While NOT in my Hammock

While Not in my hammock, I lived on a couch in the Pacific North West.

First visited John and Tracy in Corvallis,OR, for spring break. We visited Seattle and Portland and went to the Hoh rainforest in Olympia. Then I went to Bend, OR, for my Wilderness First Responder course. I couch surfed and went to the library  for the days before the course (and smith rock to climb). Then learned medicine and drank at a different brewery every evening. Met some people who told me I should come up to Bellingham, WA. So I did. It was a return to college; going out dancing every night for a week. I visited Vancouver, BC (my home land). Then, Finally started to make my way south. Hit up the Redwoods and Arcata, then made it on my way to San Fran!

While in my hammock i was handed a stick

The Walking Stick

When I first arrived on Kauai it was nighttime, it was raining, I had never been to the island, and I had no plan for what I was going to do. For the first time in 2 months I decided to get a bed in a hostel. I took the bus and got settled in for the night. I came to the island to hike the 11 mile Kalalau Trail along the steep cliff edge of the Na Pali coast, to the back-country wilderness Kalalau valley where I would camp for a couple weeks. In the morning I learned many people at the hostel had the same plan, but they were stuck at the hostel because the trail was closed because it had been raining for weeks straight and the river crossings were too dangerous. Not letting the news from keeping from getting out and exploring, I went to the other side of the island to the Waimea Canyon. 

Here is where the story of starts with "The Walking Stick". I head out on a trail and pick up a walking stick that is resting against a tree at the trailhead  with a bunch of other sticks. But this stick is Perfect! It is extremely light weight, yet very strong. It is the right height and thickness and has a nice grip for my hand. It is a beautiful stick with all the bark stripped off. Above all it has clearly seen some miles from the look of it. 

So I start hiking with it and it comes in a lot of help as I slip and slide down the hill in the mud on a trail that is in a place known to be one of the wettest places on Earth (getting more than 400 inches of rain a year). This trail I head out on is an 11 mile loop, but a section half way is closed due to a mud slide that washed out a stretch of the trail. I only make it a couple miles in before it gets dark. That night on the ridge the wind ripped at my tarp and the constant rain and flapping of the tarp all night long soaks me to the bone. At 3,000 ft the cold wind and rain makes the worst night sleep I have ever had. In the morning the wind is still blowing but the rain has stopped. I hike back to the park headquarters to fill up on water before I head to the sunny side of the island to dry out and warm up. 

The next couple of days the sun comes out. I dry out, the trail dries out, and the rivers go back to normal levels, allowing me to cross and head out on the Kalalau. As I head out on the trail I realize I dont have my walking stick and I must have left it somewhere in all the hurry of the wind and rain in an effort to dry out. I head out on the Kalalau Trail nonetheless. 

The trail starts where the road around the island ends. After 11 miles of one of the most beautiful trails on Earth, I finally make it to the much anticipated Kalalau Valley. On the beach at the end of the trail I meet up with friends who I hear hiked the trail the morning after I arrived on the island (the same day I was planning on starting). Anyway, I finally made it to a place where I can stay and not be on the move constantly ninja camping. I make a fire and keep it going for 5 days just hanging out in my hammock. 

One day while in my hammock, a man walks up to me without saying a word and hands me The Stick. I instantly recognize it as my walking stick, and he knows I know the stick. After some explaining he tells me he saw me leave it when I was filling up on water, and he has been hiking with it since. I thank him for returning it to me and I continue to hike with it for the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile I use other sticks here and there but this one sticks with me. 

Eventually my time on the island is coming to an end, but I make it back to Waimea Canyon for one last hike; the 11 mile loop that I never finished. The trail where I found the stick and the story began. This time with the intent of completing it, despite the section of the trail still being closed. As I am hiking the final trail over the washed out section, the stick cracks. It still holds together but as I continue to hike on it the tip breaks off. I push it back together like a puzzle piece and it still works and holds together. After making it past the washed out section of trail where I needed the stick it finally comes apart and can not be held together any more. As I am holding the spear like piece and the dagger like piece I see a couple of wild boars on the trail. Knowing they could charge and attack, I hold the two now sharpened pieces ready to defend myself. But no attack occurs and I continue with my two pieces of my walking stick that has been with me for my month on the island. The longer piece still just long enough, but now with a sharpened tip. 

As I am hiking and running out of food and day light before I need to make it back to camp, I come across an orange tree. I climb the tree and pick some oranges and use the sharp dagger piece to cut the oranges for lunch. Eventually, with some extra energy, I make it back to the trailhead where I first found the stick. Not wanting to just leave it, I find a couple looking through some of the walking sticks at the trail head. I tell them the whole story of the stick and give it to the women who is shorter than me and matches the new height of the stick just right. They tell there plans to hike the Kalalau Trail with their new walking stick and when they are done with it, pass it on to the next people. For all I know the stick and its story are still in the Kalalau Valley being passed on from hiker to hiker. 

While in my hammock in Hawaii, I remember...

While in my hammock in Hawaii, I remember...

• Swimming in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, my first hour on the island, in the biggest waves of my life, with surfers dodging me as they cruised over me
• The sounds of Bamboo forests in the wind and the sunthee (sun through trees) barely coming through
  
  
  
• Swimming and climbing ropes past the 3rd falls to the finally waterfall
  
• Hiking in pine forests and crawling in caves
• Red sand, Black sand, Green sand, and White sand beaches
  
  
  
• Tasting my first lilikoi from a Hana farm then having one from the side of the road
• Swimming with turtle and seeing and hearing whales
  
• Driving over 72 one-lane bridges on one of the most scenic road to Hana
• Seeing full circle rainbows in waterfalls
  
• Grinding a bucket full of snails a feeding them to the chickens
• Midnight full moon hike of the ridge to an overlook of Lahaina and the farm
  
• Climbing coconut trees to collect coconuts at midnight on the way back from bar hopping
• Mountain biking down a horse trail
• Hiking from dessert conditions into the valley and transitioning to rainforest
  
  
  
• Standing up on the first wave I surfed
• The stars and the sunrise at the summit of Haleakala (10,000 ft)
  
  
  
  
• Sleeping in sub-freezing conditions with all my clothes on in a trunk
• Making a snowball
  
• Filling in, Digging out, sweeping off, shoveling off, more filling in, and weeding The Driveway
• Going to Jaws
• Harvesting Eggplant, Wing bean, Bitter mellon, Aloe, Papaya, and Banana 
• Going to Little Beach and Haleakala with L&L
• Buying plane tickets
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Thinking I was flying to the wrong island and being ok with it
• Getting offered a ride, handed a bag of chips when I got out, and within the first hour meeting friends and a place to stay
• Green sands beach and jumping off the southern most point of the USA
  
   (jumped off this cliff immediately after this picture)
  
• Going to a Petting Zoo party
• Hippies over using words like manifest, energy, shakra, channel 
• The red glow at night from an active crater
• Feeling the heat from steam vents coming out of the floor of the crater
• Feeling the waves hit me as they splashed into the lava as I was washing my clothes and bathing
• Hitching a ride 30 miles from where I was trying to go for the night, and getting picked up by people with a farm who let me spend the night at there place in the exact valley I wanted to go to 
• Discovering streams, marshes, swamps (fresh and brackish), beaches, ponds, waterfalls, river outlets and cliffs in Waipio Valley
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Running out of time before my flight and catching a ride in a convertible half an hour before my flight, and then getting dropped off at the gate
  
• Going to one of the wettest places on earth and walking through a swamp at 3000ft on a beautiful sunny day
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hiking down into Waimea canyon, the grand canyon but with vegetation everywhere
  
  
  
  
  
• Hitching a scary ride going really fast down a bumpy, muddy road and getting soaked with mud
  
  
  
  
• Learning that the wind is in a hurry but it doesn't mean we have to be
• Seeing the Kalalau valley from above before hiking in
  
• Seeing Puff the Magic Dragon in the cliffs at Hanalei Bay
  
• Heading out into the jungle with no plan to come back
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Bon fire Kalalau pizza
• Hiking on a closed trail where I rejuvenated at a waterfall and found and orange tree that I shook and retrieved fresh oranges for lunch
  
  
  
  
• Cruising with a couple that picked me up and took me snorkeling at a private spot, then body boarding, and then rum and oreos in the back of a pick up while it was raining
• Kicking a soccer ball around and that I can play pick up for the first time in years this summer in Baltimore
• Using coconut wireless to get news out to the world from the jungle 
• Farm hopping around Maui
  
  
  
  
• Eating so many fruits for the first time, many of which I dont remember the name of
• Finally making it to Greenleaf Farm and getting to live on a 2 acre permaculture farm/orchard
• Building the biggest fire I have ever built and kept it going for the whole time on the farm (to create ash for compost)
  
• Falling asleep by the fire
• Waking up at 4am to hitchhike to the summit of Haleakala (10,000ft) to watch the sunrise above the clouds over the pacific ocean on sliding sands trail for my last day in Hawaii
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

While in my hammock in Hawaii...

While in my hammock in Hawaii....

• I saw the sunset 

• I saw rainbows
• I listened to a drum circle and watched fire dancing at Little Beach
• Hammock Yoga was invented
• I slept between cargo shipping containers in Tent City

• I woke with the sun to work on the farm
• I decided to island hop
• I met other homeless travelers my first night on the Big Island
• I waited for days for the Petting Zoo party at the Southern most point of the USA
• I saw and heard the only active volcano flow (which apparently is only visible from a helicopter)
• I could only get in and out from one side because the other side was a drop into a crater 
• I attended my first Rainbow Gathering
• I stayed at a farm in Waipio Valley, "King's Valley"
• I was wet all night as my broken tarp flaps in the wind gusts on a ridge at 3000 ft
• I dried out on the beach with the wind but not the sun
  
• I slept at the top of Waimea Canyon and at the bottom next to the river
• I watched the sunset my first night out on the Kalalau 
  
• Robin's Nest was created
  
  
• I kept a fire going for 5 days
• I fasted and I feasted 
• I ate wild fruit that I picked (oranges, mangos and passion fruit)
• I became local to the Kalalau and received food and other items tourists did not want to hike out
• I played chess
• I slept on the beach
  
• I saw a guy walk towards me with a goat he just chased down and killed for a feast
• I decided to push my flight back and come back to the Kalalau 
• I sang with a bird named Bmore Robin (Baltimore Oriole and American Robin combination) 
• I brought down a tree
• I watched red-headed and American Cardinals eat my spilled fruit
  
  
  
  
• A man handed me a walking stick
• I watched the swell come in
• I ate everything with Peanut Butter
• I met a guy named Sam who met my other traveling friends as well
• I hung above a tree house
  
• I slept in the middle of a full grown bamboo forest
  
• I saw a rainbow at sunset and slept at red sands beach (one of the most beautiful hidden beaches)
  
• I saw the sun rise...  While in my hammock
  
  
  
  
  
  

(all actually happened while in my hammock)