Ka'au trail...

Adair made plans for us to go on a hike. But Adair failed to mention the intensity of this hike. We were meeting them at a coffee shop near the trail head. While waiting for them to get there, I decided to google about this hike on my phone. Things like "we couldn't make it to the end" and "expert level hikers" made me start double guessing the hiking abilities of myself and my worn out toms shoes. The hike consist of hiking to the top of 7 waterfalls which put you at the base of a crater. Craters are larger. From there we were to hike the ridge line of this crater. Interesting. 

It had rained all morning leaving the entire trail filled with sloppy soupy slippery (alliteration) mud. The hiking trail looked like something out of a movie. For instance, Jurrasic Park, a film that was actually shot in the forests of Oahu. It felt like a giant jungle gym,  built by nature. It was said to take 5 hours. Turns out, if you stop at every waterfall, take photos, eat snacks, swim, do yoga, and whatever else you can manage to distract yourself with, the trail will end up taking 9.5 hours and you will find yourself in the middle of a pitch black forest with an hour left of hiking until you reach you car. Luckily Adair packed two headlamps for just this occasion. The four of us shared the two lamps and we managed to make it back to the car. The hike was incredible. Scary at times on the ridgeline near the peak, but incredible.