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shannon_aL. and I finally got back together today and did our long-planned hike of the north side of the Powerline Trail.
First up: wow it's a long way up there. I mean the total distance would only have been an hour's drive if it was good traffic. (It was more like an hour fifteen, including two different places where the traffic on the highway went one-lane-in-one-direction-at-a-time due to utility work in one place and I dunno in the other.) But I was shocked it was 29 miles past the airport. We're only 14 miles west of the airport on our side, but I guess the difference is that you go up the whole east side of the island, and then halfway across when you start heading west.
Google inexplicably had the Powerline Trail marked as closed, so I was a bit wary (and had a backup hike in my back pocket), but it turned out to be totally accessible, with the (very limited) parking right where it was described. It's not maintained. The signage is pretty clear on that. But it was open. Bad Google.
We went two miles out, which is what all the recent descriptions led me to believe would be the case. The path was wide, somewhat rutted, and with occasional ponds, but it's used enough that whenever there was a pond, there was a path around it. At the one mile point, as promised, we had a sudden vista of the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge down below. It's a beautiful valley with a river flowing through it, and waterfalls visible here and there. Worth the trip, and I dearly wish that had hiking paths there (but there's just one that heads up above it, as far as I can see, which was the other trail in my back pocket). Lots of nice views of mountains and Hawaiian foliage along the path too.
At about two miles, suddenly the path turned into a river. This was pretty much what we saw at the south end too. Not just a pond, but water flowing along the path as far as you could see. So, I don't think we're ever going to walk the Powerline Trail end-to-end. I think it became impossible at some point. Old posts I saw talked about fighting with foliage to get through the middle, but the water flow, which could easily be 10 miles from north to south, appears to be a newer thing, alas.
(For all the huge empty spaces on Kauai, it's shocking how few trails there are, and how poorly some of them are maintained.)
Along the way up the trail, we'd seen a number of sidepaths, some of which had hand-crafted wooden signs. Just before the path turned into a river was one labeled "Nubs & Sticks". L. was eager to explore, and I was too having reached the end of our original path, so we did. It turned out to be (as far as we could tell) part of a whole network of trails created by Mountain Bikers!? No one there today, which was good, because the trails were relatively narrow (but quite well constructed and maintained).
We hiked most of the way back to our cars on those trails, seeing a variety of signs that labeled different parts of them. (One was the "String Trail", another the "Sunpower Trail".) Sometimes they ran pretty close to the main path, sometimes they spread out in a lot of different directions. We climbed down "Jawdropper", which looked like it'd be death on a bike, and got turned around at least twice, once to the point that we started heading in the wrong direction when we got back on the Powerline.
Overall, it was a lot of fun. Though I love my solitaire hikes, it's been great to have L. for an occasional hiking buddy, especially since it's encouraged us to do more adventurous things, like hike all the way out by Princeville.
MEANWHILE.
It generally has been busy, busy, busy for at least the last few weeks.
I've got Elf Pack on my plate now for Chaosium, and I'm struggling to find the time to write 10,000 extra words a month. (I did maybe 5k in January, but I started late in the month.)
The busyness is also because Bitmark, who usually gives me less than a day's worth of work each month, is preparing for a major release, and handed me a day of work last week alone.
And in two weeks I'm going to be supporting our first virtual salon for Rebooting Web of Trust, which is going to eat up a day and a half of time: half for the salon, one to document it.
So basically I've got my two extra clients (other than Blockchain Commons) both having work for me, just when I signed for some extra work of mu oen.
I can make the time by dropping back on my Designers & Dragons work: my only definite commitment is to my patrons, that I have a new history a month. But it's tough to set aside, especially for something like next month, where I've got an article prepared, but there's also a second one I could write, that's closely connected, that'd make a great combo.
So, we'll see how I find that balance.
Oh, and my dad and I have started flooring Kimberly's office with the same vinyl planking we used at his house. It's gotten four afternoons of work so far (ripping out the carpet, tearing the floor, and then two days to fill most of the main part of the room with planking). So, lots of lots of lots stuff going on.
I'm hoping that things will quiet down as February becomes March, but if not I need to reassess my schedule.
First up: wow it's a long way up there. I mean the total distance would only have been an hour's drive if it was good traffic. (It was more like an hour fifteen, including two different places where the traffic on the highway went one-lane-in-one-direction-at-a-time due to utility work in one place and I dunno in the other.) But I was shocked it was 29 miles past the airport. We're only 14 miles west of the airport on our side, but I guess the difference is that you go up the whole east side of the island, and then halfway across when you start heading west.
Google inexplicably had the Powerline Trail marked as closed, so I was a bit wary (and had a backup hike in my back pocket), but it turned out to be totally accessible, with the (very limited) parking right where it was described. It's not maintained. The signage is pretty clear on that. But it was open. Bad Google.
We went two miles out, which is what all the recent descriptions led me to believe would be the case. The path was wide, somewhat rutted, and with occasional ponds, but it's used enough that whenever there was a pond, there was a path around it. At the one mile point, as promised, we had a sudden vista of the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge down below. It's a beautiful valley with a river flowing through it, and waterfalls visible here and there. Worth the trip, and I dearly wish that had hiking paths there (but there's just one that heads up above it, as far as I can see, which was the other trail in my back pocket). Lots of nice views of mountains and Hawaiian foliage along the path too.
At about two miles, suddenly the path turned into a river. This was pretty much what we saw at the south end too. Not just a pond, but water flowing along the path as far as you could see. So, I don't think we're ever going to walk the Powerline Trail end-to-end. I think it became impossible at some point. Old posts I saw talked about fighting with foliage to get through the middle, but the water flow, which could easily be 10 miles from north to south, appears to be a newer thing, alas.
(For all the huge empty spaces on Kauai, it's shocking how few trails there are, and how poorly some of them are maintained.)
Along the way up the trail, we'd seen a number of sidepaths, some of which had hand-crafted wooden signs. Just before the path turned into a river was one labeled "Nubs & Sticks". L. was eager to explore, and I was too having reached the end of our original path, so we did. It turned out to be (as far as we could tell) part of a whole network of trails created by Mountain Bikers!? No one there today, which was good, because the trails were relatively narrow (but quite well constructed and maintained).
We hiked most of the way back to our cars on those trails, seeing a variety of signs that labeled different parts of them. (One was the "String Trail", another the "Sunpower Trail".) Sometimes they ran pretty close to the main path, sometimes they spread out in a lot of different directions. We climbed down "Jawdropper", which looked like it'd be death on a bike, and got turned around at least twice, once to the point that we started heading in the wrong direction when we got back on the Powerline.
Overall, it was a lot of fun. Though I love my solitaire hikes, it's been great to have L. for an occasional hiking buddy, especially since it's encouraged us to do more adventurous things, like hike all the way out by Princeville.
MEANWHILE.
It generally has been busy, busy, busy for at least the last few weeks.
I've got Elf Pack on my plate now for Chaosium, and I'm struggling to find the time to write 10,000 extra words a month. (I did maybe 5k in January, but I started late in the month.)
The busyness is also because Bitmark, who usually gives me less than a day's worth of work each month, is preparing for a major release, and handed me a day of work last week alone.
And in two weeks I'm going to be supporting our first virtual salon for Rebooting Web of Trust, which is going to eat up a day and a half of time: half for the salon, one to document it.
So basically I've got my two extra clients (other than Blockchain Commons) both having work for me, just when I signed for some extra work of mu oen.
I can make the time by dropping back on my Designers & Dragons work: my only definite commitment is to my patrons, that I have a new history a month. But it's tough to set aside, especially for something like next month, where I've got an article prepared, but there's also a second one I could write, that's closely connected, that'd make a great combo.
So, we'll see how I find that balance.
Oh, and my dad and I have started flooring Kimberly's office with the same vinyl planking we used at his house. It's gotten four afternoons of work so far (ripping out the carpet, tearing the floor, and then two days to fill most of the main part of the room with planking). So, lots of lots of lots stuff going on.
I'm hoping that things will quiet down as February becomes March, but if not I need to reassess my schedule.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-13 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-02-14 06:29 am (UTC)Vrokali, Mreli, Shrublings. Related Dragon Pass lands. Lots of gods. A few adventures.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-14 10:16 pm (UTC)For example, rather than hibernation (which is boring to play), I give my brown elves more sluggish physical stats in Dark and Storm season, but they really pick up in Sea season. I also make modifications based to skills based on climatic regions. Green elves aren't great in hot and humid environments, for example. And no elf likes a desert!
no subject
Date: 2021-02-15 09:09 am (UTC)The red and yellow and both too far outside of Dragon Pass to be in the core Elf Pack book. But some future book, maybe on Jonstown Compendium? Sure.
And no elf likes a desert? What about the cactus Aldryami?