Living in Alaska: Urgent Report: Alaskan Couple Has Trouble in Hawaiian Wilderness

Mike and I had an interesting day. First, we drove to the North Shore to watch 20 foot waves, but found that they had shrunk dramatically.

After taking a few pics, we decided to dine at Sharks Cove Grill, a tiny road-side stand with outdoor seating. While dining, we had at least six chickens and an cat wander through. The cat decided he would dine at our table and proceeded to jump in the chair next to me.

To add to our North Shore experience, Mike had planned a 3 mile hike through a beautiful rain forest area. The hike started rather uneventful. We saw beautiful ferns, trees and views of the ocean. It wasn't until about an hour and a half that things got interesting. While walking along the trail, I slipped on a rock and bruised my hip. It hurt badly, but I was determined to press on and finish the hike. After all, it was ONLY 3 miles. I could do that, couldn't I?

After we finished the main part of the trail, we came to a cross road. We could go straight or we could turn right or left. Mike looked at the map and said we should turn left. So, we did just that. We turned left. At this point, it was almost three miles. We were guessing we should be pretty close to our car. My hip throbbing, we trudged forward. After about 30 minutes, Mike looked at the pedometer. We had been another mile and a half. Personally, I started getting very concerned. Mike assured me that we were on the right trail and just needed to give it some time and we would find the car.

Let me go on the record to say, at this point, I was very skeptical! I suggested we call someone and ask for directions. We had parked next to a Boy Scout building. Surely, they would know the area. Mike continued to assure me that we were just fine and we just needed to keep going.

As we were walking, we were watching for trail markers or other signs that we were on the right track. While we did not find anything of that nature, we did find another kind of nature. First, let me say that I have always wondered what wild-life we could see in Hawaii. You know, we have bears, moose, caribou, wolves and all other types of wild animals in Alaska. So, I was not expecting much in terms of animals in our 50th state. Well, was I surprised! As we were walking, we came upon a stray calf. Yes, a young bull. It was lying in the shade. Apparently, we startled it. The calf jumped up and started running. We thought perhaps he would lead the way out to the car. This was an extremely bad thought. Cows are not smart. They don't know where we parked. Searching for any glimmer of hope, we followed the calf. The calf led us no where, but deeper into the woods.

I begged Mike to make a call to someone. He said, let's just go a little farther. We had already hiked 3 miles from the area where we had turned left. I was definitely nervous and in pain. With that said, I pressed Mike to call the Boy Scout office. Finally, he relented and called 411 to get the number. The phone to the office rang and rang. After, oh let's say, 15 rings, Mike hung up and we devised a new plan.

Our new plan was a little more daring. I had him call 411, again, and this time ask for the number to the police department. Of course, this was not an emergency (no need to dial 911). We called the main number and talked to some nice gentleman who had no idea where we were. He kindly transferred us to the 911 dispatcher who would sweetly send us over to the fire department.

John at the fire department was great. He kept us on the phone until he could get our coordinates from our cell phone. Ping! He found us. He then said he was going to order a helicopter to come rescue us. Oh, hold on there! We certainly did not need a helicopter to rescue us. We just needed someone to help us find out how to get to our car.

John could see where we were in terms of Google Earth and helped point us in the right direction. His advice was simple. Go back the way we came and take the trail back, instead of trying to do the loop.

Okay, now we had already gone over 3 miles out of way. This was definitely more than I had expected. We were now going to have to go back the three miles and find the trail from which we had turned. John instructed us to call him every 30 minutes to give him a status update.

Just after we got off the phone with John, a helicopter started circling overhead. It looked very much like a search and rescue helicopter. What? A helicopter? We specifically said that we did not want to be rescued. We could do this ourselves! It made two passes over us and flew off away from us. Whew! How embarrassing would that be?

After the chopper disappeared, Mike and I started the LONG climb back up the mountain desperately looking for the trail. Finally, after what seemed like eons, we found it. We turned down the trail and began our slow hike back to the car. Since we were running out of daylight, John had asked us continue calling every 30 minutes until we got back to the car. At one point, we did not have a signal to call. When we got an area with a signal, we had a message from him asking us to call him. Wow! What service!

Finally after 11.73 miles, we found our car just before the sun set. We called John to inform him of our safe return. As I sat in the car, I began to ponder our day. Just how is it that we get ourselves into these predicaments? I could name a dozen or more, but won't bring up old history. However, we do it. It sure makes the Calvin's lives interesting (at least to us)!

North Shore Waves