It's hard to imagine roughing it in Hawaii, but that's exactly what 16 Bellerose Composite High School students did this summer when they hiked the Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast.
Principal George Mentz took the students, including his son Jake, to the north side of the island of Kauai so they could complete their requirements for the Duke of Edinburgh gold-level award.
"It was like the television show Survivor, without the cameras," said Jake Mentz.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, founded the award program in 1956 in England, and it was launched in Canada in 1963. The goal of the award is to help youths 14 to 25 years old to develop a sense of responsibility to themselves and to their community.
One of the key challenges is the completion of an adventurous journey, and the students' five-day hike along the rugged Hawaiian coast was all of that and more.
"We carried full 30-pound packs. It took us two days to hike the first six miles," said Jordan Lan, who explained that most of the students worked out in the school gym before the end of June, but he wished he had done more.
"The whole way was a series of ups and downs. There were no continuous down stretches," Lan said.
The 18-kilometre Kalalau Trail takes hikers through five major valleys before they reach Kalalau Beach. The cliffs climb 1200 metres above sea level and the Sierra Club rates the trail as a nine on a scale of 10 for difficulty. The trail is known for its loose rocks and, in places, the pathway has been eroded by the wind and the sea so badly that there is only a narrow ledge to walk on.
The most difficult portion is dubbed the Cliff of Tears.
"The trail along the Cliff of Tears is only 30 centimetres wide and you have to walk very carefully as you cling to the rocks. At the same time, there is a back wind pushing you into the rocks," said Sam Mickelsen, as she explained that the students walked in single file without being tethered to each other.
Strange companions
It was so hot and humid in Hawaii during the month of July that at times the kids felt they were enveloped by the heat.
"You could feel the heat off the rocks," Mickelsen said.
One student found a centipede in his shoe and everyone stopped on the trail to examine a huge spider as big as a hand.
"It was called an Aragoge. It was hairy and big, probably four or five inches across," Lan said.
They also saw goats and geckos climbing on the rocks and big black slugs in the jungle. They encountered one or two odd human specimens too, including a nudist, who was also hiking along the trail.
The Survivor part of the journey was especially evident when the youths camped at the end of each day. The kids brought most of their food with them from Canada and each one had to pack it in his or her backpack, along with sleeping tents.
"We all had to get together to cook the food. We had all packed in our food. Stuff like bagels, pasta, rice and freeze-dry food. We started to run out of food at the end but at least it was easier going back on the trail, because we had to carry less weight," Jake Mentz said.
Still, there was the odd squabble over camp duties.
"We had fights over who would do dishes," said Lan, who found it difficult to sleep with others in the same tent so he moved out and slept in the open air.
This caused a lot of good-spirited fun for everyone and there were multiple photos taken of Lan, sleeping soundly in a hammock slung between two trees.
The heat caused a variety of problems for the students. They were constantly trying to replace fluids and that meant they had to fill their bottles and filter the water at every stream or river that they crossed.
"It tasted OK. But at the next stream, we had to stop and filter some more water," said Emily Moloney.
Bathrooms were as primitive as it gets, since the only facilities were composting toilets located at the overnight campgrounds. During the all-day-long hikes, no toilets were available.
"So you had to go behind a tree or a boulder and hope no one was watching. The problem was, we were also drinking a lot of water because it was so hot," said Mickelsen pointedly.
The campgrounds were lush and beautiful and at least one spot was right beside a waterfall. After a three-day hike, it was a kid's dream come true. "We slid on our bums through the waterfall and then jumped into the pool," said Lan.
Nearby, they found wild ginger and plantain growing in the jungle and the students tried adding it to their meals that day to spice up the pasta.
"We knew it was plantain because it looked like bananas, and the ginger we knew by the smell," said Jake Mentz.
One and all, the students rose to the challenge of hiking the arduous trail at the same time as they learned to get along with others under often trying conditions.
"We learned how to work as a team. We learned things went better if we all worked together," said Lan.
More than anything, they learned not to give up.
"We learned the true colours of other people and how they would go out of their way sometimes to help or to carry a pack for you or to encourage you. We also learn we could do it and that we were capable of more than we thought we were," said Mickelsen, adding that, after the five-day hike, a stay at a hotel caused a degree of culture shock for the trail-weary kids.
"It seemed so funny after five days to be able to take a shower. It was quite the contrast," she said.
The journey to Hawaii completes one portion of the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Bellerose students will continue to work on the required volunteer commitment and physical activitiy portions to earn their gold-level awards throughout the next school year.
