Night Hike

I wrote an email to Rosemary Gillespie (the foremost specialist on Tetragnathid spiders of Hawaii) after returning from the expedition to the Alakai swamp. She examined my photos and told me she was also positive they were not D. raptor. She then tells me:

As I think I mentioned, I have found by far the
greatest abundance of D raptor right against the
pali (right at the waterfalls) along the Na Pali
coast (Hanakapiai, Waiahuakua, Hanakoa, etc).

Somehow I missed this piece of vital information. I reread all our previous email correspondences, and her papers, and found no specific references to this area. I had hiked all along that trail way back when I did the Kalau Valley hike and did sample some waterfall areas on the trail but I never realized that this was the place they are the most abundant. Particularly since I never caught any on my original Kalau valley hike.

I became reinvigorated by this new piece of information and decided that I would do the 8 mile hike to Hanakapiai falls and do a search.

I figured that since the sun sets around 7:30 pm, I could leave for the falls at 5:30 and get there just before sunset, I would work into the night and then hike back out using a headlight. The 2 mile portion of the trail to Hanakapiai beach is very well traveled and easy to follow. At the beach you turn to walk into the valley following along the stream created by the fall 2 miles in.



This is a picture of the valley as I just started the trail inward. The second portion of the trail, into the valley can be quite sketchy at times because the number of people who make it this far greatly diminishes so the path can become obscure in some places.

After hiking about 3 miles, it was about 7 pm, I crossed the stream. (This is not the spot, it was before here, but this portion of the stream is visually more appealing so I am posting this view).


As I was crossing the stream I passed a younger couple who had obviously just spent some time swimming in the pools of the waterfall. She was in a bikini top and shorts and wearing very stylish but flimsy sandals. He was wearing flip flops. It would be a challenge to hike this far in flip flops, not impossible but also not enjoyable. As I passed them going out, me going in, I thought that there was no way they could make it all the way back before nightfall. I assumed they were camping on the beach, which would also be a stretch to get to before dark but not impossible.

After hiking for nearly 2 hours I see Hanakapiai falls in the distance. It is quite majestic.

Hanakapiai falls is a listed as being a 1,000 ft high fall. It is quite impressive and beautiful. The bottom of the fall is a large pool where you can swim. Typically in the summer this pool would have a number of people swimming and playing about. Now, at dusk, the area is empty.


When it was completely dark and I was searching the vegetation I was startled to hear a loud sharp CRACK. Not quite as sharp a sound as a gunshot but as loud. It took me a minute to realize the sound was that of a large rock that had fallen down the cliff and struck the shore below.

The view down stream as the sunset. I searched all the vegetation along the stream, along the trail and up the slopes. In the dark as I searched each plant with the narrow beam of my headlamp I realized that most of the vegetation here was exotic - guava, ginger, and citrus (probably growing from seeds spit out by picnicking hikers). Funny how your perspective of an area changes as the light changes. During the daylight, this area seemed like a rich diverse lush green forest. Then as I examined this forest with the narrow beam of a headlamp in became a monotonous parade of guava and ginger.

I searched this valley from dusk until 1 am and then decided I should begin the return hike home. A couple times in the valley I followed the wrong 'trail' and had to backtrack to figure my way out. Once to the beach it was very easy as the Na Pali trail is quite distinct, even in the dark. I continued my search at every point where water flowed over the trail and the vegetation was thick. This slowed my return home. I also sat on the trail without any light to admire the amazing stars overhead. The warm pacific air felt wonderful and the Milky Way looked spectacular. I continued on my way, search almost every large plant I passed on the trail. At about 2 am I see glowing white forms on the trail ahead of me and realize it is the same couple I had passed 7 hours earlier leaving the falls. They got trapped on the trail at nightfall and where attempting to sleep using their towel as a blanket. I offered them some flashlights and they where happy to make their way home. They were in very good spirits considering they must have been laying on the hard dirt trail for at least 5 hours before I came across them.

Turns out her stylish sandal could not take the stress and broke which made her doubly slow on the way out. We did not get off the trail until 4:30 am, 11 hours after I started. I found no D. raptor, I was exhausted, frustrated and annoyed (not at them, but at my inability to find a stupid green spider. I fear that if I do find this spider I will be so annoyed I will squash it instead of capture it.)