Well I just decided to start up on this whole blogging THANG. Mostly for personal documentation of my life here in Hawaii, but if you so chose to enjoy, then... enjoy!
I'm going to start this one on just this last Monday, President's Day, We had no school! wahoo!
Due to the not so sunny weather, my wonderful roommate, Ali, and I decided to go on "a really easy 5 hr hike".... well let me tell you, this "easy 5 hour hike" turned into a 7 hour hike from H-E-double hockey sticks.
So this was the beginning of the hike (ignore the fact that I look like I want to kill someone). It started out like this which is how pretty much all of the hikes around Laie start off... so I thought it would just be up in the hills hike until you drop down into the falls and it would just be great.
False.
Before we start the wonderful hike to "Turtle Falls" there's a plaque talking about a 13 yr old boy who died on a scouting trip because of a flash flood. Super sad, and definitely what I want to hear right before starting a hike that someone had died there less than a year ago.
Before we start the wonderful hike to "Turtle Falls" there's a plaque talking about a 13 yr old boy who died on a scouting trip because of a flash flood. Super sad, and definitely what I want to hear right before starting a hike that someone had died there less than a year ago.
(stole these next few pics from Ali)
So after hiking up a huge mountain, then crossing a really narrow ledge that has a vertical drop for Dayyyyzzzz we drop down into the valley to cross the river. Then we cross the river again. Hike through some jungle, then cross it again, and again, and again.
On the way back i Counted 46 times each way (92 total) that we crossed that river. It had rained earlier that day so everything was super slimy and slippery. While we were in the jungle we were sliding on mud. While we were in the river, we were sliding on rocks, making us have to bend down and hold onto things to help us keep our balance.
After much struggle and hardship: we reached our destination...
.... You've got to be FREAKING kidding me. We just hiked 3 hours to reach this 12 foot waterfall?
I had never felt so disappointed as I did in this moment. but SURPRISE!!! We had to climb a rope up this one then on the other side was the 80 ft waterfall I didn't get a pic of. It was super cool, got to swim under it, pretty sweet... definitely the coldest water I've been in since moving to the Aloha State.
Then comes the hike back...
So at this point, my body is fatigued from only having had a bowl of cereal and a granola bar to eat, and having run out of water, and having freaking sore muscles from hiking and climbing over rocks all day. In addition to that, it would decided to start, not just raining, but POURING. Here we are sliding on rocks, super tired, hiking through a river bed where a kid recently died from a flash flood in the middle of a tropical rain. Not to mention, that I had my left ankle rolled, jammed, and slammed multiple times that day. (The next few days it was bruised and swollen, which went great with my mosquito biten, scratched, bruised legs)
Lovely.
Okay... I know that it is a tad-bit ridiculous that my first blog post is me complaining the whole time, but let me tell you something, I do not hate hiking. In fact, I ENJOY hiking. I went on a second 4th level hike as a leader for Girl's Camp. I mean, this is something I like to do. However, if I'm being completely honest, I hated almost every second of this hike.
10:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
(ignore the fact I look DISGUSTING)
TURTLE FALLS:CONQUERED
