Yoga, Hiking & More

Last monday was our 7 year anniversary.  Wowie, how time flies when you're having fun!  It was fun to look back at our wedding pictures and see how young we looked.  We were kids!  But we still are, and I hope we will be for a while to come. 🙂

We had a nice, relaxing anniversary that included a little day trip reminiscent of one that we took back on our honeymoon when visiting Kauai for the first time.  We went to the same beach and had the most ahhhhhmazing BBQ ono fish sandwich (from a local fish market) and enjoyed some good beach time.  For dinner we went to my favorite place on the island, Bar Acuda.  Cheesy name, I know but actually really good locally grown food.  It’s a tapas bar, small plates that you share.  My favorite thing there is the tropical sangria- I can’t even describe how good and fresh it is.  I’m really hoping to come home with the recipe because our yoga instructor is also the manager at Bar Acuda and told me that she actually created the recipe.  She said she would write it down for me so I am going to have to make sure I get it!

So about yoga.  We have been wanting to get into yoga for a while now.  However, our measly sports club yoga classes in Chico just weren't cutting it.  I think I almost fell to sleep at the last sports club class.  Not due to being relaxed, but due to utter boredom!  We decided to make the commitment to going 2x/week for our stay here so we made the investment (yes, like many of the other things on the island the prices are a bit jaw dropping) and took the plunge!  It’s a very nice little studio that is right in the heart of Hanalei.  Well, to put it lightly, I felt quite humbled, sweaty and sore after our first class.  The first class we took was much more sophisticated than we should have started with, but the new guy that worked there had recommended it to us.  I knew I was literally ‘in over my head’ towards the end of the hour and a half class when the instructor told us it was time to get into our ‘head inversion pose’ which is like a very hard headstand.  We have now settled into another class with the same instructor, which is still very challenging but not over our heads hard.  These classes aren't even comparable to the sports club classes back home.  I think, if all goes well, and we continue to like it that we will try to find an actual yoga studio back home to continue.

Friends & Fun

It was great to see friends that happened to be on the island at the same time as us!  The wonderful Hill family was vacationing on the sunny south shore of Poipu last week and it was great to spend some time with them.  I do love traveling but I think the hardest part about long trips for me is not seeing friends and family.  You start to realize that facebook, email, texts and phone calls just aren't quite the same as quality face time.

We had fun showing the Hills around the north shore some and visiting a favorite beach.  The boys had fun the next day boogying it up in Poipu together.  We had a great meal at the Hills villa and enjoyed some yummy blue marlin.  It was great to catch up with their wonderful family and experience some aloha with them!

Training to Trek

Other than the usual ‘island life’ things such as the almost daily beach bum time and the sunsets we have been preparing for what should be an epic adventure in three weeks.  We have bought the permits for four nights to backpack and hike the Kalalau trail which is a beautiful, yet quite strenuous hike.  We have done about 6 miles round trip as a day hike on the trail and it is quite intense, to say the least.  Fordgining streams, steep inclines, sheer drop-offs and very slippery rocky terrain are all included!  Not to mention, breathtaking views and landscape like nothing you have ever seen before.  It is supposed to be one of the top 10 most beautiful backpacking trails in the world.  I definately believe it.

I am a little nervous, I must admit.  I have never gone backpacking overnight and I don’t like small tents at all!  The good thing is that my biggest fear, bears, are not a reality of this trek- whew!!!  However, Ryan is a seasoned backpacker, being an Eagle Scout and he is quite convinced that I am capable of the 22 mile trek- 11 miles in and...you guessed it, 11 miles out. I have decided that we will make small, obtainable, daily goals to meet and we will take it one day and one step at a time.  That way, if we can’t do the whole 22 mile trek for some reason (that reason would probably be the very narrow section that I will explain later as crawlers ledge) then we will still feel good about our accomplishment.  Oh, did I mention that the Sierra club rates this trail as a ‘9’ out of ‘10’ on the difficulty?!

Train, Train, Train!  I feel like this trek will not only be physically exhausting but also mentally challenging.  So being prepared both mentally and physically should definitely help.  We are going to take at least one ‘practice trek’ per week.  This past weekend we did about a five and a half mile trail and I practiced carrying a pack (for most of the trail :).  It wasn’t fully weighted but at 17 pounds it gave me a good feel for what I was going to endure on the Kalalau.  And this trail was quite easy terrain but it was a good distance.  On the Kalalau we will be doing about the same mileage everyday.  I felt that the distance was definitely doable so now we need to try a more challenging terrain for our next practice trek.  When Ryan took the pack for me for the last mile or so I felt so light that I thought I was a bird!  This is good info to note: pack must be as light as possible!  I am aiming for my pack to be under 25 pounds when we start the trail.

Tents and Hippies

Now we need to finish our ‘shopping’ for the backpacking trip.  We bought our own backpacks and trekking poles before we came (thank you Costco for your impulse-buy items).  I think the trekking poles are going to be great- even on our fairly flat first practice it was really nice to have them.  We just ordered a tent because it was cheaper to buy one online then to rent one here- go figure.  Also, I was really concerned about the size of the rental tents...I think they were something like 5x7 feet...ummm...can we say claustrophobia!  Plus, we (maybe I should say ‘I’) wanted to make sure we had a tent big enough to keep our gear inside it at night.  There aren't any bears out there but there are wild boars, goats (which will eat ANYTHING!) and the local hippie community.  Yes, there is a community of hippies that actually lives back in the Kalalau Valley.  Not that I expect them to steal, but as you  can imagine, the convenience store isn’t right around the corner for them.  Better safe than sorry is my motto.  So, needless to say, we got a three man tent that is only 2 pounds heavier than the rental tent and it’s 8x8 feet.  I think I can manage sleeping in that size tent.  So now we pray that the tent makes it to our ‘general delivery’ address in Hanalei.  Our backup plan is to just rent one if it doesn’t arrive in time.

Other shopping essentials we need to round up still include: light foods, renting a little stove and sleeping pads and another poncho (yes, it will rain the question is just to what extent).  Stay tuned for more to come on our Kalalau trek planning.