Hawai'i Kauai Island Trip Day3

The next day we hiked 6 miles, including one of the ten most dangerous trails in the U.S. 

It is indeed a very narrow trail. One side is a cliff and under the cliff is the Pacific Ocean. Luckily the other side is rocky wall. I felt safe by putting my hand on it. 

As long as using rocks to keep stable, it was not so dangerous to walk on. I guess people who look at this portion from helicopter, it probably looks much risky, but in reality on the trail, it is not bad at all. Probably the number of people who see this trail by hiking is smaller than the number of people who see this one by helicopter. There are many helicopter tours in Hawai'i. One of the most popular helicopter tour in Kauai island is to see this dangerous hiking trail from sky. I saw a picture of this trail taken from helicopter, and I was surprised. It DOES look dangerous. I am sure that guides at helicopter say, "This is one of the most dangerous trails in the world! See, only crazy people are hiking there!"

It was not so bad at all, and it was really fun.

 

I took a memorable picture on this day.

The picture below is my best photograph during Kalalau Trail. This paradise contains all of the features: blue sky, blue and green ocean, nice beach, green meadow, mountains made of many hills. Because of the hilly trails it is almost more than 5000 feet elevation change in 12 miles to go to Kalalau Beach from trailhead. It is tough in the hot weather, but the amazing view made it much easier.

 

Kalalau beach is very pretty. Again cats made the campground even better. Immediately after I pitched a tent and put my backpack on the ground, a tabby cat came and found my backpack a comfortable bed for napping (picture in the left). Soooooo cute!!! I petted him a lot. They are "feral", but many of them like to be pet and interact intensively with human beings.

I bought swimsuits for this trip, so I went into the ocean in the evening. I used to be a competitive swimmer at elementary school, but this was my first time swimming in the U.S. The water was cold but felt good, and salty. The waves were bigger than they seemed from a distance. It was nice to be in the ocean. After swimming in the ocean, we went to waterfall coming from mountain, which doesn't contain salt. There is a pool and fall near the campground. It was the best place to wash off salt from ocean and sweat.

 

３日目。目的地はカララウトレイルの名前の元にもなっている、カララウビーチ。６マイル（９．６キロ）だたアップダウンが激しく”アメリカで危険なトップ１０のトレイル”にも入る箇所があるため油断は禁物だ。

確かに崖沿いのトレイルはすごく狭い。片側は崖、下は海。岩崩れの可能性もありとのサインが。上から崖崩れがあっても足元で崖崩れがあってもどちらも危険！歩くときに岩を掴みながら進む。確かに狭いトレイルだが、岩をつかんでいればそれほど怖いわけでもない。とういうかトップ１０に入るほど危険なのか疑問だった。はたから見ると危険に見えるが実際歩いて見るとそこまでではないな、というのがこの部分の感想だった。

２枚目の写真は、このカララウトレイルのハイクの中でベストの写真！カララウトレイルの全ての要素を含んでいる。青い空、青と緑の海、ビーチ、幾つもの丘から成り立つ山、緑の草原。まさにパラダイスだ。カララウビーチに行き着くまでは丘が多く、１８キロで２０００メートルほどのアップダウンがあるのだが、この素晴らしい景色のおかげで疲労感も和らぐというものだ。

そしていよいよカララウトレイルに着く。テントを張っていると早速猫が来て私のバックパックの上で昼寝（３枚目の写真）。かわいい！猫のいるキャンプ場、最高＾＾