Day 181 - Awa'awapuhi Trail Rigdewalk

A picture from a lookout

Aaaand the next challenge. I saw a GoPro picture on Instagram of a girl walking along a ridge, which motivated me even more to go on a ridge walk myself. The Awa'awapuhi trail was chosen by my father who had hiked it before. A little more than three miles mostly downwards through forest, mud and bush vegetation with unfortunately increasing fog, too. Then, suddenly, the vegetation disappears except for high grass. The most challenging part of all was still to come. Like on the Sleeping Giant, an "End of Trail" sign was put at the cliff edge to limit the county's liability, even though the trail could be followed further. Of course I had to continue, because the excitement rose, seeing this literally terrific view.

We were not alone as a group of six hikers ahead of us (one of the girls recognized my "stoked" cap from the Kalalau trail) was already picnicking at the top of the cliff. The final meters of the hike were really risky: one foot wrong, you're gonna fall to death, no joke. Straight down many hundreds of meters, and the ground was slippery of sand. But we made it, my dad at least to the last broader and plain horizontal spot. When I climbed on, I first didn't realize that the path to the point where I'm doing the yoga tree pose on, was about one foot broad, only, which didn't terrify me at all for some reason. But what I did realize is that the picture which inspired me to bring my GoPro was taken EXACTLY at the same point where I stood, behind this small plain spot. Isn't that a stunning coincidence? There are so many ridge walks all over the world, and we chose exactly the same path out of so many in Na Pali.......

Looking back to the plain resting spot



What a thrill !!

Anyway, I think this was the hardest hike I did in a while. All the 3.25 miles we went down earlier had to be hiked upwards, again. I tell, you, more than 5 kms is challenging, especially when you had your adrenaline earlier and are kinda tired after half the way, already. My gosh, was I fighting, and slept so well after a nice dinner we had in Kapa'a.

Grand Canyon feelings at the Waimea Canyon