Kauai Tunnel Hike

Wow, what a day, this was a fabulous adventure. We rented a SUV and the guy at the rental shop told us that we were not allowed to take it off of the pavement. I guess what he doesn’t know won’t hurt us.

Our team today consisted of Steve, Marcia, Alex (8 years old), and Uncle Glenn (2nd time Geocaching). Steve and Marcia were wearing hiking boots with good socks; Alex was wearing Keene hiking sandals, and Glenn was wearing regular sandals.

We started on the trail at 7:59am, and within 10 minutes had given up on trying to keep our feet dry and out of the mud. We followed the instructions, crossed the first river and claimed our bamboo hiking sticks. A really good pocket knife is a must if you are going to take a hiking stick.

About half an hour into the hike Glenn “blew out his flip-flop” (broke his sandal). The mud was sooooo deep that as he hiked the mud ripped out the back straps on his first sandal. Glenn removed his broken sandal and continued walking with one bare foot and one sandal. Within about 10 minutes the other sandal broke. About the same time Alex’s Keene hiking sandal was sucked off his foot by the mud. (See pictures) Glenn and Alex ended up doing 90 percent of the hike barefooted. They had water shoes that they wore in the tunnel, but they couldn’t hike with them in the mud.

Shortly thereafter, the rain started to come down hard, and Glenn asked if we had ever seen raindrops bigger than these. I guess at the rainiest place on earth, the rain comes down bigger.

After heading through the tunnel, we made it to the fooley exit (the wrong way) which was a large drop off at the end of the tunnel. We then read the instructions and determined that we had to go back about 30 feet and take a turn.

We made it to the cache by about noon, we could have made it faster with better shoes for Alex. After having lunch we decided not to do the second tunnel.

For those of us with hiking boots and socks, well we were so wet by the time that we arrived at the tunnel, that we didn’t bother putting on our water shoes. The hiking boots are now water shoes.

On the way back we stopped at two of the rivers and went swimming to cool down, and to wash off the mud. Wow, this place gets hot in the afternoon!

The overall trip took about 8 hours. If you want to make it faster, be sure to wear hiking shoes that won’t get pulled off in the mud.

Realizing that this trip was fabulous, and a long way from Bellingham.

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