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In Which I Walk to Maha'ulepu
I've walked the Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail a few times previously, but only little bits of it. I've walked the initial part along the cliffs several times. (You can apparently see it in "6 Days and 7 Nights", and sometimes people take pictures or mimic the stars jumping off the cliffs, to occasionally fatal results). And, last year, I walked further with my dad, out to the golf course that fronts it (the day before I got deathly ill on my ill-fated vacation last year).
But today, I decided to take my essential exercise out on the Heritage Trail, and to see the whole thing this time.
I'd talked this over with my physical therapist on Friday, and we decided it would be an OK activity. Nonetheless, I took it easy on the first part of the hike. The path is all over the place, and so you can walk the cliffsides, or behind them a bit. I usually like the cliffsides, to get the beautiful ocean views, but this time I stayed on lower ground as much as I could, to protect my knee.
Past the cliffs, my path merged back onto the coast, and I got to see some tide pools, and then I climbed up past lot of black rock (some of it a native religious site at some point) onto the edge of a golf course.
And here I realized what a great day it was to walk the Heritage Trail, because there are all these signs there saying, Hey, you might be killed by erratic golfers on holes 15 and 16. But the golf courses on the island closed today, so I got to walk an absolutely pristine wilderness (well, not wilderness: an absolutely pristine carefully manicured course meant to look like what tourists think Hawaii should look like).
(And though I think the mayor continues to go beyond what's necessary to protect against COVID-19, to make it look like he's taking action, and banning the largely socially distant sport of golfing is part of that, I nonetheless am willing to take advantage of it.)
Past the golf course it was back into the brush, in a little shrub tunnel, which was better manicured than I would have expected, but it appears people genuinely use this trail, unlike, say, the lost trail I tried to follow near Glass Beach some months ago. And after a bit of that, I crested a hill and could see Maha'ulepu beach, which is in the striking Kawailoa Bay behind Black Mountain. I was thrilled, because I'd never been sure that the Heritage Path went all the way to Maha'ulepu or not. (The Google Maps show it kind of disappearing in the middle of nowhere.)
As I circled the Bay, I passed by a really astounding number of 4x4 trucks (close to a dozen), which mostly seemed to be people out fishing, though I don't know how they got up there.
And then I descended and was on the west side of the beach!
The Makauwahi Cave Reserve is also right there, which is apparently a cave with archaeological finds. I need to go back there sometime to see it, but that clearly wasn't within the purview of "essential exercise".
And, I was thrilled to discover a half-dozen picnic tables out by the entrance to the Cave Reserve. If they're not too crowded in normal times, that'd be a great place to sit and write, but again outside of the allowances of what we can legally do under shelter-in-place.
(I really miss being able to write outside, which used to be my regular Saturday activity before I got busy working on the move last year. Now the best I can do is sit on our lanai, which is very nice, but not the same.)
I briefly visited the beach when I was there too. There were maybe half-a-dozen people about, and it was the only beach I saw today where people were sitting out on the beach. But, Maha'ulepu is pretty inaccessible: you walk the two or so mile trail I did, or you take a truck down a very bad dirt road (which is often closed). Or apparently you go up to a stables nearby and walk in a shorter distance (which I suspect is how those 4x4s got up near the end of the trail).
I would have loved to swim at that beach, but I had my cell phone with me, because Kimberly was having another bad seizure day, and I wanted to remain accessible as much as possible. So instead I just watched the water for a bit.
This is going to be a hike I do again. I love the beautiful coastal vistas. I love the tables I could write at at the far end. I love the opportunity to swim. In the future I suspect I'll bring my computer with me (so I can work: after-lock-down) or bring nothing (so I can swim).
Oh, there was one other surprise: there's an area near the beach which is set up as some experiment to revert the area to primordial native plants. It's very pretty, and looks more like what we might imagine Hawaii to be than that golf course did.
But, there was apparently some primitive flightless bird that used to live on the islands, and took the role of a herbivore to eat plants. And so they needed to replace it. Their answer: African tortoises. So, there's a tortoise sanctuary. Except I'm not sure how well it's doing because there were many, many tortoise pens, but I only saw one tortoise (granted, I didn't wander the entire sanctuary).
He was cool though.
Overall, I saw maybe a dozen people on my trip, so it wasn't just that I was "getting" to get out and exercise, but also that I was entirely appropriate in following social distancing rules.
Shipwreck Beach was entirely empty other than two folks who looked homeless, one of whom seemed to have set up a sanctuary of his own there. (The downside of these empty beaches is that we don't have people watching for folks "moving in" as it were.) I passed vaguely near a jogger heading out, then two groups of two heading back. One of those groups had obsessive mask wearers, really surprising me, because it showed off the FUD that our mayor has purposefully been inoculating the island with. Oh, they weren't wearing them all the time while exercising, but any time someone got anywhere near them, they slipped them on. Their obsessiveness actually made me worry that they were sick tourists (and I became more certain of the "tourist" bit when I had to wait back on the trail for several minutes while they took pictures of chickens; but right after that we emerged onto the golf course, and I could go by them while giving them plenty of distance).
I'd planned for swimming after the hike, to cool down. And I'd planned to do so at Shipwreck Beach. But, with the waters entirely empty and the shore having a few homeless people, it didn't see that hospitable.
So I went to Poipu instead, which is pretty much on the road back from Shipwreck.
Here I saw obsessive mask wearers #2. I swear they were wearing them IN THEIR CAR, as they hopped out almost immediately after they stopped and already had them on.
NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WEAR MASKS IN YOUR CAR.
Unless you're sitting next to someone not from your household, I suppose, but you shouldn't be doing that.
Unfortunately, I'd cooled down by the time I hit Poipu. And a cool wind had come up too. So it was a bit chilly on the beach, but the water was great once I got in.
I didn't swim for too long. My FitBit says 792 yards, for what that's worth. But it was nice. I swam the length of the beach once and then wandered back and forth a bit more.
Unfortunately, I've been having problems lately getting into and out of the waters. It's that darned knee, which otherwise seems to be getting better. Not sure if I'm nervously babying it, or if it's still genuinely a problem.
Still, it was a great swim.
And I was home by 2.30 or so. Great to be able to have a nice hike and a little swim all before mid-afternoon!
But today, I decided to take my essential exercise out on the Heritage Trail, and to see the whole thing this time.
I'd talked this over with my physical therapist on Friday, and we decided it would be an OK activity. Nonetheless, I took it easy on the first part of the hike. The path is all over the place, and so you can walk the cliffsides, or behind them a bit. I usually like the cliffsides, to get the beautiful ocean views, but this time I stayed on lower ground as much as I could, to protect my knee.
Past the cliffs, my path merged back onto the coast, and I got to see some tide pools, and then I climbed up past lot of black rock (some of it a native religious site at some point) onto the edge of a golf course.
And here I realized what a great day it was to walk the Heritage Trail, because there are all these signs there saying, Hey, you might be killed by erratic golfers on holes 15 and 16. But the golf courses on the island closed today, so I got to walk an absolutely pristine wilderness (well, not wilderness: an absolutely pristine carefully manicured course meant to look like what tourists think Hawaii should look like).
(And though I think the mayor continues to go beyond what's necessary to protect against COVID-19, to make it look like he's taking action, and banning the largely socially distant sport of golfing is part of that, I nonetheless am willing to take advantage of it.)
Past the golf course it was back into the brush, in a little shrub tunnel, which was better manicured than I would have expected, but it appears people genuinely use this trail, unlike, say, the lost trail I tried to follow near Glass Beach some months ago. And after a bit of that, I crested a hill and could see Maha'ulepu beach, which is in the striking Kawailoa Bay behind Black Mountain. I was thrilled, because I'd never been sure that the Heritage Path went all the way to Maha'ulepu or not. (The Google Maps show it kind of disappearing in the middle of nowhere.)
As I circled the Bay, I passed by a really astounding number of 4x4 trucks (close to a dozen), which mostly seemed to be people out fishing, though I don't know how they got up there.
And then I descended and was on the west side of the beach!
The Makauwahi Cave Reserve is also right there, which is apparently a cave with archaeological finds. I need to go back there sometime to see it, but that clearly wasn't within the purview of "essential exercise".
And, I was thrilled to discover a half-dozen picnic tables out by the entrance to the Cave Reserve. If they're not too crowded in normal times, that'd be a great place to sit and write, but again outside of the allowances of what we can legally do under shelter-in-place.
(I really miss being able to write outside, which used to be my regular Saturday activity before I got busy working on the move last year. Now the best I can do is sit on our lanai, which is very nice, but not the same.)
I briefly visited the beach when I was there too. There were maybe half-a-dozen people about, and it was the only beach I saw today where people were sitting out on the beach. But, Maha'ulepu is pretty inaccessible: you walk the two or so mile trail I did, or you take a truck down a very bad dirt road (which is often closed). Or apparently you go up to a stables nearby and walk in a shorter distance (which I suspect is how those 4x4s got up near the end of the trail).
I would have loved to swim at that beach, but I had my cell phone with me, because Kimberly was having another bad seizure day, and I wanted to remain accessible as much as possible. So instead I just watched the water for a bit.
This is going to be a hike I do again. I love the beautiful coastal vistas. I love the tables I could write at at the far end. I love the opportunity to swim. In the future I suspect I'll bring my computer with me (so I can work: after-lock-down) or bring nothing (so I can swim).
Oh, there was one other surprise: there's an area near the beach which is set up as some experiment to revert the area to primordial native plants. It's very pretty, and looks more like what we might imagine Hawaii to be than that golf course did.
But, there was apparently some primitive flightless bird that used to live on the islands, and took the role of a herbivore to eat plants. And so they needed to replace it. Their answer: African tortoises. So, there's a tortoise sanctuary. Except I'm not sure how well it's doing because there were many, many tortoise pens, but I only saw one tortoise (granted, I didn't wander the entire sanctuary).
He was cool though.
Overall, I saw maybe a dozen people on my trip, so it wasn't just that I was "getting" to get out and exercise, but also that I was entirely appropriate in following social distancing rules.
Shipwreck Beach was entirely empty other than two folks who looked homeless, one of whom seemed to have set up a sanctuary of his own there. (The downside of these empty beaches is that we don't have people watching for folks "moving in" as it were.) I passed vaguely near a jogger heading out, then two groups of two heading back. One of those groups had obsessive mask wearers, really surprising me, because it showed off the FUD that our mayor has purposefully been inoculating the island with. Oh, they weren't wearing them all the time while exercising, but any time someone got anywhere near them, they slipped them on. Their obsessiveness actually made me worry that they were sick tourists (and I became more certain of the "tourist" bit when I had to wait back on the trail for several minutes while they took pictures of chickens; but right after that we emerged onto the golf course, and I could go by them while giving them plenty of distance).
I'd planned for swimming after the hike, to cool down. And I'd planned to do so at Shipwreck Beach. But, with the waters entirely empty and the shore having a few homeless people, it didn't see that hospitable.
So I went to Poipu instead, which is pretty much on the road back from Shipwreck.
Here I saw obsessive mask wearers #2. I swear they were wearing them IN THEIR CAR, as they hopped out almost immediately after they stopped and already had them on.
NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WEAR MASKS IN YOUR CAR.
Unless you're sitting next to someone not from your household, I suppose, but you shouldn't be doing that.
Unfortunately, I'd cooled down by the time I hit Poipu. And a cool wind had come up too. So it was a bit chilly on the beach, but the water was great once I got in.
I didn't swim for too long. My FitBit says 792 yards, for what that's worth. But it was nice. I swam the length of the beach once and then wandered back and forth a bit more.
Unfortunately, I've been having problems lately getting into and out of the waters. It's that darned knee, which otherwise seems to be getting better. Not sure if I'm nervously babying it, or if it's still genuinely a problem.
Still, it was a great swim.
And I was home by 2.30 or so. Great to be able to have a nice hike and a little swim all before mid-afternoon!