This is basically part 2 of my training and exploring from Waipi’o to Waimanu. For this run though, I needed to get to Waimanu Valley Beach and then swim the 3/4 of a mile out to the next travellable landmass – Laupahoehoe Iki. This section is the start to a spectacular 4-mile coastline of cliffs and waterfalls that are typically only seen by helicopter tours. I’m not going to go into too much detail here about doing the out and back run in a day to Waimanu Valley. You can read more details about that part of the adventure in the previous article I wrote here. What I’m going to share with you is the amazing experience of getting to Laupahoehoe Iki and what you will find when you get there.

On Thursday, August 22nd I woke up at 2 am (well I didn’t actually sleep – oh well) and was out of the house by 2:45 am. By 4 am I entered the empty Waipi’o Lookout and 10 minutes later I was heading down the road by headlamp in the dark. I started very early to get a solid feel of how hard it would be to travel this section of trail in the dark. But also I had to be back in Kona, ready for a 90-minute swing dance class with my wife at 6 pm. And there was no way I was going to mess that up – haaa. I knew this day was going to be longer than the 6 odd hours I would need to get to Waimanu and back since I had this unknown factor of the swim to, and the exploring of, Laupahoehoe Iki.

Why did I need to get to this amazing little peninsula along the Hamakua coast? Well, I’ve been a little secretive until now about my Hamakua agenda since the few people I did mention it to thought I was nuts or believed it was impossible. But I’ll open up to you now if you haven’t figured it out already from my Facebook posts and my previous article about going deep into the Hamakua from Pololu. Within the next couple weeks, I plan to Run/Swim/Hike from Waipi’o to Pololu in around 16 hours. It has been done at least once before back in 1990 by a 2 man team of Gary Shields (multiple time Ultraman World Champion) and his buddy Robert Standard. And Gary inadvertently planted the seed in my consciousness after briefly mentioning his adventure while I was training to run from the Sea to Summit of Mauna Kea. I’ll go into much more detail about what this challenge entails in a coming article, but for now, you have a better idea of what all this recent training and exploring has been all about.

So I ran/hiked through the darkness along most of the trail. And by the time I got my first view of the Waimanu valley, my objective was basking in the sun. I could see that way down by the beach the ocean was incredibly calm and flat. And I felt exceptionally lucky I had picked this day. I jogged my way down the trail into the valley, crossed the river and headed over to the cliff on the west side of the beach. Once at the end of the beach I had a few minute to rest and take stock of what I knew. The good news: ocean conditions were perfect, waves were small, almost no wind, and the day was cloudless so far. The bad news: I was going to have to do this during high tide. Not the preferred low tide that I wanted to travel this section with. And my slight but important underlying concern: I had only seen two people in the campgrounds and basically, no one but my family knew what I was up to. I was pretty far from civilization and a rescue, so I needed to stay acutely aware of this truth as I preceded.

Once I was at peace with the facts I started organizing my gear for the swim. I’d been preparing for this swim for weeks and it wasn’t so much about being able to swim the mile and a half out and back that I needed to prep for. It was how do I get my running pack with all my survival gear over to this section of the coast with me? I also expected that making land here was going to be rough since it looked like an uninviting piece of “beach” to swim into. My solution was to swim with shoes on, wear neoprene shin pads (helps float feet when swimming with shoes and good when your shins make contact with the rocks) and drag a floatable dry-bag/safety buoy behind me. It’s probably a little overkill but I’m out here on a deserted section of coast, by myself. So I’m all about minimizing the risk. And the gear worked flawlessly. I stuffed my Salomon running pack into the bag, sealed it up, inflated the bag’s floating compartment, connected it around my waist, and headed down the last section of sand on the beach. As I walked into the water I mounted a GoPro Hero7 to my head to see what I could capture along the way (like I didn’t have enough drag on my swim and needed a bit more – haaa). I was actually able to walk along a sandy bottom for a couple of minutes as I traversed under the cliff. The bottom became rocky and it was finally time to start the 3/4 mile swim. Pulling the 12lbs of bag and content wasn’t too bad as I angled myself out past the surf and further out from the cliff. Ultimately the swim was uneventful and I stopped a few times and looked around to enjoy the view. As I got closer to my destination I started scanning the shore looking for the least impactful location to swim in. Once I chose a spot, I treaded water for a few minutes and tried to time the surf to have the smallest waves breaking on the shore when I came into it. Of course, even then it wasn’t perfectly smooth and there was some rock slipping and a bit of tossing around needed to get ashore. Having that darn bag in my hand didn’t help of course but I couldn’t just let it drag around behind me ( I include a bit of the landing video below). I would not have made any seasoned Opihi Man proud but I got the job done.

Once on shore, I pulled my running pack out of the bag and headed along the coast. Since it was unfortunately high tide there was less coast to walk on. But honestly, there was plenty of dry rocks to jump along. I kept looking up at the jungle just above the shoreline looking for a way to maybe cross through the middle of the landmass. But the vegetation was thickly choking any entrance. I came across a huge cut coming from inland and saw a trickle of a stream coming out of it. Obviously, this was formed from the biggest waterfall that hits this bit of land (I apologize, but I could not find a name for this waterfall or the stream that feeds it. If anyone knows, please let me know). But today this waterfall was almost dry. I made a mental note that this would be a great point to fill my water after the swim on the big day when I come through here next time. I reached the outer edge of this peninsula and then got an amazing view of Laupahoehoe Nui. I really wanted to go explore this amazing section of land but I knew my time constraints today were going to prohibit it. But the next best thing was to get to the amazing waterfall that bisects these two chunks of land. The water that feeds it is called the Kaimü Stream. So I figure we’ll just call it the Kaimü Waterfall. And as I approached it, even on this not heavily flowing day, it was magnificent.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I see a waterfall I have this immediate urge to want to get under it. It’s like Nature’s shower I guess and I am seriously drawn to them. So I kept working my way down the coast and got within a few hundred yards when I noticed I was cut off from it by waves crashing into the cliffs between us. But I was not going to be dissuaded from visiting this beauty and did my best Opihi Man impression and timed the surf to jet across to the other side. On a larger surf day, I would not have even thought of attempting it since you could get slammed so hard into the cliff. But today was mellow and as I bolted across I was surprised by the hundreds of a’ama (little Hawaiian rock crabs) clinging to the cliff. They were substantially more freaked out than I though, probably never having seen a human, and darted and dove off the wall to get away from me. On the other side of this section, I was greeted with the ultimate treat of viewing the whole Kaimü Waterfall. Up until this point, it had hidden most of it’s flowing beauty tauntingly around a corner. Now she was fully revealed. I think you can tell by my videos and pictures near the falls that I was truly in my element. Nothing like a hard to get to waterfall to bring out my inner child. I worked my way up to and behind the falls. And though I was blasted with spray, I, unfortunately, did not step into the falls because again, the high tide was making this a not so simple feat. That’s OK though – I knew I would get into it on the next visit.

Once I snapped my obligatory shots and savored the moment I figured it was time to turn back and deal with what it was going to take to return to the Waimanu Beach. Partway around the shoreline I climbed into an opening in the forest above and looked at all the huge boulders spewed around an open space in the middle of Laupahoehoe Iki. At the moment I haven’t been able to gather much information about this little chunk of land. But looking into this space it seemed apparent it would be potentially suicidal for ancient Hawaiians to have set up homes in here. In particular, when given a choice between living in Waimanu or living on this little spit of land you would likely choose the former. After my brief exploring, I made it back to the exit point, packed my dry-bag and looked out at the surf. The wind had picked up and with the tide going out the surf had picked up a foot with the odd 3-foot “rouge” set. I half expected this but it wasn’t ideal. It reminded me of a when I was a kid getting ready to surf off of Magic Island on Oahu. Whether I was going to surf Ala Moana’s or just the Magic Island Point, I needed to jump off a big pile of rocks and time the waves just right. And as a set came in and was about to hit your feet, you dove off the rocks and got pulled out into the ocean. Time it wrong and you ding your board – or get sucked back into the rocks. Time it right and you get gently pulled out in the direction you want to go. So as the last wave of a set came in and was about to hit my feet I dove out and smoothly cleared all the obstacles as I was sucked back out. Actually, this is easier to do on a board than without, since you have dangling legs that can drag across rocks. But it all went by without incident.

I was expecting a much harder swim back since it felt like I had been with the current on the way out. But since the surf was pretty small, the current, in general, was light. And 20 minutes later I was back on the beach safe and sound. I walked across the valley with my drybag in hand. I crossed the river and washed the saltwater off me along the way. On the other side of the river, I set my running pack back up, purified 3 pints of water, and proceeded to head out of the valley. Over the next 4 hours as I hiked the hills and jogged the descents and I just could not wipe the smile off my face. I had just experienced an awesome new waterfall, had covered this section of coast quickly and safely, and best of all: It really looked like this mad idea of experiencing this entire coast in a one day adventure just might come true. Oh, and I made the swing dance class in time while spending some quality time with Karen. Hard to beat that day!!