Hiking to the 4th waterfall
We had made the 1st three waterfalls, and I successfully didn't have to swim in any of the pools. They definately didn't fit the image I had in my mind - where you always see this beautiful Hawaiian girl rinsing off in the fall - while the water surrounding it is crystal clear. This water looked like it could crawl away on it's own. I, apparently, was alone in this opinion as everyone else before and after us - including John swam in the pools. I just couldn't do it!
Here are some picts of the trail - up and down. The beautifully and quite flattering picture of my backside is to show how steep the incline was. I wasn't bending over in the slightest, and John was right behind me - (obviously as my back side looks really large - at least I hope it isn't that big!) On the way down the option was to hold on to roots or folliage until we could slide down to the next branch, hoping they didn't tear out, or to sit down and just slide. I didn't want to ruin my pants so I opted to hang on for dear life!
We got a little lost on the way to the 4th waterfall because following the trail left didn't seem right - when the trail went straight up a slick rock face for about 10 feet. It looked like the end of the trail - not a stepping stone! But alas, it was just that - and that wasn't the bad part. The trail we took while we were lost and the trail to the actual 4th fall was much, MUCH worse!
Nothing compared to the last leg of the correct trail to the 4th fall... Bolders and little pools to walk through - after we scalled a nice 15 - 20 foot rock face. They had a rope ladder there, but I still thought I was going to die. Especially as it started raining and just added to the slippage!
When we finally made it to the fall - we had swam through a good 100 yards of yulk (apparently water) to a spot where we could scale up to the top of the fall. I wasn't willing to swim any more - afraid that something was going to start eating me. But after all that the 4th water fall was horribly dissapointing. It was a good sized ampetheatre of 20' high, sheer rocks with nothing but a little trickle of water coming off one of them. The worst part was that I had to swim through the muck again and on the way back I fell on the rocks somehow completely landing flat on my left side - really hard (pict of me in the right side looking very upset and starting to bruise on knee). It was all I could do not to cry and foot on the rock somehow was hit and it still hurts 2 1/2 months later, putting shoes on, Tyler stepping on it or just tapping it. Our guess is that it's broken - but since there isn't much to do I just live with it. And then we didn't get a picture because we weren't willing to swim with our camera - or go back through it all.... sorry, use your imagination!
On the way out of the Bamboo forest it started to pour on us. We were so drenched by the time we got to the car that the water just kept dripping off - all the way home. And it was a long drive home on a narrow road with a lot of switchbacks and a lot of sharp turns over rickety bridges! What an adventure!