We were told to wrap a lava rock in a tea leaf found on the trail and say a lil prayer to the gods to protect us on the hike.. which we did right away. This I think was forshadowing on this life changing journey. We hiked the trail for two days... taking our time and seeing everything... lounging by the enormous waterfalls and enjoying the scenery. We saw ferrel goats everywhere and were amazed at their agility to climb even the most steep and jagged terrain. We made it into the Valley finally and set up camp under the canopy of these beautiful trees right next to the beach. There was a fresh water waterfall where we could "shower" and the water was drinkable. Unfortunately the waves were so huge and violent that going in the ocean was not an option... they were 16 foot and breaking close to shore... cutting a weird jetty like finger through the sand to the mouth of a cave at the far end of the beach. The odd thing was that the waves at that time of year on that side of the island are supposed to be the calmest of the year... and this was unusual so we were told.

One of the first people I met was a guy named Kalalau Ron... so he called himself. He was nekked... large... hairy and looked like Fidel Castro with a Boston accent.... and he made bamboo flutes. Imagine it. He played these flutes like nobody's business and I bought one from him. But he told me this story since he saw us flying a stunt kite on the beach. He said that a kayaker was propelling himself with a kite along the coast coming to this beach and saw a hunter with bow and arrow shoot a goat. The goat fell to the bottom of the cliff into the water and the kayaker paddled over to retrieve the arrow as a souvenier... as he got close to the goat a tiger shark came up and ate the entire goat horns and all right in front of him. Needless to say the kayaker was in a hurry to get out of the water...

So we spent some time in the Valley... hiking and enjoying the natural water slides in the streams, picking the fruit that the hippies had grown in terraces in the 60's and generally enjoying the summer in a beautiful place. We decided to move camp to the caves to be closer to some friends we made there (there were max about 6 people in the Valley). The cave was under a sheer lava rock cliff about 500 feet high. A couple days later a large group of Santa Cruz students came in and camped next to us in the cave. We all enjoyed looking at the stars becoming aligned at night- jupiter was very large and bright... and the waves were still huge and crashing... and the jetty pointing right to us in the cave...

One afternoon about 5pm or so... I was gathering water and wood for a fire to start dinner... I was at the mouth of the cave just under the lip of it when some of the students started to scream and look up. I walked out to tell them to move if they were getting hit with rocks from the goats walking above when I looked up... and saw a girl falling... tumbling to her death... her head hit... she lost consciousness... went limp and fell into a heap about 15 feet in front of where I was standing. I was in shock. I started to run towards her... then hesitated, what could I do? Then ran again and stopped. Her friend got to her first... lifted her arm and unravelled her leg... said she had a pulse... and her friend and I made eye contact... what could be done? We are 11 miles from civilization... no way to phone or alert anyone... no cell phones. It was a moment that lasted a lifetime. We covered her body and the same friend that felt her pulse started swimming out to a passing boat... he flagged it down and about three hours later a helicopter landed and took her body away. She had no shoes on which was odd since the lava she had been hiking on was so jagged and apparently she had never really been hiking before. It was June 17, 1991 and her name was Amy Snader. This is a pic of her and the other is the spot where she landed from the top of the cliff you see in the pic. Notice the scale compared to a tent, and the cliff is about twice that high to the top.

    

That night as I lay on the beach looking at the stars almost aligned... I could not tell which way the ocean was for the echo coming off the cave. It was a strange night's sleep. The following day we woke up to the ocean calm as a lake. The jetty had pointed right to where she landed... and there was now a heart formed out of shells and rocks where her body had been. As I looked up to the top of the cliff I saw a book flapping in the wind that no one ever went to get.  

We left the valley soon after... I needed to get my head together.

You can use your own imagination, as I have for years, wondering what that was all about. But I will never mess with the gods of Hawaii... I will never remove coral from the island (a bad omen, ask any native) and I will always have complete reverence for Mother Nature, and respect for the earth and the stars and the water.

The following year I returned to the islands to teach at a YMCA camp for the summer on Oahu. After my wonderful stint of summer work there I went back to Kauai to return to that Valley for my birthday in September. I spent a week in the Valley with some friends from the camp and my boyfriend Dan had come from LA to join the fun. We decided to hike out the day after my birthday on Sept 10th and got a hotel room to relax and have a good dinner. We were evacuated the next morning at 6am and told to go to the local grade school because Hurricane Iniki was bearing down coming right for a direct hit to the island. Everything was being boarded up... people were running like mad everywhere...

We went to the shelter and sat in a rental car for hours watching the storm come in... soon we could not see the coast. We decided to go into the school. As soon as I stepped out of the car I was blown about 15 feet... I screamed for Dan and he grabbed me... and we ran for the school rooms. I spent the next 10 hours standing outside against a cinder block retaining wall with an Alaskan guy and a Sioux Indian... both the most amazing people and just hysterically funny and calm. We had a blast watching the island fly by us. This is a pic of the storm coming in and eating the coastline, and another of the Hurricane Riders... the Sioux, Dan, and Greg from Alaska ....

The Saffir-Simpson scale on the island broke at 225 mph winds... and the sustained winds were clocked at 150 with gusts up to 175mph. This would make this hurricane a Category 5. The school was torn apart, the roof peeled off like a can of tuna... debris flying everywhere. Coconuts broke through cinder block walls like cannonballs. I have never been so in awe of nature. The eye came... and it was eery and sunny... with strong gusts of wind... we all walked around to see what was happening. Then it got dark again and we rode out another 4 hours.

The next day we surveyed the damage and there was nothing left of the towns. We walked down to the beach and around the town to complete destruction. No one had water... the tourists were freaking out because of no cigarrettes... no beers... nothing cold. We stayed on the island for another few days after the tourists were evacuated... but left because we were adding to the mouths that needed to be fed. We saw the true hawaiian spirit of the people come shining through in magnitude... we had luaus... fresh fish... rice... and ate better after the storm than any time I can remember. All the people came from their homes and businesses to cook what they had and feed everyone ... it was a beautiful thing.

   

One article I read just recently about it had this to say:

Hurricane Iniki was recorded as a category 4 and category 5 hurricane, depending on the monitors you consult. However, something happened on Makaha ridge during Iniki that was literally off the scale. On October 7, 1992, the Honolulu Advertiser ran the article below. During the storm, the United States Naval radar station apparently registered gusts at 227 Miles Per Hour!
What makes this even more cryptic and bizarre is that the wind gauging machine was apparently destroyed by the hurricane immediately after this 227 clocking. The highest winds recorded on this planet, outside of a tornado, have been 231 Miles Per hour at Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. This has been a Guiness book of World Records staple for a while.
With only 4 miles per hour difference, and the wind machine basically torn apart during the storm, it is not unreasonable to ask this question.
Did Iniki break the world record for wind velocity at Makaha Ridge on September 11, 1992?

I never tell that story anymore... but natural disasters make you humble... and show you first hand how small and insignificant you really are compared to Mother Nature...