The Hike Out

On Saturday morning we were up at 6 and had a quick breakfast and packed up before starting on the trail at 7:45. 

Worked as quickly as we could to keep the shade as long as it lasted. 

Got up to the top of Red Hill and was amazed at the difference as the surf was so much lower than the hike in.

Got to crawlers ledge much earlier than expected and it was so much easier than the first time.

After that in the heat our pace slowed some.

We got back to Hanakoa at 11:00, crossed the steam, and had an early lunch. We are as much of our remaining food as possible to lighten our packs.

We continued up out of the valley but our pace had slowed some more.

Again it was interesting to see how different each of the valleys we crossed were.

There are fences along some of the ridges to keep the pigs relatively contained; it felt good to get past the last one.

Finally we made it back to the Hanakapi'ai Stream and had only 2 more miles to go. After crossing the stream were the two final and hardest miles to get back to the trailhead. It was one mile climbing up to 700 feet, then the second descending back down to Ke'e Beach. Looking out to sea there were some whales way offshore. and it almost felt they were guiding to the end.

We made it; 11 miles done in one day.

We showered off in the beach shower, then hopped in the ocean for a quick dip before loading up the car and looking for a place to stay the night.

Knowing that we had a full 5 nights of trail permits and not wanting to have an issue checking in, we didn't have accommodation booked for Saturday night. We were hoping to stay somewhere in Hanelei Bay and explore the north shore on Sunday, but there are not many hotels and there was no vacancy of the other places to stay in the area are big resorts with 3 or 7 night minimum stays.

Cell service isn't the best on the north shore so trying to find data to check for hotels was tough. We pulled in to a community center near Princeville and met a nice local recommending we head back down to Kapa'a. Since our hotel for Sunday and Monday night was there, we got to the hotel and managed to get an extra night and check in a day early. It felt so nice to be in a place with a real bed and air conditioning. We had a shower then got into clean clothes and went out for a sushi dinner at Kintaro, a local favourite Japanese restaurant that was near our hotel. The sushi was so fresh and delicious. A great way to end a great hike.