A Saturday Afternoon Hike

We successfully made it to our second island, Kaua'i, on the fourteenth. The day after we drove up to see Waimea Canyon, and at the end of road, 20 miles in, we decided to take the Pihea Trail to the Alaka'i Swamp - the highest swamp in the world. Lucky for us it was dry and sunny, but you can see why the boardwalk was installed in the pictures below. To quote The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook, "The Alaka'i Swamp Trail leads to the edge of cliff (they're not kidding!) where the Kilohana Lookout affords a majestic view of Ha'ena (the town where we are right now) on the north shore, clouds permitting. The ancient Hawaiians used this trail to get to the north shore when the surf precluded going by sea. Once at Kilohana, they went over and down the 3,400 cliff to the valley floor and along the sloping valley to the ocean. All this for west siders to visit family on the north shore in the winter." You can see Ha'ena in the top left of the bottom photo. That's the ocean.

Minutes after we got to the end, clouds flew right up the valley walls with amazing speed creating a complete white-out. We chatted with another hiker and watched it dissipate again. It was a four hour hike round trip, and we treated ourselves with shave ice from Jo Jo's which is quite a wonderful treat that deserves a post all its own.

16 years ago today we got engaged, and this was a pretty cool way to spend it.