1/20/2012 Fri 1400. Days Without Wife: 104.
Easton and I completed the Powerline Trail yesterday in 5 hours flat. That’s a much better time than I was expecting. Easton was in front most of the time, and his pace was fast, even building to a run at one point.
I was wearing cargo shorts, and Easton was wearing jeans. I would recommend that one wear long pants when hiking this trail, as it is overgrown. My legs are looking good today, but yesterday there was a bit of stinging and itching from the high grass and other weeds along the way.
Hikers of this trail should wear sunscreen. Much of the trail is in the direct sun, and so the back of my neck is a beet-red today. Easton was wearing a wife-beater under his pack, which resulted in a pretty respectable sunburn along his shoulders and arms.
When planning a hike on the Powerline Trail, keep in mind that the drier the weather, the better. We had a beautiful, rain-free day yesterday (Thu), but Kauai had just experienced extensive rainfall on Tuesday, and the Trail was still quite wet in some places. At certain points, there are large puddles of water (some as big as a swimming pool) on the Trail that force a hiker to go into the high grass to walk around. Also, much of the Trail runs along tiny ditches or gullies, that are hidden by the tall grasses and thus invisible, at least until Easton or myself would step or fall into one of them. I fell at least 5 times during the hike, and am thrilled neither of us broke or twisted an ankle. I would probably not be in favor of walking this trail again, unless it was after at least 3-4 days of little to no rainfall.
Easton’s lady, Jennifer, dropped us off at the southern trailhead in Wailua at around 0840. I would recommend walking the Trail in this fashion, South-to-North, as the steeper, gnarlier section is in the South. Easton and I were happy to get the tougher portion finished early in the day, when it wasn’t quite as hot.
At around 1100 we came to some sort of communication tower, which we climbed. From atop the 40-50 ft ridgetop tower, the view of Kauai is spectacular. One can pretty much see the entire East side of the island, from Poipu to Hanalei.
All in all, this was a great hike with amazing views, and no other hikers along the way. I feel like the terrain was such that one would not want to try to do it in the time that we did. We were going much too fast. 7 or 8 hours is a more appropriate time to hike the Trail, rather than 5.
