Hiking Stairway to Heaven
Hey everyone!
Today I was fortunate enough to hike the famous Stairway to Heaven, otherwise known as the Haiku Stairs. I'm very excited to share with you guys what hiking these illegal stairs were like, so I hope you enjoy this post.
The girls and I left campus this morning at 2 am, hoping to arrive no later than 2:30. The stairs can be accessed in three different points, but the route we would be taking is the one through the neighborhood in Kaneohe. It's recommended that one arrive at the neighborhood at 2:30, as this is the time when the police car leaves and another arrives. The time between shifts is when you're supposed to make a run for it towards the stairs, however this was not the case with us.
Our uber driver pulled off down the street a little ways away from the cop, to allow us time to hide and wait for the car to leave, but once we got out we quickly realized that the cop would not be leaving anytime soon. Not surprisingly, we also ran into a number of other people determined to hike the stairs, so we decided to join a promising group of about 10. One man told us that the cop was going to be there for a while longer and that our best bet would be to start the hike through a drainage ditch. I've read about this trail online, but I didn't think it was something I would actually find myself doing. The walk down the ditch was somewhat of a challenge, but once we made our way into the jungle we had a much easier time navigating.
This is when things went wrong.
Somehow a group of about 7 Argentinian women got in front of us, and naturally they couldn't get a good grip on the ground. This frustrated Bella and I, who knew that if we were behind these girls for too long that we would eventually lose the rest of the group and, with that, the way to the stairs. Just my luck, this ended up happening.
Before we knew it, we were very far away from the others. Even though they're not obligated to wait for us, what frustrated me the most was how we, who had never hiked this trail before, lost our chance to hike it with those that have experience with the trail. Communicating with these girls was also immensely difficult, as they spoke broken English and had a horrible habit of "shh"ing us for no apparent reason.
In short, we were lost in the Hawaiian jungle for a good 4 hours. Remember when I said we got to the neighborhood at 2:30? We didn't get out of these woods until 6 am.
The last stretch of just getting to the stairs is the bamboo forest. I've read online that one way around the guard is to run through the forest and hope he doesn't catch you. However, we tried this and quickly found out that this was a pointless strategy and was only wasting our energy.
When we finally got untangled from the bamboo stock, we ran into a hiker actually leaving the trail. We quickly flagged him down and he told us that the guard "can't stop you guys because you have yet to do anything wrong".
For those who are unaware, these stairs are illegal and are a form of trespassing.
So, taking his word for it, and with literally nothing to lose, we walked right past the guard and began to make our way towards the stairs. The guard was sitting in a white car and only peeked his head out the window to yell out, "Just so you guys know this is trespassing." We thanked him, but kept walking. He made no other effort to stop us.
When we finally reached the stairs to say we were happy is an understatement. We were relieved, overjoyed, and beginning to feel the effects of sleep deprivation.
It was still a little dark out, but by this time the sun was beginning to rise, so I believe I speak for everyone when I say we knew we were not going to make it to the top for sunrise.
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| The beautiful mountains behind us |
Once we began climbing, the sun, too, began to rise. I'm really proud of the picture I took of the mountains; it's truly a sight you have to see in person.
As we made our way to the first plank, there were a couple times when we needed to be extra cautious of the trail. For starters, there was an area where the railing was missing and the steps were mangled up. Another worry were the steps that look fine but are actually very loose, and will swing if you step on them. However there were only a few of these and, quite honestly, with the amount of people that hike these stairs I knew they were not something to worry about. Something you might worry about is what you do when there's a hiker coming down while you're going up. This is a little tricky, because you have two options:
one: physically remove yourself from the stairs and stand on the outside of the path
two: press yourself as close as you can to the railing and hope to god it doesn't snap
I did both of these, but the worn down, slippery mud next to the stairs made me not do option one more than once.
The photos below are some more I took during the hike.
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| Pali highway |
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| Just to give you guys an idea of how steep, and narrow, these stairs are |
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| Occasionally you would come across a cluster of steps covered in overgrowth |
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| The drop below us. Notice how far down the Pali highway is. |
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| The steps right after the first stopping point |
After about 15 minutes of rest we all agreed to head down. We knew it was going to be tricky, but the goal was to go behind a large group so that, when we get to the bottom, we can walk out with them instead of get pulled aside my the cops.
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| Making our way down |
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| Me with the mountains in front of me, about to descend |
Overall I would say this hike is worth the hype, but did not live up to it's difficulty. I still stand firm on my belief that Diamond Head is the hardest hike you'll do here, and Stairway is no exception. I would even argue that Koko Head was more challenging. I think that to find this hike difficult you either have to be very very out of shape (highly unlikely if you're even attempting to do this in the first place) or not an avid hiker, which, really, is this even a hike or just a stair master?
I would urge anyone considering this hike to approach everything with caution. I got extremely lucky in the sense that I was not fined nor detained. While there's no reports of anyone actually getting fined, I would still be cautious and not assume anything.
Since being back I have taken a nap and done as little as possible with my arms. For the rest of the night I'm going to finish my homework, which is very anticlimactic compared to how I started my day.
I hope you all enjoyed this post!
Until next time,
Aislinn
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