“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on!”
A rocket ship is exactly what the past couple weeks have felt like. I finished out wedding season with a bang then hit the ground running in Hawaii with a couple shoots and every activity under the sun. We had something epic scheduled for every single day, barely giving ourselves time to sleep but I wouldn’t change one second. You can rest at home, after all, adventures are meant for exploration!
There were plenty of new restaurants and water sports and secluded beaches to wander but the highlights for me were certainly our two major hikes. Upper Manoa Falls and of course, Stairway to Heaven.
We didn’t know exactly what we were getting ourselves into on either hike. We just knew they were a bit dangerous, extremely hard to find on your own and Stairway watched by guards.
Manoa Falls was closed due to flooding, but our fearless guide Kyle had us jump the fence. There were less than a dozen other people on the entire two hour climb. We had full leeway to take as many tourist-free photos as we wanted! To get to “Upper” Manoa we needed Kyle even more. He called it a “side trail” but it was basically a landslide of roots and rocks that you had to maneuver through while battling mosquitos and trying not to lose your footing.
Someone (probably Kyle) put a few ropes along the way to help with the hardest parts but we were all too aware that one wrong step meant falling to our death. The water was icy and refreshing after the climb and the view breathtaking. I recommend sitting on the edge of the fall to let your adrenaline remind you you’re alive. :)
The stairs were originally installed during WWII so military could access a radio station antennae 2,000 feet up in the mountains. It was open to the public for a season after the war but closed permanently years ago due to numerous landslides taking out sections of stairs and of course a few deaths.
For the experienced hiker, I would say it’s not an especially difficult trail; it’s just a bunch of steep stairs after all. The scary part comes when you have to sneak onto the trail at 3am to get past the guards as they’re changing posts then hike through the dark without a headlamp to avoid being seen. It’d be a lot safer in my opinion if it were just open and fixed. However the lack of other hikers along the way makes it all the more epic and photogenic so I’m not complaining.
My adrenaline was never pumping more than when a cop had pulled someone right at the entrance to the fence we had to jump. We waited in the dark until he finished the ticket and jumped like ninjas into a bush as he pulled away. We ran, jumped the fence, past the barking dog, slid into drainage ditch and trekked through the dark mosquito infested forest following Kyle closely. We kept hearing brush moving around us and we were never sure if it was a boar or another hiker.
At the top of the mountain while the wind whipped around us and the rain poured in sheets, we waited in a tiny abandoned military post and swapped stories with a few other hikers. Their misadventures were a bit more perilous as they chose not to bring a guide. Briar patches, mud slides, boar sightings, wrong turns and being lost for several hours before finding the entrance had them each ragged in their own way and looking like they’d been through their own kind of battle.
This trail is certainly not for everyone, but well worth every drop of sweat, mosquito bite and misstep in the dark. There is something about hiking in the dark though. Something about only being able to see your next step that reminds you life is precious and every step counts. Every moment you choose to push forward when you aren’t certain of the way builds grit and perseverance. It teaches you to not get ahead of yourself and to trust your instincts and other senses. You become extra alert to every sound, like the one your foot makes when it steps on a piece of metal that’s not stable. You really feel the wind on your cheek like an encouraging whisper to keep going and you can taste the fog as it rolls in and obscures your path more, teaching you respect for nature and the will of the mountain to keep you grounded as you progress upward.
The rest of Hawaii well… I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. People around the world are so very kind. The more opportunities you give yourself to meet different types of people the more you trust in humanity. The sweet Hawaiian families we met bent over backwards to make us feel welcome. Waitresses gave us insider tips on places we had to see off the beaten path, even offering to take us there. The families Anthony already knew from prior visits welcomed me with open arms and couldn’t wait to answer my questions about hula dancing or tell us about other epic hikes we had to try.
As we walked across a nude beach (that we didn’t realize was nude until it was too late) an incredible mixed group from the LGBTQ community could not wait to invite us over to join them and share a White Claw and talk about our plans for the day. We weren’t exactly sure where to look at any given moment, but shared lots of laughs and walked away overwhelmed with joy and love.
The Japanese couple we met at dinner invited us out to dinner with them again the next night and then invited us to their home in Tokyo anytime we want, offering to be our hosts and tour guides. Kyle and Rachel, our fearless trail guides went out of their way to pick us up for the hikes and take us to the best poke spots after. Uber drivers were super excited to give us history lessons about Hawaii and tourists from all over the world sitting by us on the beach couldn’t wait to connect and learn where we were from.
The world is a big place which can seem scary, but the more you travel…or at least introduce yourself to other people unlike yourself, the more you see the grandness of humanity and the beauty that makes the world go round. If you go to a place or to another person looking for trouble, you will certainly find it. But if you go with eyes wide open, ears ready to listen and a heart willing to learn, you will find more beauty than you can keep to yourself, it will flow out of you and the world will no longer seem quite so scary.
“Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don’t”