Kauai

We opted to take the red eye flight out of Vegas to Kauai to make sure we could take advantage of as much of each day of the trip. To those worried about not being able to sleep on the flight, no worries. Kauai has some of the best coffee in the world grown right on island—enjoy! Landing on Kauai with our first beach stop at Poli Hali, naturally we picked the beach with a four-mile dirt road entry as the very first spot to head! We enjoyed a few hours of decently aggressive shorebreak with maybe another six people within sight along over 14 miles of beautiful beach. This beach is actually only a few miles away from our next destination: the Napoli Coast, back behind those rather large volcanic cliffs in the background of the photo below:

Babe on a Beach

After a few hours at the beach, we hit the local Ace Hardware (shoutout to Ace for existing in every small town/ random place we end up, btw) for the propane we couldn't fly with, bug spray, camp soap, etc. Afterwards and just as importantly, we got a whole bunch of fresh fish tacos in our bellies and headed to the hotel to rearrange our packs for the hike to Kalalau.

The first few miles of this hike in both directions really set the tone for the level of difficulty to come. The first mile is a steady climb over muddy rocks, and a descent to the first beach along the hike. There's a lot of day hikers through this section of the hike and up through the falls, past the beach but beyond the first three miles, the encounters with people become more few and far between.

One of the major feelings that stuck out throughout the most remote parts of the hike and climbing the hillsides was how easy it is to be completely enveloped in the vegetation around the trail, which at some places is no more than four to six inches wide. "In the shit," is the best term to describe it. Nutrition note: Hydrate like you mean it the day before and the morning of your hike. You're going to sweat a lot more than you're used to if you don't live in a jungle and you will dehydrate very quickly. Electrolyte products and whatnot are cool and we do bring them along on many trips in case we need them. However it's simpler to just drink a bunch of water and fuel appropriately in advance—as well as plan and pack to be able to maintain the activity you're taking on. Twenty-two miles is no joke.

We brought a Survivor Filter Pro and lifestraws along with us and were gifted a few sheets of water purification tabs by a friendly camper on his way out at mile six. The river/ spring area near camp is divine after miles of being drenched in your own sweat. We decided to set up for the night to be able to spend some time in the water, replenish our own water supplies, and avoid hitting Crawler's Ledge at or after sunset.

This is jungle camping, it's all very wet, and there are bugs everywhere. Do yourself a favor and reapply your bug spray after your glorious dip in the river and before setting up camp; be smarter than I was. I spent the next two weeks looking like I had small pox but it was all so worth it.

We are naturally early risers, much more so when we are camping. It's super easy to live that up with the sun lifestyle when it is shining through your tent! We packed a lot of the staples: dehydrated, light, easily ziplockable foods. We mixed some extra protein and glycofuse into the morning oatmeal to fuel the remaining five mile hike to the beach and packed up camp quickly to head for the cliffs!

"Crawler's Ledge" is about a mile long stretch of the trail that hugs the cliffs above a stunning drop to tumultuous waves. It was also aggressively windy as we passed through and very easy to get caught by a gust and fall off balance with weight on your back if you're not super focused. We snapped the picture above at the very beginning of this chunk, the widest and safest spot to do so. There are sections beyond as thin as four inches across to step over. Needless to say, we hustled through this mile at as fast a pace as possible while maintaining safety. After the cliffs, it's back to jungle. As you approach the beach, you'll find yourself playing the "How many more fingers could we possibly traverse in and out of before we get there" game and it's so many more than whatever number you will guess, but as you peek and look out to the small chunk of pristine beach in the distance it is easy to find the push to keep moving! There is one last river crossing before camp and the beach. We set up about fifteen feet away from the beach and a two minute walk to the waterfall under the trees. And, yes, that's a cat visiting us as we set up. They were everywhere out there.

This massive waterfall and the tides create pools all along the beach that are perfect to relax in when the waves are too violent to be in the water. One, super-friendly, local beach resident lounged naked in one all day and traded treats and stories with us as the sun was setting. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the sea caves and enjoying the waterfall.

I had to pee at 3 AM and noisily woke Nick up on my way out of the tent. He decided to adventure through the massive toad maze with me and we lucked into catching the most insane moonset at the beach. The massive orange moon slowly slid behind the horizon, leaving just us alone on one of the most remote beaches with more stars than you can imagine. We slowly returned to the tent for the last few hours of rest before tackling the full 11 miles out.

On the way out, we were in pure business mode. This was the only photo I took. We stopped as needed to eat, but kept it quick and made it out by 4 PM, smelling extremely ripe and so ready for tacos.

We spent the next two days exploring the island. We toured Kauai Coffee Co. and made a visit to the Kauai Humane Society. They have an awesome program where you can visit with the dogs and even take them on adventures with you during your stay!

The cap to our wild adventure week on Kauai was participating in the Ultimate Hawaiian Trail Run, which is an event that benefits kids on the island with free fitness and nutrition programs. The race was an absolute blast. It's an insane mudslide from the beginning; the two days of rain in the area prior didn't help much. We were sliding, and climbing our way through the 5k to the sandbag and obstacle run at the end. We ran straight to the water truck shower afterwards but spent the next day or so removing the red mud.

The race wiped me out so hard that I curled up in a booth at times while they made our poke bowls afterwards, but after a massive helping of tuna and a nap we found ourselves talking about signing up to come back out again already. Maybe the 10k next time?

We spent our last night on the island at dinner with all the competitors, stuffing our faces, recounting the incredible things we had seen and done in just one week. Kauai is an incredibly special place, and we're counting down until we return.