Wednesday, June 24, 2015

We saw a wild pig!

That was Ross's favorite quote of the day, though mine was "This is really good. This is the best thing I have had in a long time" said with incredible sincerity. That was inspired by the shaved ice, after our two runs of the day exploring Waimea Canyon and Koke'e State Park.

Jo-Jos for coconut shaved ice - with mochi, coconut and cannellini beans (??) on the bottom
The morning started with a drive to end of the road in Waimea Canyon and a run on Pihea Trail to Alaka'i Swamp Trail. Fun history of a princess who hiked through these swamps, and then later on the government tried to build a road through them but failed. The clay dirt was really slick at times and so running was really slow in places. Once there were boardwalks it was much better because most of the wood was covered in metal meshing. But it's old and not well maintained so parts are just the wet slick board - I have the bruise on my butt to prove how slippery they were.
Just a sampling of the mud on the trails (at least this part was flat!)
Out in the swamps - don't worry we were rewarded with a fantastic view at the end!

On the way back we discovered that we had actually been running next to an amazing valley - Kalalau Canyon. But it was so cloudy when we started that we had no idea! Lots of stops to take pictures of this amazing place on the way back. And we looked hardcore enough that we got asked to be in the pictures with the Japanese tourists back at the viewing station by the parking lot. We walked around for the remainder of the day with mud covering our legs.

Selfie with the Canyon.
Kalalau Canyon

Then we snacked a bit and drove back down the road to the trailhead for Awa-'awapuhi Trail. This is a 6 mile (total) out and back trail with 1,520 feet of elevation change. We heard it has one of the best views at the bottom of the Nu'alolo Valley along the Na Pali Coast. It was amazing. I ran the whole way back up to the top, which was a great final workout.

Standing out on the edge.



We think it's a it blurry because Ross sweat all over his iphone. But it was a looong way down. 
We ended the day with snorkeling at Salt Pond Beach, which is protected by a rocky point. This made it so I could actually swim in the water without getting thrown around and see lots of colorful fish.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Loving the short-shorts in the first pic of the post there, Ross :-)

Samantha said...

They are his favorite shorts. When he wore them the other day and someone say us running back on the trail they said, "I knew you were a runner by your shorts!" Because no one else would ever wear them.