Photos 4, page 17
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An Ill-fated Hike
| December 9, 2007 |
| For the longest time, I've been trying to get into the area on the coast between Hilo and the point marked "Beach" which is where we'd hiked on 7/25 from Paradise Park, the subdivision that the "Girlie House" is located in. I'd tried every road I could find on the map and all of them were blocked by gates so that I couldn't get in there with a car. So I finally decided that I'd have to walk in order to find out what was in there. The idea was to leave my car off at the "Girlie House" and have Robin drive me to the gate in Hilo (2nd half of cyan line). There she would drop me off and I would hike down the road beyond the gate until I reached a path that intersected the road just before it got to the coast and ended. According to my GPS, the path then led down to where I've marked the "Beach" we'd been to before where I would pick up the road that led south from there to Paradise Park. The road from the "Beach" was a straight shot and I'd been there before so I wasn't concerned about it getting dark because I had my flashlights with me and it wasn't a difficult walk. I was estimating about a 6 hour hike - I left at 12:30 and it got dark at 6:00, so... |
| This is a overall track of the hike. The cyan line is the path that we took to the start point. We expected to let me off at the gate marked at the top of the image but the gate was open so we kept going to the point marked "Start" where Robin left me off. |
| This is the track of the first part of the hike (green line). The original idea was to follow the road but, as you'll see, I chose not to do that and instead hiked down the coast a ways before getting back on the road where it swung near the coast further south. |
| This is the place I marked as "Start". There was another open gate in front of us with these signs on either side of the road. The operative phrase on the sign is at the bottom: DEPT. OF HAWAIIAN HOMELANDS. This means that the land beyond this point is part of the Hawaiian Homelands, set aside for native Hawaiians. They've been known to get pissed when some haole (foreigner) like me comes walking or driving through their property. So I chose to take the little road off to the left that led toward the shoreline. --> |
| As I came out of the woods onto the shore, there were these two guys fishing. You'll see this all over the island: local guys fishing from shore. These views also give you some idea of what the walking was going to be like as I headed down the coast... |
| Walking on these boulders is really nasty because they're round and possibly slippery and can roll when you step on them. It severely strains your feet, ankles, and calves, because of the uneven, unstable footing and you are constantly concerned about falling and breaking or twisting something. Because then what are you going to do? As you can see, going inland isn't much help... |
| I came to this interesting place that I called the "Grass Beach". It was a very pleasant place and I really enjoyed the flatness! I'm not sure if it floods during high tide or if it's like a delta from fresh water running from inland. The grass would argue that it's freshwater unless it's some kind of salt water grass... |
| Here are some more examples of the kind of terrain I was attempting to walk on. It was very slow going, ruining my schedule, and very tiring, taking more out of me than I had anticipated, and I was going to regret it later on! |
| Think about this for a minute... |
| I finally made it back to the road where it swung close to the coast (marked "Road" at Paukupahi). And was greeted by this. Kapu, if you haven't guessed, means taboo, like "don't go here". |
| This is a panoramic view of what I saw when I came out of the woods... |
| It was marked on the right side of the road as well. There wasn't much I could do except keep going... |
| The road was a real treat after stumbling and staggering over that coastal terrain! |
| At the end of the road at Papa'i, there was another park-like area with Keep Out signs. It was beautiful. Completely quiet except for the sound of waves crashing on the shore... |
| Just to the right of the clearing was a heiau, a place of worship from before the missionaries got here. |
| And just to the right of the heiau, a path that I followed out to the shore again where it ended. I sat and ate my lunch there and thought about what I was going to do. You see, I was in a bit of trouble here. According to my GPS, there was supposed to be a path cutting off the road at the location marked "Path?" but though I walked back and forth at that spot four or five times, but I couldn't find it. There was just a solid wall of brush. It was starting to get dark and I had to do something. After lunch, I tried going up the coast but the terrain was even worse than before and I was exhausted and it would have taken me forever to get to the "Beach", more than 3 miles away, where I could pick up the trail home, which was at least another 3 miles. Although I didn't know it at the time, I'd already walked almost 6 miles and I was tired! My feet hurt, my ankle hurt where I'd twisted it stumbling around on the rocks, and my clothes were completely saturated with sweat. It was around 5:30 and I was looking at some stiff hiking in front of me - if I could only figure out which way to go! I really didn't look forward to going all the way back the other way! Turn the page... |
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