Steve & Doug's Excellent Adventure: Kauai

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

Those bugs will make you sick as a dog! That bite hurts like the Dickens!

[Steve H.]

Have I ever mentioned that this trail and the area is a end of the road kinda place for some real interesting characters?  You'll see people you thought were only in airports out on the trail.  Guess what the standard for currency out there?  Doug found some hidden in plain site.

 

[Steve H.]

So day 2 we take off from camp and intend to hunt from our camp at 6+ mile toward 8/9 mile.  We got to a huge deep valley at about 7 mile where I had shot my billy earlier in the week and were just coming out of the valley when a string of people appeared and said helicopters landed at Kalalau Beach and that there was a 8.9 earth quake in Chile and that there was a tsunami warning and everyone needed to get to higher ground!

[Doug Campbell]

One thing I regretted not taking was the zip-off legs for my shorts. Several areas that looked huntable were just too painful to get thru. Here's a pic of one of the nasty things growing in profuzion, (sp?) everywhere.
 
When you look closer this is what will get you and there are areas where the dead leaves are literally feet deep...
 
Believe me Steve's legs were perty to begin with but you should see them now  

[Steve H.]

Doug and I decided to NOT do our normal thing and play it safe so we back traced to higher ground and sat on a spiny ridge at about 800' elevation and waited for the mother of all waves!

We had a great show with a LOT of humpback whales breaching down below us.  A few hours later and nothing spectacular happened so we wandered back into Hanakoa Valley to look for some goats.

[Steve H.]

My best hunting has always been between 7 and 9 miles and we just had that section of the trail taken away from us which probably really influenced the number of opportunities we had at goats.

We went back to camp and packed up and decided we would hunt our way back to a valley at 5 mile or at 4 miles and hang our hammocks for night 2.

[Doug Campbell]

One of the non-hunting highlights for me was all the whale action. They would literally keep you awake at night... The humpbacks were everywhere, when one of these big baby breechs it sounds like a large cannon shot, sometimes rapid fire cannon shots. Sorry for the crappy pix but there were probably a half mile out...
 
 

[Steve H.]

We continued to find some goats but they were always in locations that were unrealistic to get to including one old long horned billy up in the cliffs.  We eventually found some big trees and stretched or hammocks for the night.  Breaching whales kept Doug up that night.  Doug's snoring kept me up that night, lol.

[Shakes.602]

Something tells me that Zip-Off Nylon Pants would have helped very much against  THAT  Stuff!! Unless They Be Canvas that is!! Or Leather!      YIKES!!         Makes our Wild RoseBushes and Other "Briars & Brambles" look like CornStalks!!  :eek:

[Izzy]

The true essence of hunting, adventure.Thanks fellas.

[Doug Campbell]

Yep my wife tells me I'm a world class snorer, haven't really noticed myself    

We actually seeing and hearing lots of goats but it just wasn't feasible or safe to go after them in the cliffs. There were thousands of areas where you could fall hundreds of feet into the ocean, (if you were lucky).
 
 

If your hunting the cliff areas like we were forced to after the tsunomi warning it doesn't matter what kind of shot you make it's often going to be sketchy whether you'll retrieve your goat or not. You just have to keep in mind that your doing you part to help the environment by killing the nasty ol non-native goats...    

 

[DHR]

Glad to see you guys are safely back, I was somewhat concerned when those tsunami warnings came out.  Looks like a great adventure in one of the worlds most beautiful places.  Cool shots of the whales!

[alligatordond]

That nasty stuff looked alot like our saw palmetto. Be careful!

[jcar315]

Steve, The pic of the big billy is something else. I would have been afraid to fall to my untimely demise!

Love the pics and thread....keep it coming!

[Grant Young]

Okay Doug, I see why Texas had to wait-this year, that is. We'll expect you back in '11. Hope you had as much fun as it looked like you did and got off the mountains safe and sound.    Grant

[Trad Lad]

Excellent adventure Doug and Steve, thanks for sharing.

[cacciatore]

I am really enjoing these thread with pics.

[Steve H.]

Before we headed back to the trailhead on Day 3 we heard a goat bleating so we went down the trail and caught up with it.

Here's Doug with the goat facing away.

 

[Steve H.]

It wasn't the World's largest goat but Doug made a good shot and saved some plants.

By the way, we just got back from droping the Campbell's off at the Lihue airport and they are making their way back to Honolulu and Oahu where they are staying with family.

Here's another one of Doug on the hike out.

 

[Steve H.]

...and one last shot of Doug just after we crossed over the 2 mile stream.  (Daniel, I showed Doug where you were siting in the photo with you, our wife, and goat head, I bet I was within feet!)