little things

the trail we liked best was shorter than the renowned kalalau trail, it was a 4 mile out and back. the hanalei 'okolehao trail had more than it's well travelled neighbor to the north, except crowds. walking along this trail not having to dodge people gave me the chance to look closely at the plants and dirt and sky and view. studying the dirt we walked over made each step up the steep hill easier b/c i wasn't looking at the hill yet to be climbed but at the rain ruts under foot. the wind storm the day before had a good bit of rain with it that made some cool designs in clay laden soil. it reminded of the texture of eastern pennsylvania soil in spots. the dirt here was much more red but nonetheless sticky on my shoes and of reminescent of the trials i learned to mountain bike on. the plant life in this pseudo-jungle area was loaded with ferns and other stuff you remember from jurassic park or walking with dinosaurs on discovery channel, in fact they filmed some of jurassic park on the island. there was this one tree that had bark on it that looked like beige paper, when i touched the tree it was as though the bark was many layers of foam pading, like the foam pre-wrap for a sprained ankle but 30 or 40 layers of it. i found a piece that had been blown off a tree in the previous day's storm and pulled the layers off until i lost count of how many there were. i wish i was more of an arborist, b/c the tree no doubt has a cool name. from the lookouts you could turn and look up valley toward mount wai'ale'ale, the wettest spot on earth, an average annual rain fall of 440 inches! this valley was the set for the movie uncommon valor the doubled as a viet nam jungle. and the other view was out over hanalei bay checking the waves and the taro fields that lead out to the sea. taro corm (root portion) is pounded to make poi, a staple in hawaiian cuisine. other standard jungle trees and plants with a few mini-lizards if you looked closely, beige and green camo looking guys who scamper out of sight as soon as you spot, so fast making me think that i may not have even seen him in the first place. look around today