Stairway to Heaven

What a trip! Tyler, my dad, and I got up early and headed up the vertigo stairs. The visibility was great and it was so beautiful to look over the windward side of the island. Then we got to the top ridge and the sprinkling started. 600 sets of 7 stairs each (the railings are numbered) and we made it to the old bunker at the top. It was definatley raining. Never fear, we had good rain gear!

Then the fun began.

We hiked further along the ridge through mud and brush. Slipping and sliding. Clinging to the plants to avoid falling. Dirty, but kind of fun.
We met and followed the Moanalua Ridge trail down along another ridge. This was were it got ruff. 20mph winds threatened to knock us off the narrow path. What a rush! Above the treeline and descending quickly, we scrambled, slipped, and trudged along. It's a good thing we had that rope to hold us together. Would it ever end!

Well it did, but we were drenched and muddy from head to toe. As the rain and wind subsided, we even caught glimpses of waterfalls on the ridge next to us. We reached the trees (yea trees! Windblocking, good gripping, supportive trees!) and the hike continued to desend through the jungle. We know this meets up with the road right?

There it was, the road. Oh. On the other side of this stream. Well we're soaked anyways. Wading is no big deal. As we walked and walked for an hour or so along the road, the rain resumed. Soaked again. The stream was larger than usual due to the rain. We counted 18 crossings that we had to make along the road, with the last 6 having old bridges.

As we staggered into the park (and loaded up on Ibuprofen) beyond thoughts of "Owe" "Cold" and "I can't move" it was a great feeling to realize what we had accomplished. Hiking from one side of the island to the other. That was one thrilling hike and we did it! It's memories like this that make me realize how much I love hiking.