Stairway to Heaven

So yesterday our day started at 2am.  We ate some breakfast, grabbed our already packed backpacks, lots of water, and got in the rental car at 2:30am to drive to the starting location.  We got there at 3am.  After finding a place to park in the neighborhood, we headed into the woods in the pitch black to find the starting point of Stairway to Heaven.  Stairway to Heaven is a steep hiking trail to the top of Puʻukeahiakahoe.  The trail has been closed to the public since 1987, but we just ignored that little detail, as well as a few other people we met along the way.  The woods were so dark and we were trying to follow directions from people who had done the hike in the past and had posted it online.  It was super muddy, it was sprinkling a little and our legs from the knee down were covered in mud.  After joining forces with 3 guys from the military, we found the beginning of the stairs.  I looked up expecting to see nothing, but I was wrong.  I saw a slightly winding snake of headlamps of hikers who started the hike earlier than us.  We started, one rung at a time.  With the headlamps, you could only see about 10 rungs ahead.  At some points we were going straight up.  Finally we reached the first platform just before dawn….so it took us about an hour giving 110% of effort to get there.  

Then it was off to platform number 2.  We were a little afraid that we would lose the view in the fog.  A fog we soon met.

The fog finally cleared as we made it to the second platform and I cried it was so beautiful.

We made it just in time for sunrise!  It was amazing.  In this picture you can kind of see all the mud on my pants and boots.

3,922 stairs and 2,800 feet later to reach the top of Puʻukeahiakahoe at 2,800 feet.  I have never worked that hard in all of my life.  I honestely didn’t think I was going to make it.  I am so proud of myself for pushing and now I have no regrets!  I made it!  I did it!  

 

It was breathtaking.  We were kind of disappointed when the fog started to roll in.  But it wasn’t fog, it was a cloud and it passed right through us.

After enjoying the sights for awhile, it was time to head back down the way we came.  (Me, Katrina, Colin, Steve, and Kyle)

It was amazing to see all the things we had past on the way up but couldn’t see then because of the darkness.

It was also crazy to see what we had climbed in the dark.  Those stairs are steep!

I mean really steep!

All in all, it was a great day and I couldn’t be prouder of myself and I am so grateful that I was able to experience such a gift.

It was only when we reached the bottom and looked up and  we realized what we had just accomplished.