The start of the Kalalau Trail is located at Ke’e Beach and the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park, which is only a ten-minute drive down the road to where the highway literally ends. You can almost drive all the way around the island, but the jagged and iconic Na Pali Coast prevents it. The only way you can keep going is to get out of your car and hike in, which is what we’re about to do. We’re not doing the crazy version though. Daniel tells me that this one should only take three hours round trip—any further and we would have to pack in a tent and bring a permit. Apparently that hike gets pretty gnarly, and for someone like me who is sensitive to heights, it’s not the best idea.
I’ve been to Ke’e Beach at the end of the road and gone snorkeling once with Charlie, so I’m not surprised to see the parking lot is absolutely packed. We have to park the Jeep on the side of the road a mile away and walk from there.
But in Kauai, even walking along the side of a road is a near magical experience. Yes, we’re passing countless cars and more tourists and locals prepared for the hike, but we’re also crossing fresh streams that spill across the road, thick, fragrant jungle peppering the sides with the occasional chicken scratching around in the bushes.
There’s even a wet cave underneath a sheer overhanging wall. The water in the cave doesn’t look too inviting—it’s dark and disappears into blackness the more it goes under the rock—but I have to stand back and stare up at the vines as they tangle down the guano-stained walls, the lush vegetation that creeps over the side. Beyond that, the soaring peaks of the mountains reach up into the clouds. It nearly gives me vertigo.
“You and Juliet swam in here, didn’t you?” Nikki asks Logan.
He nods. “Not much to see. Cold as hell.”
“Wait,” I say, “Juliet swam in there?” I point to the dark water. The Juliet I knew never would have done something so…well, creepy-looking. Swimming in a dark, claustrophobic cave with a low ceiling? No thank you.
He nods. “She did. I may have coerced her into it, but she did it. To prove a point. She was bloody stubborn most days. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” he mumbles that last bit under his breath.
I’m hit with the strangest feeling: jealousy. Juliet may have been stubborn, but even so I never knew her to do something as fun and adventurous as going swimming in a cave. And yet Logan, he got to witness that. To know her. Something I’d never have.
As if all my feelings so far weren’t confusing enough.
CHAPTER NINE
We continue walking along the road until we get to the trailhead. A bunch of walking sticks are stacked up against a rock as a steady stream of hikers head up and down the path that leads straight into the thick jungle. Even though it hasn’t rained for a few days—least not at the hotel—the trail is slick and slippery in sections as we pass caution signs warning of hazardous cliffs, rock slides, and flash floods. I have to wonder how dangerous the hike really is.
I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been in a long time, thanks to all the fresh fruit and vegetables, the surfing and swimming and daily jogs on the beach I’ve been doing, but even so the start of the trail isn’t easy. It snags and swerves, hugging the edges of the cliffs, the path of red dirt narrow in sections. Logan leads the party, followed by Daniel, then Nikki, then me. I’m slow, so every time Nikki looks over her shoulder at me, I have to give her a reassuring wave to keep going.
We reach the first view part of the trail, where a lot of people turn around. I’m breathing hard, sweat streaming off my face as I try and take a picture of Ke’e Beach from above. Here, you can see how clear the water is, the color is a brilliant blue, interspersed with dark reef. Waves lap the golden shore as the palm trees sway in the breeze. It’s dizzyingly beautiful, and even though I know my company must have seen this all a million times, I take a moment to soak it all in. I’m also trying to catch my breath and not look like I’m having a fucking heart attack.
Honestly, if that was the whole hike, I’d be satisfied. I want to tag along with one of the groups heading back down the hill, go jump in the ocean to cool off, and pass out on the sand.
Alas, Logan clears his throat, a signal to keep going. And so we do.
And the trail starts to get a little more extreme. I would have thought that the parts where the trail follows the outermost near-vertical cliffs would have been the hardest for me. I mean, I get dizzy with great heights and there’s nothing but sheer drops for hundreds of feet until it meets the ocean. The roar of the wild waves smashing against the rocks far far below is deafening even from all the way up here.
But actually, the worst parts of the trail are when they switchback and head away from the coast. Here the jungle is the thickest, there’s a fine mist in the air, and everything is dripping with humidity. I don’t think these nooks and crannies get any sun to dry them out, and the path turns into a rust-colored mud bath. I watch Nikki eat shit and slip right on her ass, then Daniel almost do the same. The hikers up ahead of us also bail as they round a corner where the path disappears and becomes slippery rocks you have to scale over. I try not to laugh because I know that’s going to be me in a minute.
Everyone else is using the wooden poles to help them but I wouldn’t trust anything other than my own body, even as we come to a stream that cuts across the path, more slippery rock to navigate on both sides.
The last thing I want to do is fall, so I’m going as slow as I can, and while everyone is stepping over the rocks and sliding around, I’m using my hands to balance, going across like a crab. I don’t care if I look like a fool and my hands are covered in red mud, every part of me is a mess by now.