Since my phone died the second day we were in Waimanu, I had to wait until my friends shared their pictures with me so I could overload you with more Waimanu pictures.....trust me, after all the hard work and the two toenails I'm losing after that hike, you better enjoy these pictures!
Since the trailhead for the hike is located down in Waipio Valley, and we decided (smartly) that we didn't want to have to climb down Waipio and add another mile to our already 9 mile trek, we decided to take my SUV down into Waipio.....I'd like to pretend we all fit well and had a comfortable ride down....
When we got into Waipio Valley, we had to start our mile long trek across the valley to get to the trailhead....Which of course included crossing the first of many rivers....
Thankfully, someone was kind enough to leave a sign at the trailhead for us....
It reminded us to not fall of the cliff, there is no store at the end and there are plenty of sharks in the water! All very helpful tips....although Buddy and I were contemplating putting a rental store in the valley so you could rent tents and bags. We'd totally make bank, but then neither one of us want to be in charge of running the store, sooooo.....
Anyway, here are some more treasures from our hike into Waimanu (the only way I can tell which is to and which is from is the color of Buddy's shirt...I seem to be wearing the same clothes in all the pictures, which seems like a moot point that I even brought a change of clothes, since they were ALL completely soaked by that night)....
Of course this is what was waiting for us at the end of our hike....
It was dry enough that first night for Buddy to start a fire.....
And then it wasn't, so we all huddled under Cliff's tarp whenever we had to make food, otherwise, Buddy was all ready to start a fire in our tent so we could cook. I'm still not certain Buddy realizes that starting a fire in your tent is a very bad move!
By the time we left on the third day, it had rained so much that the river we had to cross out of Waimanu (we had to cross 2 rivers and 11 streams) had risen to Buddy's chest. Thankfully, there was a rope and Buddy had his air mattress to double as a raft...
Although, I'm not sure why we thought we needed to keep his pack dry, everything was pretty soaked and weighed about 10 pounds more than when we hiked it in.....but it felt like the right thing to do! Then, we hiked, and hiked, and hiked and hiked some more....
Thankfully, for my shoulders, we also took some breaks....
When we could finally see Waipio on our mile decent down...
I could've run....except for the fact that at this point my toes had become a bloody, throbbing mess....but in my mind I was running! We had to cross the last stream in Waipio and with all the rain it had some serious height and strength to the currents. I think that was the worst part of it, because you had to use your wobbly weak thighs to keep you stabilized for the next step. Buddy fell 3 times and I kept having horrible visions of him being swept out into the angry sea. Thankfully, he was so good and kept himself in place till he could stand again. Sheesh, who knew a river crossing could be so dangerous???? Well, other than pretty much anyone whose ever done a dangerous river crossing! We're planning to return when it's sunny, which gives us at least a few more months for my toes to recover, than we are totally back at it. I figure if it was that much fun in the rain, it's got to be even more fun in the sun! So all in all a super fantastic, I love my boy so much, day!
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