Читать книгу Hawaii Trails. Walks Strolls and Treks on the Big Island онлайн

70 страница из 81

Camp in Waipio Valley.

Day 2 (7 miles): From the east bank of Wailoa Stream, cautiously ford the stream and follow the beach until you are almost at the valley’s west wall—just below a small rise with a rather flat but steeply pitched, grassy top. A very faint path leads away from the beach, through the cobblestones, and into the forest about 200 feet east of (before) the small rise. Even if you cannot pick out the path at this point, head through the cobbles into the forest, keeping your eyes peeled for a well-trampled path. It’s currently used for horseback tours of Waipio, so it’s not only well-trampled but full of hoofprints and dung. You may smell it before you see it. Pick it up and head west, toward the valley’s west wall. You shortly reach a junction with a trail that goes right, toward the valley wall. The junction may have a sign, but don’t count on it.

Turn right to begin climbing the steep switchbacks of the rough Muliwai Trail up the thousand-foot sheer west wall of Waipio Valley. At first you’re still in dense forest. Soon you emerge into sunlight and to unsurpassed views of Waipio. The trail is generally well dug into the sheer cliff, so it’s not quite as scary as it may have seemed from the overlook on the east wall—Waipio Overlook. But it is every bit as steep as you’d feared when you were scanning it from Waipio Overlook. The footing is sometimes rocky, sometimes impeded by overgrowing weeds—grasses, cayenne vervain, clover, ulei, and ilima.