Steve & Doug's Excellent Adventure: Kauai

[twitchstick]

 Must be a warm adventure. It would be nice to go there once. keep them coming  

[Chris Surtees]

Looking forward to reading this one      

[Doug Campbell]

Alright, we've gotten a good nights sleep and several pics uploaded but Karen and I have to catch a plane back to Oahu before long. It was a great time on the NaPali Coast, a couple more goats died and we survived a Tsunami    

I'll throw a little critical advise out here right off the bat. Don't wear hard soled hiking boots and cut you a good walking stick from the small bamboo patch at the beginning of the trail...

I wore some old reliable boots that have been all over the country but the soles are a little on the hard side. It had rained a fair amount, common here, the night before and the red mud was like walking on up hill ice for the first three miles. That and the 80º temp/100% humidity about did this Montana boy in the first day...

OK here's Steve at the trail head and doing guide duty.
 
 

This is the first creek crossing about two miles in along with a warning to be careful. The number of drowning deaths are marked at the bottom of the sign, I think it's at 82. That should be enough to sober you up on getting to the water.
 
 

More later...

[Steve H.]

...and here's a shot of Doug hiking thru a jungly section of the trail on day 1.

[Steve H.]

Doug and I first hunted together in SE Alaska for black bears about 12 years ago and it had been a loooong time since we had teamed up for more than Montana gophers and rattlesnakes.

[Steve H.]

About 4 1/2 miles into the trail and we had seen a few goats but all up high in precarious cliffs. We continued on and I spotted several goats down below us in a steep draw heading toward some cliffs.

We saw that we could safely work down to the cliff edge and peek over. I motioned for Doug to get in from of them and I then noticed a small spot I could get to in case they held up.  The goats were right below Doug and he pulled back and shot right over one's back but a second arrow quickly found its mark in a small billy about like mine from earlier in the week.

Here is a shot of Doug glassing immediately after his shot.

 

The goat went down in some nasty cliffs that was too steep to safely follow so we didn't get a hero shot

[Steve H.]

A quarter to half mile further down the trail and we located a group of four goats with a really big billy but it was just too steep to safely stalk to them.  Here is a pic of that billy.

 

[Steve H.]

For those of you that have followed my earlier Kauai hunts you may recognize my favorite camping site.

 

Doug and I hunted separate sides of Hanakoa Valley that evening but the goats were all hanging out in pretty inaccessible spots.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Right along that first creek grows wild sweet potatoes and that creek is full of fresh water shrimp and limpets called "Opihi". I had some of the most incredible meals camping there... If only I hunted then! That's it, I'm going back!!!!!

[Steve H.]

NCH:  I remembered you tlling me about those shrimp so I looked a couple times but no too hard  Also tried finding a good pair of tabys to try but only found junk ones.

[imskippy]

Just went back and read the last years thread. Looking forward to the rest of this story for sure. Could you give us an idea of costs etc.. for license/tags. Not that I'll ever be able to do this but would love to know. Thanks Skippy

[cacciatore]

For sure you had a double joy:runaway the North winter and good hunting in shorts.Thanks for sharing.

[Steve H.]

Airfare, rental car for $350 or a bit more per week plus/minus, $95 NR license, $10 per night camping fee.  I usually have at least a couple nights of hotel at about $100 per night coming and going.

If you take wife/family you'll have lodging the whole time plus a bunch more expenses, cha-ching!

Restaurants are a bit pricey if you're not careful.

I also did two more of these Kauai hunts on TG before last year but not sure if any of them made it to the yearly archives or not?

[Steve H.]

I also have a bunch of Hawaii stuff like his on the PBS website.

[Molson]

Well Doug it looks like life is wonderful in Hawaii too!!!!  Great adventure!!!  

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Originally posted by Steve H.:
NCH:  I remembered you tlling me about those shrimp so I looked a couple times but no too hard  Also tried finding a good pair of tabys to try but only found junk ones.

They have highly reflective eyes. Walk up the creek at night with a flashlight, you won't miss 'em!

[Steve H.]

Here's a shot of yours truly with a bit of scenery.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Oh, and the tabys ARE junk... It's just a sock with a felt pad but believe me, they work!!!

[Steve H.]

There's all sorts of cool things to be seen and you never know what you'll discover next.

 

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

MAN WHAT A VIEW!!