We were told to do this hike, the Napoli Coast Trail, by numerous people and reviews. Sure glad we did!  The gentleman Steve we met at the Kauai Brewery said to get out and going early cause parking gets bad near the trailhead. I think we made it there by 8:30am.  We managed to stop at a local market, grabbed some quick eats ( which we are not proud to say, included spam, Bacon, and pepperoni like sausage with egg and white rice..and grabbed water bottles and cliff bars..before that we pulled off at ” The smallest coffee shop” and a great stop at that!  Teagan got her Hawaiian version of bulletproof coffee and I opted for an iced Carmel coffee;) we are addicted to almost all coffee here- it just tastes so good here!

To the trail head! 

We found a great parking spot which gave us indication we were there early enough;) We packed light and got our boots/keens strapped on! I forgot my Keens which turns out to be a little unfortunate- we are advid believers in using good gear. It makes a difference whether your braving cold, wind, wetness and/or tough terrain..on this hike, my adidas gortex hiking boots were great but there are a few river crossings that I wished I remembered my Newport Keens!

The hike started out on a nice incline- out of breath and in our heads..we had been pretty lazy the few months prior and I couldn’t help think-“sub ref” hahah.. We got over that quick and kept trenching onward. This hike was neat cause number one, it’s on the north shore, it goes along the coast and couldn’t have been more scenic and beautiful- Secondly, it went from dry to wet, rocky to yucky mudd, to river and sandy beach! Every quarter mile there was something new to experience.

Look!! Little scavenger kitties greeted us off the trail at the rocky beach!  So random but loved them!

One major disappointment was when we reached the river crossing, we came upon locals that informed us/warned us, of a huge storm that would hit in about 2 hours. This sign above was a warning of numerous deaths due to people being unaware of tides, strength of river when crossing, etc..He said if you weren’t back and across this river we would be stuck here. These guys even turned back- we had got to the point where you either keep trecking up another 2 hours one way to the big waterfall and another 2 hours back-putting us well into the storm.. We already hiked 1-1/2 hours one way.  So we opted not to make the trip further-we were bummed. 

So before reaching the river and the beach, the  terrain became super muddy and pretty tough. This is where I liked my hiking boots- they have the ankle support I need and pretty much felt invincible. Nothing you can do about the slip in this mud, but was glad to have them. When reaching the river however, I really needed those keens. Teagan was able to get through this pretty easily. I had to remove my boots/socks, and let my feet de-sand and dry out before putting them back on- kinda a pain in the arse! 

We made our venture back and seemed as though we had a good pace, we kept passing  people and they would say things like- ” wow, you girls are Movin'” I like feeling like we’re getting a workout of some sorts so that made me feel good. 

So we made it back, cleaned off, and got back onto the next venture! It was only about 11:00am! The weather was overcast with sporadic mist cooling us off. 

So pieces of advice for those hiking the Napoli Coast Trail-

•Get to trail head early!

•Wear Keens!

•bring a light towel, water, light snack, and dry bag

•walking stick and/or trekking poles would have helped greatly!

It was a great day to hike because we got out before the major rains hit and it was overcast keeping it cool.  I also didn’t feel like I was missing any of the beach time either!

Teagan will continue blogging about our next adventur to QueensBath!