Boot care
If you’re going to hike a lot, be sure your boot seams are freshly sealed and you’ve freshly waterproofed the entire boot, including the cloth portion, if any. Use a heavy-duty waterproofing compound like a wax, and bring some of it along in order to renew the coating if necessary. Chances are your boots will get wet, especially in the winter. And they’ll stay wet, because things dry slowly in the tropical humidity. It’s pretty tough on the boots and, together with the abrasion of mud particles, could cause boot seams to fail.
Hiking stick
Take your hiking stick if you usually hike with one. The flight attendants can put it in the closet where they hang the carryon suits and dresses or in the overhead compartments. Kauai’s terrain can be very slippery when wet, and a hiking stick can be a big help in maintaining your footing. And it can double as a spider stick (see below).
Spider stick
There are a very few brushy trails where you and some orb spiders may meet unexpectedly, head-on. You probably don’t like collecting spiders with your face, but these critters make it hard not to do so. Here’s one way to avoid them without killing them. Pick up and use a “spider stick”—a long, strong stick that you carefully wave up and down in front of you as you hike. You can feel the tug when the stick connects with a web. Detach the anchor strands that hold the web in your way, and lay them aside on the adjacent shrubbery. An orb spider normally rebuilds most or all of her web daily, so you’ve caused her only minor inconvenience. Your hiking stick can probably double as a spider stick.
Sleeping bag
It should be able to tolerate wet conditions. For example, it could have a Gore-Tex shell or it could have a synthetic fill. You are almost certain to get rained on a bit while camping.
Tent
You’ll need one for protection from the rain and the various campsite critters. None of the critters is particularly dangerous. They’re probably not what you’d choose to bed down with, though (for example, toads, centipedes, ants, cockroaches).
Clothes while backpacking
On the one hand, it’s best to go as light as possible, especially on a difficult trail like the Kalalau Trail. On the other hand, almost nothing—not even synthetics—dries overnight in Kauai’s humid climate under camping conditions. You can’t expect to rinse a shirt out in the evening and find it dry in the morning. Socks wet from soggy trails or stream crossings will probably stay wet for a while. Consider what things you can stand to wear damp and what you can’t stand unless they’re dry. Pack just one or two of the “okay if damp” things. Pack a set of the “gotta be dry!” things for each day plus one or more extras, just in case. (For me, it’s socks.)
At the end of a soggy day of backpacking
On those occasional rainy days, you may wonder how you’re going to get reasonably clean without getting any wetter than you already are. Well, the socks you’ve worn all day are “goners” for the time being, wet and muddy on the outside but relatively clean on the inside. While you’re changing into dry clothes, turn your “used” socks inside out and mop yourself off with them.
Hypothermia? On Kauai?
It’s possible if you go into the mountains. Remember that going higher is equivalent to going north into colder climates, Kauai’s mountains are very wet, and mountains are often very windy. Please be prepared as you would be for going into any mountainous region.
Biodegradable? Ha, ha, ha!
The following things are popularly supposed to be biodegradable if you bury them: toilet tissue; facial tissues; sanitary napkins; tampons; disposable diapers. That must be a joke. They often last long enough for either running water to exhume them or animals to dig them up. It’s actually pretty easy to carry them out if you put them in a heavy-duty self-sealing bag.
Getting hiking and backpacking food
If you are planning to backpack on Kauai, consider shopping for your hiking and backpacking chow on Kauai. Food prices are higher in Hawaii, but you have enough stuff to put in your luggage without bringing your food, too. There are several well-stocked supermarkets on the island, particularly around Kapaa and Lihue, and some camping stores. You can buy almost anything from the “raw ingredients” (oatmeal, bread, crackers, peanut butter, cheese, …) to dehydrated and freeze-dried chow.
Companions
The standard advice is: never hike alone; never camp alone.
Water
Take your own drinking water for the day. Plan on treating water while backpacking. No open source of water anywhere in the U.S. is safe to drink untreated. Treat water by boiling (bring to a rolling boil) or filtering (note that filters clog relatively quickly in Kauai’s sediment-rich water).
Don’t spread pest plants: wash off your shoes or boots
As I mentioned in the chapter on geology and history, Hawaii has been overrun by introduced plants. It’s important to try to control the spread of these plants. One thing you can do to help is to wash the soil, and with it the seeds of any pest plants, you hope, off of your shoes or boots before you leave a hiking area. If there’s no water avilable for this, use a stick to clean off the mud.
Avoiding leptospirosis
Fresh water on Kauai may be contaminated with the bacterium that causes leptospirosis. There’s a pamphlet about leptospirosis that’s available from the Kauai Department of Health (3040 Umi Street, Lihue, HI 96766, (808) 245-4495). The following summarizes some of its contents: Muddy and clear water are both suspect. The bacterium invades through broken skin or the nose, mouth, or eyes. It enters the bloodstream and infects different organs, particularly the kidneys. Precautions that would especially apply to you here are not to go into streams if you have open cuts or abrasions and not to drink [untreated] stream water.
If you do swim in fresh water on Kauai, you should know that the incubation period of leptospirosis is 2–20 days. The onset is sudden and is characterized by “high fever, with chills and sweats, severe headache, muscle pains, weakness, and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea.” You should see a physician immediately if you suspect leptospirosis. A “best” course of treatment hasn’t been established, but it’s believed that administering certain antibiotics early in the course of the disease will shorten the disease and make symptoms less severe. The pamphlet says that most cases are mild and that people [with mild cases] recover in a week or two without treatment. However, severe leptospirosis infections may damage kidneys, liver, or heart and may even cause death.
Using This Book
How This Book Organizes the Trips
Kauai is closer to being round than any of the other major Hawaiian islands. And Mt. Waialeale sits almost in the middle of it. Imagine the hour hand of a clock pinned to Mt. Waialeale, and I’ll use the clock analogy for describing where the trip is on Kauai’s circumference. At 12 o’clock, for example, the imaginary Kauai clock hand points to Hanalei. At 6 o’clock, the hand points a little past Poipu.
The trips start, of course, at 12 o’clock at Hanalei and move clockwise around Kauai past Kapaa, Lihue, Poipu, Waimea, Kekaha, Waimea Canyon State Park, Polihale, Kokee State Park, the Na Pali Coast on the northwestern edge of the island, and finally, at about 11 o’clock, to Haena at the end of the highway past Hanalei.
And that’s pretty much the order in which you’ll find them in this book. One exception is the trips that begin on Mohihi Road in the Kokee area. First, the book covers the trips whose trailheads are on the main road that passes through Kokee State Park, Highway 550. Mohihi Road branches off Highway 550, and I’ve put