My beautiful kitten,
I just had the most awesome hike.
The Haiku Stairs is a huge set of metal stairs built going up a 900m-high peak on Oahu. The trail was originally built back in the 40's to install a radio station at the top of the island; a radio station so powerful that it could communicate with /underwater submarines in Tokyo Bay/! There are about 4000 stairs going along a ridge line, featuring some almost-vertical climbs; the fact that the top is usually shrouded in cloud earned the trail the name of the 'Stairway to Heaven'. Along the way up you are rewarded with the most spectacular views of the geography of Oahu.
Despite the trail being in very good condition (they spent a million dollars on fixing it up a few years ago), there are a few wealthy residents in the vicinity that have an intense irrational dislike of hikers and have a senator on their side. So while the trail itself is on public land, it has been closed off for many years now, because the city cannot arrange a public right-of-way to the trailhead past these selfish bastards and their bought-out senator. Moreover, these same idiots have made an excellent campaign to wipe out all information on how to access the trailhead, even going so far as to make lawsuits against websites that advise unobtrusive and sensitive hikers to trespass across their land to get to the trailhead for this awesome hike. Of course, the combination of unparalleled beauty and political controversy have made it an object of interest to hikers both native and foreign. There have been a few parties from the hostel that have attempted to find the trailhead, but none were successful.
I was interested in doing it, but it would be no fun on my own; the logistics of attempting an illegal hike wouldn't make it worth my while. But the night before last I got talking to these two Canadian girls, and we sort of convinced each other to give it a go, despite our unexpressed misgivings. Having decided to hike it, I decided that I would do things properly, unlike the failures and losers in the other parties that went out. So I spent the day before at various libraries around town, consulting topographic maps, satellite photography, google earth, and googling furiously for any hints as to the easiest way to the trailhead from the various blog accounts on the net. It was fairly obvious from the satellite imagery that you have to access the trailhead from a dirt track running under the freeway; the question was how to access that dirt track from somewhere you could drive to. Piecing together various clues on the net, I enumerated several choices; you can access it from the freeway itself, by jumping over the rail on the side and climbing down (but a taxi won't do that for you); you can cut through a high fence with barbed wire in the estate of the idiots who have made it illegal, but they apparently let vicious dogs to roam at night to deter innocent hikers, and that route also requires you to hack through a dense bamboo forest in the dark. That didn't sound particularly appealing. The third choice I gleaned from my researches was that the dirt track could be accessed by skulking through the grounds first of an evangelical church, and then through the grounds of the state mental hospital. Evaluating the options, I decided on the third, as the worst I expected to face was a bored human security guard, and if they kicked us out for trespassing I would revert to the second option. The worst outcome I had heard of was one hiker who got arrested for trespassing, spent a day in a jail cell with a Samoan murderer, and had had to pay a $250 fine; even he said it had been worth it.
So I went to sleep at 0015 and rose again at 0230 to set out. It was my good self and the two Canadian girls; three other people from the hostel had expressed much interest, but my instincts told me they were all talk and no trousers, and I was right. At 0345, we deployed at the street entrance of the church complex, and began our quest. Skulking along, sticking to the dark, unlit sections of the compound, we edged our way by compasswork to the fence we would have to climb. At one point we saw the white pickup truck of the security guard a few hundred metres in the distance, but we were well hidden in the darkness, and he passed without molesting us. When we got to the fence, our hearts lifted; it turned out to be pretty easy. It was only twice my height, and made of chain link that was easy to grip with a hiking boot. Before too long we had penetrated to the dirt track, with the minimum of fuss; I was glad I had spent those hours doing my homework.
Navigating along by my compass, with the H-3 freeway towering above our heads, we set out along the dirt track to find the trailhead. It was lightly grassed with occasional batches of shrubs, but it was fairly straightforward to work through. We found the trailhead at about 0430. Ignoring the 'Danger: trail is closed, trespassers will be prosecuted', we scaled a few more chain link fences, and there were the stairs. The stairs themselves are narrow, about 40cm across, and steep; most stairs lie at 45 degrees, and in parts they are vertical, so the trail there consists of ladders rather than stairs. There are 3922 stairs, and the hike itself is hard going, but we were amply rewarded for our exertions by the sight of the sun rising over the east coast of Oahu. The best views were offered at an observation deck about three quarters of the way up, as above that the mountain thrust into the clouds, and the visibility plummeted in proprtion. Having taken our photos of the golden dawn, we pressed on, to the old radio base at the top. There, we talked with a few of the other early risers and asked them about the route they took and how they had come here; many were carrying machetes as long as my arm, and discussed the difficulty of hacking through the dense bamboo forest. We stayed for a while among the clouds, and watched the play of the vapour and the sun; it oscillated between dense fog and a light mist through which you could see the coast, at which point everyone breaks out their cameras again. After resting on the top, we started the descent, which offered even more spectacular views as we left the cloudbase and the sun shifted across the sky to illuminate the volcanic craters and ridges that comprise the island.
I should have mentioned before that the trailhead itself is watched by a private security guard from 0600 to 1800, and since we were descending long after his arrival, I was worried about if he would give us grief for our evident trespassing. I shouldn't have worried; his job was only to turn away hikers attempting to start the climb once he was there, and he had no instructions to interfere with those who were trying to leave. He was actually a very nice man, with a very easy job; he said that I was the second best-dressed hiker he had ever seen, with the first being a girl in a short-skirted dress. We egressed via a different route to the one we had come in, as the church services had started; fortunately, navigating through the woods near the church was much easier in the daytime, and so we had no problem hitting the road again. We had done it! We returned to a triumphant welcome at the hostel, just in time for breakfast, and to arouse envy in the people that had bailed on me.
Hope you are okay and tales of my travels cheer you up a little :-)
All my love
P
yy
SOOO jealous.
Carol xoxo
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