..:stairway to heaven:..

I am not even sure where to start on this post. Let's start with THIS WAS THE SCARIEST THING I'VE EVER DONE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! This beats it all. I honestly was praying, all the way up and all the way down. We even said a prayer half way up out loud in our little group because we all wanted to keep going, but were asking for help because at that point, we were freaked the heck out! Welp, it starts like this. I have heard about this hike a few times since being here in O'ahu and on Sunday [the day before Memorial Day there was a bunch of girls chilling in my room cause my roomie was gone and I was super bored, so there was like 5 of them that squished in my room and we watched, "Love, Wedding, Marriage" on someones laptop. Adorable movie by the way. So we started to talk about what we were doing for Memorial Day and Jessica [one of the girls in my room] mentioned that there was a group doing Stairway to Heaven. I said, "Fuuuuun, would you mind if I came along?" She told me I could come and then proceeded to tell me who else was going... I then texted Brandon and asked him if he wanted to go because I wanted to have someone I could hike with and he said he'd love to go. So listen. This is how it went. 

About 5 hours later at 9pm we all met outside of Hale 3 [my hale]. There was 15 of us. Holy shiz. It was nuts. We headed over to the local Chevron [because it was Sunday and nothing is open in Laie on Sunday] and grabbed some snacks and drinks and hopped on the 10 o'clock bus down to Kaneohe. It was about a 45 minute bus ride, not many stops because it was so late. We got to the stop and all 15 of us proceeded off the bus. We had white people, filipino's, polynesians, just a whole mix of craziness. So there we were. In Kaneohe at 11 o'clock at night, all with our hiking shoes and back packs walking a mile and a half just to get through the residential areas to get to where we go around a gate and trespass to go on this illegal, AGAINST THE LAW hike starting at, oh you know, midnight:30! No big deal right? Right...

Reason we have to do this so late at night? First off, you have to go super late, because there are guards that block these gates [pictured below] because it is such a dangerous hike. Awesome. Also, the residents around know what you are doing and 'threaten to call the cops' if they see you... like they did us. Being that there were 15 of us, no one was very quite. So as we are hopping around this fence [why they have fences in Hawaii, I do not know, because they always have a way around them] a guy pulls up in a car, and starts asking questions, what we are doing and what not... 5 of us were already on the other side of the fence, so we just hid in the bushes. The guy, like I said, threatened to call the cops until we all left, so everyone else left and we chilled in the bushes till the car was gone, then we went and found the others. [pictures below were obviously taken the next morning]

We hiked back down out of the residential area, and then split up and went back up. First was a group of four that snuck back up and made sure the coast was clear, then Brandon and I headed up. They were supposed to send another group up after us, but everyone else chickened out. The other group ahead had walked up to the trail head and we met up with them. It was PITCH BLACK! 

I was exhausted beyond belief that night, and so my eye sight was not working well, at all. It doesn't work the greatest at night anyway, but particularly tonight it was super crappy. I could not see anything it seemed. 

No one decided to bring flash lights... brilliant people, so we used our flash light apps on our iphones. However, we were scared to run into a guard, so they wanted our lights off. Freak dude! I was super sketched out. We walked through this jungle of a mud and bamboo trees, it was intense. I was just scared someone was going to jump out and kill me. Honestly. After we walked through that for about a 1/2 mile, we then were back on a road and finally had to go around another fence and then we started up the stairs. Crap dude. I was already tired. No, next came the hard part. 3, 922 stairs straight up a mountain. Did I mention it was pitch black? Oh, and I was about to HIKE UP almost 4, 000 STAIRS? Awesome. 

It was actually a full-moon that night, but it was sooooo cloudly, that it didn't feel like it, at all. Welp, to started up. We wanted to make it to the top by sunrise. We had to make it to 6 flats to reach the top. Did I mention no one in thegroup of 6 of us had ever been on this hike? Awesome. So we started up. It wasn't too bad at first, but it was hard. I was not in shape for this type of hike--like at all! But everyone else was dying too, so it was alright. We were hiking for over an hour now when we stopped to take a little break after we had just hiked up a big straight-up pitch when Brandon says, "Well guys, I think I am going to turn around, I don't have a good feeling about this." I just looked at him.. I was freaking out inside honestly. My first thought was obviously, "if he thinks I am turning around with him, he is nuts!" and my second thought was, "It is DARK, he wants to go back down this in that DARK?" Whatever! He looked at me and said, "I don't expect you or anyone else to come back down with me, I will be fine." I looked ahead and said, "It looks like the first flat is right up that next pitch [this next pitch was straight up and curved around the mountain, it looked like death just to get a little bit of a picture] why don't you just come up there and then just wait on the pitch till we come back down from the top?" He said he'd be alright and wanted to turn back around. Daniel, this white kid that was with us [that wore NO shoes, I know, he's crazy!] said, it's okay, I will turn around with him and walk him back and then come back, that way he's not alone." Are you kidding me was my only thought. This kid is too great. So as the other two girls, and this kid named Chase and I are sitting on the stairs just chilling [literally, it was getting cold just sitting] we stuck on our jackets and decided to say a prayer.

Brandon called me when he made it back to the road and went and found the other kids, cause they were just chilling... they actually decided to sleep in a park until the 5AM bus came, because there wasn't a bus that came till then. So there's that. Haha. Anyways. So Brandon was safe at the bottom and Daniel was headed back up. This kid made it down and back up to where we were in 50 minutes. Did I mention it took us an hour just to get to where we were? Yeah, he's awesome. 

Like I had told Brandon, that first flat was just up the next big, sketchy pitch. We made it and cheered!! The next pitch was 30 minutes up and the next was even closer. The fourth pitch had a cool little cement building we walked around, but couldn't see anything because again, it was pitch black... We kept hiking and seriously didn't know how this mountain just kept going. When it seemed that there was no where else to go, the mountain kept going! I was dying. It was super, super windy, I mean we were climbing thousands of feet up the front of a mountain and it was super foggy as well. With all the fog, cause the metal railings and steps to be wet obviously. So it was even more sketch. 

We finally somehow made it to the fifth flat and then FINALLY the sixth! 

We [I] had made it to the top. I wanted to cry I was so happy. But it was so foggy, windy and muddy, I just wanted to go into the little cement house they had up there. We went inside and Daniel had packed a blanket all the way to the top. So we laid that out on the muddy cement floor and just chilled till sunrise. It was 3:30AM by the time we made it to the top, and sunrise wasn't for another two hours. It was FREEZING! 

We had luckily brought sweaters and wore leggings. I had also brought my roomies rain jacket she let me borrow, so I stayed somewhat dry. Before you know it, tons of people were piling in this little cement building. People from all over. Marines, tourists, locals, everyone. It was crazy crowded. A dude have even ran up the stairs in 50 minutes! He ran in and was like, "What time is it, what time is it?" We told me and he was like, "new record!! 50 minutes!" We were like WHAAAAT? It was crazy! Did I mention this guy that ran up in 50 minutes, had a boom box strapped to him? Like a big one. It was hilarious and crazy! I was worried about dying and this guy is running up this thing. Crazy. 

  

My friend Robyn that I have mentioned in previous posts, was coming up as well, but with two guys and they weren't leaving Laie till 2ish. So she met us up there!

 

 

Sunrise was coming, and because it was so foggy up on top, we headed down to the 3rd flat where you could actually see the sunrise. It was soooo beautiful! 

Oh, so let me tell you. Um, going back down these stairs was WAAAAAY worse then going up them. I was freaking out, scared I was going to freaking fall on my face. Obviously, for the straight pitches I turned around and would slowly shake my way down them, but holy crap. 

So yes, we were on our way down and I was in the back, I was going super slow. My legs were shaking so bad and cramps decided to show up right after we started down from the third flat. Awesome right? Oh, and I had to pee. So that didn't help. I was dying! Awesome. We had made it back to the first flat [however we thought it was the second, so we thought we had one more] and everyone just went on there way, made sure I was okay and went ahead. I said yes and I slowly started another straight down decent to hopefully not my death. Like I mentioned above, I was praying like CRAZY! I had never been so scared in my whole life.

 

So I was by myself, praying.. Well I thought. A guy behind me, in the most attractive Australian accent says, "How are your legs?" I said, "Super shaky, sorry I'm going so slow." [It's not like you can pass people very easily on a foot and a half wide staircase going straight up a mountain] and he goes, "Oh, no this pace is great. You are doing great." Before you know it, he starts asking me where I'm from, what I like to do, totally pulled me in with this amazing conversation. Did I mention I couldn't see his face this whole time? Sometimes he's behind [which wasn't awful ;)] when we had to turn around to walk straight down, but never his face. I found out that he had been attending SDSU [San Diego State] and was actually in a fraternity there! So then of course we started having the greek life talk! So funny. He was all impressed that I had been the president of a sorority and what not. He kept the conversation rolling, it was such an easy conversation and super enjoyable. I also learned he was on his way back to Australia for the summer to work; he worked security in the Sydney airport and just wanted to stop by in Hawaii for 6 days before he headed home. He also told me, that he had a buddy from Germany come through O'ahu and had told him all about the hike, but wasn't able to do it, so he was doing it in his honor. It was awesome. He also had done the hike alone [mostly] his buddy had chickened out at the first flat and turned back around. Before you know it, we were at the gate where the stairs ended.... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I hadn't even realized I was hiking anymore or that my legs were shaking thanks to this kid! We were done. I had done it!!! I was like, "We're done? What? I thought we still had one more flat!" He responds, " A little conversation never hurt as a distraction did it?" I responded with so much gratitude and said, "Thank YOU soooo much! You are the best! By the way, what's your name...?" Mitch. As we were about to go around the gate, I was FINALLY able to look at his face. Um, HOTTIE! He was sooooo adorable and soooo good looking! And a great conversationalist that saved me at least 20-30 minutes of freaking out in my own head! I was literally in love with this kid. He had been my saving grace. We got to where my friends were and I said, "Guys, this is Mitch. He's from Australia and just saved me from a whole lot of freaking out." They all laughed and were happy to meet him. Before I could ask to get a picture with him he said, "It was very nice to meet you, I have to run and find my buddy..." And he was off. Sad huh? I know, I wish this story would have had a better ending too. 

 

Well Robyn wasn't too far behind and one of the guys she came with had a car. He said he could piile all 5 of us in if we wanted to squish and give us a ride back to Laie. THANK THE LORD! Cause holy crap, taking the bus after that hike would've sucked. I was so grateful. We walked back, hopped in the car and headed back to BYU. 

I fell asleep on the way home. I think everyone but Robyn and the driver did. We made it back, I was able to somehow make it inside and up the stairs to my room. I took off all my sweaty, muddy clothes, and laid down a towel and went to sleep. I was too tired to shower... It was 8:30 AM by now and I had to be back up by 11:30 to shower, and get ready for a bbq at the beach for Memorial Day...  
 Kisses from a-top a mountain, across the sea xoxoxo