We had another intense day on the north shore of Kauai.  One group headed out for a variety of caves and taro fields in the area.  The caves are the sites of newly described, endemic diatom genera and species.  The team was looking for other algae in these caves, too.  And the taro fields have the aquatic fern Azolla, and diatom growth in the fields is noticeable to the naked eye.

The other team headed out for a grueling 6-mile hike to a spectacular waterfall and watershed.  The going was slow due to intense rain in the canyon (and this is supposed to be the dry season!).
Carrie and Pat are a bit wet after being in the rain the entire day.
 
We saw many people on this much-used trail, and tonight after dinner (we have switched from eating at restaurants to Jeff Johansen making dinners—with wonderful results!), we will examine the 20+ samples we took from the river, some tributaries and wet walls along the 7 hour(!) hike. 
A wonderful sight!
Though we did not have to use ropes to get climb up to higher parts of the trail (see image below from us doing that in Pa’lolo Valley on Oahu), the hike was very tough.