Hiking in to Halape

**mems** · 10-17-2011, 03:03 AM

Aloha, my son and two of his friends hiked into Halape with me and another Dad. It is a nine mile hike down 3,000 feet in elevation to the sea. It is a tough hike in, and tougher heading out.

After a couple of hours we were finally at the shelter. We got some water and set up camp.

This was the view from our tents. We brought some food but lived off the ocean with fish and various sea creatures.

Best thing is this fresh water pond behind the beach, it is great to get the salt water off of you before you go to sleep at night.

I set up a hammock at the pool, the boys enjoyed relaxing there. We stayed a total of four days and three nights. The surf was pounding, making it tough to fish.

I hiked over to Halape Iki, about a 1/2 mile away to see if the tide pools had fish for me to catch. I ran into this big monk seal, who continued to follow us through out our trip.

He started barking at me and scared the crap out of me, then we became friends when I threw him a fish to eat.

Here he was back at our beach. We named him Chris after one of my son's friends.

the surf was pretty big, so Luke had fun hitting the waves. He was the only one who hiked down a board.

Here he is getting ready to hit the waves.

He got some waves, but the current was pretty tough.

I got a couple of papio that we cooked up for dinner, but fishing was tough with the wind and the rough seas.

We hiked to Keahou another beach with nice tide pools. We did a little snorkeling and checked out a beautiful coral garden.

We hiked out the next morning and I was relieved to finally reach the truck and a cold beer. I left a cooler back there for us. It was fun and a good time spent with my son.

I wish we had found more of these! If you come to the big island and are up for an adventure, check out Halape! Mems