Kalalau Stream and Valley Trail (Pt 5/5) – July 15, 2011

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The day after we arrived, we thought we’d head into valley to explore Kalalau Stream. The main valley trail is listed as being 2 miles on the sign, but the trail to Waimakemake Falls was not listed or distinctly marked… there were actually several indistinct lines that lead back into the valley.

We asked several inhabitants of the valley if they could direct us to the falls, but they basically told us, “Listen to the aina, it will always tell you the way…” or appeared to have a plethora of obscure landmarks and flakey directions which conflicted with what others had told us previous.

Despite what seemed like a quagmire of trail directions, we ended up sticking to the valley trail along the stream… which was by no means displeasing.

Waterfalls and deep plunge pools of crystal clear water were basically one after another.

It was so tempting to jump in every single pool on the way into the valley, but we decided to see as much as we could and hit the pools on the way back.

There were also some tempting boulders to climb here, but we were here to jump into and swim in the pools. So we stuck to Plan A.

Near the apex of our journey into the valley, we encountered a sizable falls… but the pool at the bottom was too rough to swim in.

Back-tracking a short distance, we found a calm and deep pool to swim in (left). There was a small, but unique falls spraying over a large boulder, creating a “glass-room…” for lack of a more descriptive name. We all had a blast taking turns to sit in it (right).

Of course, the acrobatics began… Seth clowning around (left) and Troy doing a more traditional jump (right).

Don’t forget the air-splits! haha… Even though we didn’t get to the see the waterfall, we were so stoked to swim back here. The faint trails that basically can lead to nowhere, but sticking to the stream was beautiful. The trail that we did follow was short and didn’t take longer than an hour to hike in and an hour to hike out.

Later that day, we headed downstream to harvest some Tahitian Prawns. Since they are an invasive species, I had no problem hoarding as many as I could.

I caught about 20 of them before I couldn’t handle the coldness of the water. We threw them in with some leftover Opihi we collected on the rocks near where Kalalau Stream met the ocean earlier that afternoon (right). We did eat a bunch of the Opihi raw, but decided to try and change up the flavors for our palates…

I brought some spice rub (garlic/rock salt, ancho chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper etc.) and a mixture of black truffle and olive oil with foil, in the case we decided to catch anything to cook on the fire. This was the perfect application. Getting some good coals going, with small flames, the heat was perfect. Taking the prawns and opihi off the fire in < 10 minutes, "Ho' da buggah was plenny kine onolicious l'dat, fo'reals broke da mout' I tell you..." And that was the end of that. I guess I wish I brought a maui onion. lol. But roasting marshmallows for desert was also pretty satisfying too. hehe. To view this location on a Google Map also known as my “Adventure Map“, Click Here. To view all the photos from our trip, click on the Kalalau 2011 Photography Gallery. For more adventures of the Lost Trailblazers, either look at my other blogposts and “Adventures with the Lost Trailblazers” photo gallery or check out Troy’s Blogspot and David’s website “UnrealHawaii.com“.