Tales from a Tropical Isle: Night #3 Kahana State Park

This morning's sunrise.

Night #3 brought me to Kahana State Park on the Windward side. Matt and Nick from the bike shop came with me. Matt and I decided to hammock camp, even though flat ground was availble. On the ridges like Wiliwilinui, flat ground is a rare commodity, and guava are abundant, so hammocking is ideal. Kahana State Park's campground is on a sliver of sand and ironwoods between Kam Hwy and the beach. Not exactly pristine, but its nice enough.

We successfully roasted brats and marshmallows on our little Smokey Joe grill. This is the first time in close to 2 years that we got the grill to stay lit. It must be the Manoa dampness that makes it go out when we're at home. I was surprised how many stars we could see, even with the highway street lights just 100 meters away. I guess the light pollution from town can't reach that far.

Just after we went to bed, the winds picked up, which meant some hammock/tarp readjustments. I finally found a configuration that would keep me dry and was quiet enough to sleep (no tarp flapping in the breeze). Tarp inside of my bugnet. Yup, I made myself a little Maria burrito with my sleeping bag, thermarest and hammock inside, wrapped up in my tarp, all secured with my bugnet.

Regretfully, I don't have a close-up photo of this curiosity. It kept me dry, toasty, and I managed to sleep most of the night. I'm thinking this might be a usual windy-night set up. I slept well enough that a medium sized branch fell from the tree above, hit the foot-end of my hammock, and I never noticed. A little scary if you ask me.

Matt's night was less successful. It went something like this:
1. Attempt to sleep with regular setup- hammock under tarp (too noisy).
2. Ditch tarp and hammock, sleep on beach. Successful for a little while
3. Realize the tide is coming in, and relocate to stay dry. Back to hammock, no tarp. Also successful for a while.
4. Rain starts. Must rehang tarp. Tarp still flaps in the wind. No more sleep.
Matt estimated he got 3 hours of sleep. Based on his brain functioning and demeanor, I think he was right.

I "slept-in" until 5:50am, and then proceeded to roam around, make coffee, and take photos. Here are some photos:

Morning coffee- learning how to make my "automatic" camera more manual by increasing the exposure time.

Camp: Matt's last sleeping attempt on the left, the Maria burrito in the middle, and Nick's 1-man tent on the right. Although our bikes are here, we drove the jeep. After camping, we continued up the windward side for a bike race near Laie.