April's adventure's (Pali Puka, Sacred Falls, the Flume, Surfing, and SUP)

Well, COVID is still in the air, and honestly, I’m not sure what the future looks like. Everything feels so uncertain. I don’t know when or if life will go back to normal. Church has been canceled, so we’ve been doing a home study with family and friends. Right now, we meet at Sam’s house and do it together, which I actually really enjoy. I’m so glad to be in Hawaii during these crazy times. I can’t imagine being stuck inside somewhere with freezing weather. Governor Ige has made some pretty ridiculous rules that seem to change daily. At the moment, we have to wear masks anytime we’re in public or people won’t serve us—it’s kind of over the top. We’re not even allowed to sit on the sand; we have to either be moving or in the water. No gatherings over five people, and if you go hiking, you're supposed to go alone—because somehow that’s safer? Strange times, I tell you. Luckily, there aren’t any police up in the mountains, so it’s easy to hike in a group without getting in trouble. Honestly, I spend most of my day outside in the sun, and I’m soaking up every minute of it. This month, I’ve gone on so many awesome adventures! I hiked Pali Puka with Sam and some other friends. “Puka” means “hole,” and the trail leads to a hole in the cliff that overlooks the east side of the island. One of Sam’s friends, Michael, tried to scale the side of the mountain, and Sam was not having it he actually got mad, which was a first for me. Later that week, we hiked through a flume to get to a secret waterfall. We had to sprint across the highway to reach the trailhead, but it was totally worth it. With most of the students gone from Laie, it feels like everyone still here has grown a lot closer. Walking through the flume was a first for me it was dark, muddy, and musty... but totally worth it for the waterfall at the end!

My friend Mary and I also hiked to Sacred Falls! It’s technically illegal because back in 1999, a landslide happened there and tragically killed several people. Super sad and honestly pretty scary, so the state closed the trail to the public. If you get caught hiking it, the fine is $1,000... but of course, I had to take the risk. Mary and I rode my moped down to Hauʻula and hid it in some bushes before hopping the fence and running down the dirt road. Since it’s off-limits, we had the entire trail and valley to ourselves. The place is absolutely stunning lush and full of every Hawaiian plant you can imagine. We spent the hike chatting about boys, life, and college, just soaking it all in. When we finally reached the falls, I honestly couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Now I understand why it’s called Sacred Falls. There’s no way to fully describe the peace and beauty of that place. It took our breath away literally.. when we jumped into the cold water and swam around. We probably took 100 photos because… how could we not?

I also got to spend some time paddling the Haleiwa River and swimming out at the Mokes with Kadee and Kevin. We woke up extra early to catch the sunrise on the east side and stayed out late to watch it set on the west. It was such a full, beautiful day.

I loved paddling the river there were so many cute turtles swimming around, and the whole scene felt peaceful. Kadee and I always get along really well, which made it even more fun. I also attempted to surf again. I didn’t catch many waves, but honestly, I just loved being out on the water, watching the sun reflect off the ocean. The colors were unreal.

Camping at Westside Cabin and Kuli'ou'ou Ridge

 Wow! This covid lockdown is legit. But because of that, I have been able to go on some epic adventures on the island. The first one we did was hiking to the cabin on the Westside. Sam found this cabin on Google Maps and learned that you can hike there by following the fence line that goes up the whole mountain. Sure enough, we are crazy enough to find the cabin. It took us a while to find the trailhead because there technically isn't a trailhead and we aren't technically supposed to hike to this cabin. This was an all-around adrenaline-pumping activity for us!  Sam parked his car on the side of the road and we quickly grabbed our bags and ran into the bushes. Ayisa and Kamaua joined us on this adventure! 

We started a little too late in the afternoon so we raced with the sun to try to get up as high as we could on the mountain before it was pitch black. Let me tell you this hike isn't like any of the other hikes I have done. The mountain was basically eroding underneath us as we hiked up. We were holding onto a wobbly wire fence as we slowly made our way up. We could see the fence going up the mountain forever. Sometimes the mountain was eroding too much we would put our feet in between the fence pegs and hold onto the fence post while we scooted along the bottom of it. If this didn't work we would hop over to the other side of the fence where it was a little less steep. We were crawling up. I don't even think we did a mile an hour. On our way, we passed a goat whose head got stuck in between the holes of the fence and couldn't get out. Its rotting head and body were covered in bugs and blood. We didn't have much room to get around it so we were doing our best to step around the poor fellow. Soon after we ran into a Wasp nest and by holding onto the fence we were causing the fence to shake the nest. The bees were going crazy! 

We all survived and pressed up the mountain. We saw the most amazing sunset and were soon left to scale the mountain in the dark. I think we only were relying on the full moon for light and one cell phone flashlight. We crawled up the dusty mounting for another 5 hours after the sunset. At one point it was so steep and slippery that we weren't sure if we were going to make it. But with careful balance we did it! 

Finally, around 1am, we made it to the cabin. We were sweaty dirty and exhausted. Sam had a screwdriver in his bag to jingle the door nob open. We went inside and all claimed a hard wooden plank bed to sleep on for the night. We played a few games and tried to get some sleep. We were not looking forward to the hike down because of how hot it was going to be and we were almost out of water. We all slept horribly because it was freezing up there. The cabin's floor had a bunch of gaps which caused wind to shoot up into the cabin. We were not prepared for that. We were freezing cold and uncomfortable all night long.

 

By morning we were ready to be down the mountain. Before heading down we had to stop at the world's greatest-view bathroom. It was a pretty nice view. We could the whole island. The north shore and town! We were up so high! The bathroom was Sam's favorite part. Luckily in the morning, we found some jugs of water so we filled up before heading down. Down was worse than up. We were slipping all over the place and the sun was scorching us. We needed to get down before we got dehydrated. You can bet your bottom that as soon as we made it to the bottom we ran straight to the ocean. If felt so good get off all the grime and dirt. Wow, the ocean is healing. We all decided that we would never do the cabin again. Yeah, it was beautiful and fun but that hike is not for the faint of heart. Good thing we all have really good attitudes and just made the most of everything. 

After camping on the West side we decided we needed to camp at a more fun spot. Sam decided on the Kuli'ou'ou cliff. We all agreed and headed up the mountain the next weekend. This time we brought Villi with us! The hike was beautiful but once we got to the top we were in a cloud. We didn't mind though because we were hot and we brought a tent so what could happen to us if we had a tent? Well, let me tell you a tent does not keep you safe from a storm. We set up the tent just as the rain and wind started. We pilled in and had the wildest night of our lives. The tent was blowing so hard I thought the poles were going to snap. The tent also was completely sideways. So we had the side of the tent blowing on top of our faces. We laughed all night long at our situation? Why didn't we check the weather before we came? We don't know why but we are NEVER going to forget that night on the mountain. I think Sam at one point got out and used his shoelaces to tie the tent down. It was a wild night. The following night we had a movie night at Sam's house and I think Aysia and I crashed for a straight 12 hours. We woke up at noon the next day on Kamaua's couch. We have no idea how that happened. Pure exhaustion I guess. Camping for the win!