08 May Vacation on Kaua’i Day 6 – Backpacking Kalalau Day 4

Tuesday Apr 13

Tuesday we awoke knowing it would be our last full day at Kalalau Valley. After Sunday and Monday’s EXTREME soarness from our 12-mile hike in, we swore we would definitely, absolutely NOT hike the whole way out in a single stretch. We planned on camping either at the Hanakoa 5-mile mark or at Hanakapi’ai, the 9-mile mark. We wanted to be back out by early Thursday afternoon, as we made plans with Luna to meet at Opakapaka Grill for happy hour to use the rest of our gift certificate. So we made last day plans to be completely lazy and soak up the beauty of that famous place.

The sun was brilliantly shining yet again, and I realized the only “hawaii” thing missing from this trip was that we hadn’t seen a single rainbow in four days, cementing how amazing the run of weather had been, hands down our best stretch of weather since arriving on the island. We walked the beach and went for a low-tide ocean swim. We lounged in the hammocks. We made yummy camp meals: breakfast of eggs with cheese and jerky, and an early dinner of two dehydrated pouches. We hung out with our Kalalau friends Kris and Danny, sharing fresh sugar cane, fresh coconut, and lime water.

Danny picked up a paddleball set left by other hikers, and him and Aaron started a beach game around dusk. I was tidying up items at camp when I saw Aaron emphatically waving to me from the beach. I walked down and as they pointed to the mountains behind me, I turned to see a perfect rainbow arching over our beach and meeting the valley and mountains above us. The only clouds in the sky we couldn’t see or feel — those clinging to the upper peaks and spitting out just enough moisture to give us a rainbow sendoff. Well played, Mama Kauai, well played! Aaron, Danny and Kris played more round-robin paddleball while I photographed the sunset.

We made another campfire and waited for the stars. Aaron and Kris shared in industry conversation (after discovering they were both bartenders, from MN), and I went down to our jumbo beach boulder to lay on and watch for shooting stars. Eventually we both went to bed, again fulfilled completely by the peace of north shore.