Kauai
2007

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Tunnel hike! Oh man, where do I start? Maybe by saying that I asked for it so I should not complain...

Okay, I really wanted to do a jungle hike while on the 'garden' isle so Shelley looked up this super cool one and today was the day. It started with a crazy drive. We went up Highway 580 to the plateau (VERY nice houses up here...) and then the pavement ended at a park. We had to drive across a river crossing just to get to the dirt road and it kept getting more exciting the farther we went.

First of all, some hills on this road were so steep that if it had been raining there is no way that the Chevy Impala we had rented would have made it through; not a chance. As it was we were lucky - it had not rained in days. Still... At one point there was pavement on this road and we kept coming across bits and pieces or asphalt but even when it was there, it was in such a broken state that I wished for dirt. We had to ford two more rivers, scrapped the front air dam of the car three times, saw two burned out shells of a car [if you're going to burn your car, why drive it out here first...?!] and finally had to park about 100 yards from the trail head as the last bit looked too treacherous for our vehicle.

The description of the hike kept mentioning water and mud so being the geniuses that we are, we figured that our Chaco sandals would be ideal footwear. And when we encountered mud not 50' from the trail head we were congratulating ourselves on our choice! So we were alternately slogging through mud, crossing streams, winding through bamboo forests and then came the stooping.

Oh man, we must have been bent over for 25 percent of our hike. It's amazing how fast the jungle reclaims trails and this one was not exactly being maintained in the first place. Add to that climbing up hills, edging across sections that had slid down into the valley or been entirely washed away with the last rain storm or mud slide and trying not to get slashed too bad by all the brush we were barging through and it was kind of an exhausting trek. It was 2.5 miles to the tunnel and it must have taken us at least 2 hours to cover that distance. But then we were there.

The history of this tunnel is that a farmer/land baron needed water for his crops and so he decided to 'steal' it. On the other side of the mountains he diverted a river and blasted a tunnel through the hill so that the water would flow from the river, down his aqueduct, through his tunnel and onto his crops. Yes, he was super rich. The tunnel is one mile long and roughly 6' square. Being 6'2" I had to duck my head and walk stooped most of the time but at first it was a blast. The water in the tunnel (now that the river is not being diverted into it anymore) is only about 2-6 deep so you are merrily splashing along and it's really clean to boot so I was actually looking less like some mud person the more I walked through this. And Shelley had the great foresight to pack headlamps so we were super well equipped.

It was in this tunnel that we encountered the _only_ two other people that were on this hike today. They had managed to drive those last 100 yards. "Hey, it's a rental..."

Water was dripping down from the ceiling about every 100' and we could see the end of the tunnel as we walked along but when we got to the light, the tunnel turned left and continued. The light was just where the crew had (accidentally?) blasted all the way through the hill. After the turn the ceiling got a little lower. And then the ceiling was shored up with these timbers that felt like balsa wood/a sponge. And the water on the floor was no longer clean; here it was filled with dirt, branches and tons of leaves. Needless to say we got gobs of stuff stuffed into our sandals as we walked.

This last bit actually rounded a corner and made a detour around another tunnel (the original one I'm assuming) that appeared to have caved in. We walked past the entrance which had been sealed by rock fall and then at the other end this same section was sealed with concrete. What made that bit so unsafe and our section which was only about 30' away and shored up with rotting timbers safe I don't know...

At the end we had to climb up onto the dike that diverted the water to this tunnel, down the other side and to the river that was the source. Here we took off our 'shoes', had a snack and assessed our situation. 10 minutes up the trail there was supposed to be another .7 mile tunnel that went to the source of all this water. It's supposed to open up into this storybook grotto with 200' walls and moss and green everywhere and I was all gung ho to forge ahead. But after a bit of sitting and noticing that we had not really packed for a hike at all in terms of the food we brought and looking at our feet which were already starting to disintegrate from the constant softening of the water we decided to head back. It was a good thing we did.

Almost as soon as we started walking my feet started hurting. The straps from my sandals had already worn three small raw spots in my feet and now with the sand and dirt and junk getting in there and a mile of hiking through water making them even softer, we emerged from the tunnel with feet that were in no condition to go anywhere. And we still had 2.5 miles of really tricky trail to go.

Needless to say there was a bit of complaining on this section of trail. :( And we really had to walk slowly as each slip or misstep caused more pain as the sandal straps against our disintegrating feet. Every stream and river crossing was a chance to rest, soak our aching appendages and try (in vain) to rinse the dirt and gravel out from our sandals. I say in vain because as soon as we took another 10 steps we were covered in mud again and had stuffed tons of crap back into our sandals.

Cut to two hours later... we made it to the car. Holy cow! I don't recall the last time I have taken off my shoes so slowly. Ouch! By comparison the drive back seemed like no problem. We only touched the ground once when we got to the pavement the rain started dumping so we were starting to almost feel fortunate . :)

Then it was off the store for bandages and antibacterial ointment!

	Martin: The pan was sticky so Shelley tried a cup. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: My name is Shelley and I'm making breakfast! Shelley:
	Martin: Listen up egg, don't you _dare_ stick to anything... Shelley:
	Martin: On the dirt road to the trail head. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Rollin' in the Chevy Impala. Shelley:
	Martin: This used to be a car. Before it got burned. And squashed. Shelley:
	Martin: The second water crossing. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: At the trail head. Shelley:
	Martin: She has NO idea what we are in for... Shelley:
	Martin: Hey, this is easy! Shelley:
	Martin: Our first river crossing. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Somewhere Shelley found this walking stick. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: This bamboo forest was SO cool, and super dense! This trail was the biggest clearing otherwise you were rubbing the bamboo on both sides. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Less than 30 minutes from the car the constant bending over started... Shelley:
	Martin: And the trail got, uh, worse. Shelley:
	Martin: A rare clearing where you did not have to stoop. Instead you almost needed a machete to get through the brush... Shelley:
	Martin: Gecko? Lizard? What is the difference? Shelley:
	Martin: This must be why they call this the 'garden isle'... Shelley:
	Martin: The entrance to the first tunnel. Shelley:
	Martin: Look how proud we still are of our footwear choice! Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Sure looks dark in there. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: Inspecting our feet at the other end of the tunnel where we had 'lunch'. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: This would have been a super swimming hole if it was just a little warmer... today was overcast and no direct sun. Shelley:
	Martin: The damage to our feet still had not sunk in so I headed across the river to look for the trail to the second tunnel. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: You can tell by the fact that Shelley still has her headlamp around her neck that she's pretty pumped about continuing up the trail... :| Shelley:
	Martin: How do you spell hearty and satisfying? Peanut butter pretzels! Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley:
	Martin: After abandoning the idea of continuing, we head back in the tunnel to go back. Shelley:
	Martin: The ceiling was mostly covered with this silver 'paste' that you could wipe off with your fingers. Kinda gross and kinda spooky. Shelley:
	Martin: Shelley gets ready to enter the tunnel. Shelley:
	Martin: The crazy, rotten timbers that are holding up the ceiling?! Shelley:
	Martin: Back at home inspecting the damage... Shelley: