Hamana Falls - November 23rd, 2010

Samantha-Kris-Me (in order)

I decided last night around 9 P.M., that I wanted to do a hike today (Tuesday), I had saw pictures and a description on @island trails blog, it seemed like a pretty easy hike with a beautiful ending. The only problem with this was the location of this hike is a "secret", sorta. It's easy to find when using Google, and it happens to be that I AM the Google queen. This didn't mean that we didn't get lost, because we definitely did, I had the right road but i just turned off to early. If I was thinking I would of just gone down the road further I would of found it.

Well, it's true you do need a permit from the water board, but it's usually only granted to hiking groups, so we just took our chances, I VERY cautiously approached the gate where I thought the trail was, I didn't want to make the locals mad, and noticed a truck parked in front of the gate, so I pretended I was out for a run, the lady ended up rolling her window down, and asking me what I was doing, I just said I was "looking around" (for those who knows me, I am a VERY nervous person), she continued to say that her kids were down there swimming in the swimming hole that is along the trail, she also asked if I was visiting or if I lived here, I told her I lived here, she then mentioned we shouldn't have anything to worry about being there, so I ran back to the truck and got my two hiking buddies, Samantha and Kris, and we scurried to the trail start.

Hamama Falls

The trail is easy, the whole way was a gravel/dirt road, it was fairly flat, with a few hills, that worked up a bit of a sweat, but for the most part I couldn't complain. There was another falls along the way of the normal Hamama Falls, but we just decided to go straight for the main falls, since I didn't know much about the other one, and I wasn't wearing my hiking boots and was wearing shorts, which I never do. It took us with stops probably about 40 minutes while stopping to take pictures.

The falls are gorgeous, Samantha jumped right in with clothes and shoes on, then Kris jumped in, the water was shallow but you can still play in the falls, but it was pretty chilly. I on the other hand, had to take off my shoes and put flip flops on, I wasn't willing to take the chance of my "butt" shoes getting ruined :). Not long after we got there another guy walked up, which was nice he took a picture of us, which we wouldn't of gotten if he weren't there. After that we messed around in the water and took pictures, we then headed back, which was mostly down hill, much better than the upward climb on the way there!

Oh yes, we found TINY little leaches from when we were on the rocks on our arms, we were freaking! Of course. I probably would of taken all my clothes off if that guy hadn't been there! I hate bugs! Mosquitoes were always terrible, got quite a few bites! In the end it was fun, and we definitely had a good time!

I've been bitten by the hiking bug! :)

Length: About 3 miles in and out
Difficulty: Beginner