she just had a really fun laid back personality and that was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We were meeting just some of the people that were either local or not when we were there and some of the other things we got to do. We got to lay in the river where the water meets the ocean. So that was pretty cool and we got to meet awesome people. And one of the things that was really eye opening was on Wednesday when all the water was wake capped and that tropical depression then Calvin was coming through. There were some local Hawaiians, two 18 year old boys and their dad, who had decided to go out kayaking. Now, to me I would have never done it, but I don't know the ocean like they do. So they went out kayaking. All of a sudden, you see, at some point later the dad come running back and he's frantic and he's asking if anybody has a satellite phone. Well, his boys kayak flipped. One went one way with the boat, one went the other with the paddles, and the current is a rip current always out there, and it was so strong it had washed the clear way. You couldn't hardly see anything. So there were no boat tours or anything that day. But the Coast Guard was called out and you could see them circling right in front of you know, we're right there on the beach, they're looking and all of a sudden we see a jet ski come in and we don't know what's happening until after this first jet ski drops something we thought off. Well, it was someone. They just dropped him off in the sand and then they went back out and you saw this family come running over and we're like, oh my gosh, what do you need? Are you okay? Because it happened right in front of where we were camping. Yeah, and he was like they're looking for the other boy and me and this other older couple were just hugging and crying and praying that gosh, you know, my mom heart was hurting. If that was my son that was still missing, you know, I would just be a wreck. And so I'm crying for her and we're praying and about 20 minutes later you see this jet ski come from way far out again and they brought the other boy back. So we witnessed two rescues on the beach and I took a picture of the when the other brother was dropped off the first brother that was dropped off and the dad just came running and Collapsed all in the sand. Just in such. It was just one of those moments that was that you just felt like you had to take the picture of the backs of them. They were so happy that they were safe and it was just one of those really emotional, like an emotionally draining time. But it was really beautiful to share it with other people who were there on the beach. You know, we're all strangers but we're all connected because we're all there at that same time in that same place and I'm so glad that they were safe.

Speaker 2: 29:47

Happen on this trip.

Speaker 1: 29:49

Oh, so so much happened on this trip. I Would be remiss if I didn't mention I had read a lot about there is an expatriate that lives there. So a man who used to serve in the army, in the military, and has now, you know, as anti-government for whatever reason that I don't know. Nice guy, little bit much at times, little bit much, but it was really cool that we actually got to meet him. Okay, you know someone that I was hoping I would come in contact with and he would tell us all kinds of stories. One of those people, though You're like okay, 25% of that's true, but the other 75% is not and you could tell he was lonely, he lives out there, he lives in the valley and on that beach, and you know, he just I don't know. I was interested in talking to him and it was really neat to meet some of those locals and other Travelers and all of us there at that same time. Like I said, for the same purpose of accomplishing that goal and I enjoyed it so very much. And you want to talk about beautiful night skies with stars? Boy, oh boy, that is my place to go. You could see the whole Milky Way from there.

Speaker 2: 30:57

Oh, that just sounds amazing. I mean I don't know if I could do it, but just living vicariously through you, I mean it's, it's amazing. But you know, some of the best experiences I've had with people is traveling, and you know we, we go all over the place, we're constantly busy, and even my kids I'll tell you what Some of the best times that I have seen them interacting with others is on these trips. And just last night we were at a state fair and, oh my gosh, my son hooked up with these boys that were about the same age and they were on this hang gliding ride, and my son loves Bon Jovi and so he started singing. Living a prayer while he's going around and round and he had Not only the people next to him on each side of him singing, living on a prayer, but another group of kids and they were just Belting out living on a prayer as they're going around and around on and I'm like, oh my gosh, I know who started that and he belongs to me. But it was just so cool because, like afterward, they saw each other a couple of times in the park and they're just like hey, hey, you know, and they had this connection and it was really cool to see that.

Speaker 1: 32:29

Absolutely so. Connection I'm so glad you said that that's something that's so special, so important, something I felt along the trip in various ways with various people I encountered.

Speaker 2: 32:41

I Want to tell you a little bit of some of my first takeaways, if I can and Unfortunately we have to end the episode here, but fortunately we will be back next week for part two, when Tina talks more about the emotional side, and, trust me, you are going to want to hear what happened. Thank you for listening and see you next week.