HIKING HAWAII
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HIKING HAWAII
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It’s January 2023. We’ve just spent a week in New York City: enjoying the most full days of exploring the city, taking meetings and spending an enormous amount of time in NYC taxi cabs. We’re now in Hawaii and adjusting to the change of pace, weather and people. Hawaii excited us; it sparked our curiosity. What excited me most? Hiking.
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I’d spoken to people about the hikes in Hawaii, I’d seen some amazing photos and heard wonderful stories. We spent a morning researching which hikes to attempt, they all seemed so beautiful, so different, we could’ve spent the day researching. I chose one to head out to and we decided to attempt it that day after a morning surf: Three Peaks. We got in an Uber and drove 40 minutes toward the other side of the island. We were on the same island but it seemed like a new place, the mountains were now right in front of us, there were no longer many people around, it was us, on the side of a road, no one in sight and a trail going into the darkness of a jungle. A sign just before you start the hike read: “Caution - dangerous trail!’ We’d come too far to not do it now, and more than that, I have always believed in taking the first step, in the courage it takes to start something, regardless of how long it
takes you to finish.
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I began walking. Outside of the humid, damp community of ferns and bamboo it was 25 degrees. Sunny. A crisp breeze. Perfect. Inside, it was torturously sticky to begin, but as I got higher, it became darker and as it became darker, it became colder. As with all hikes, the beginning always misleads you to thinking that it won’t be as challenging as you believe, or as you’ve heard people talk about, and that the uncomfortableness of step one won’t be matched by the struggle of the impending climb. As I inched ever higher, it was truly beautiful. With each step I created another memory as yet another aspect of the sun peeked through the trees, or patches of open space emerged allowing me to see the island below along with the surrounding mountains. A single track going straight up, weaving between trees leads you closer to the first peak. All alone, on a mountain in Hawaii: it’s a hard thing to comprehend. The way I told myself to fully respect and grasp this moment was to fully engage with it - as much as my mind would allow. To focus on the next step, the next challenge, to be curious, but above all, to benow. The hike became continuously steeper, the steps got bigger, the dirt a little looser, ropes started to appear to hold onto so you didn’t fall and reasonably sized rock walls became obstacles to free climb to continue the hike with not a whole lot of room for error. The first peak was near and then, almost as if time had slowed right down for the last few moments of the climb, my feet were planted on the top of the first peak. An incredible reward, for an incredible struggle.
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The view from the top was of course something else, but more than the view was the feeling that goes through your body when you’re standing on a rock platform, only you and a couple of strangers, bound by the same sense of achievement and accomplishment. As I looked over the island of Oahu, reflecting on my entire journey to this point, on the entire journey that brought me to this wild and beautiful place, that brought me here to connect with a culture and a people so rich in their authenticity and honesty I was convinced that the hike hadn’t mislead me at all. Step one was uncomfortable and daunting. The climb was challenging and rough. The solitude was eerie, but peaceful. I’m not sure what more I could have hoped for. Then there was a moment of knowing that as soon as I start going back down I wouldn’t be seeing this same sight for a very long time and the next time will be with a new set of eyes. It was an emotional thought but one that made that moment, right there and then, even more special because the transient nature of “now” is always eclipsed by the daunting nature of the next “first step”.
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The view from the top was of course something else, but more than the view was the feeling that goes through your body when you’re standing on a rock platform, only you and a couple of strangers, bound by the same sense of achievement and accomplishment. As I looked over the island of Oahu, reflecting on my entire journey to this point, on the entire journey that brought me to this wild and beautiful place, that brought me here to connect with a culture and a people so rich in their authenticity and honesty I was convinced that the hike hadn’t mislead me at all. Step one was uncomfortable and daunting. The climb was challenging and rough. The solitude was eerie, but peaceful. I’m not sure what more I could have hoped for. Then there was a moment of knowing that as soon as I start going back down I wouldn’t be seeing this same sight for a very long time and the next time will be with a new set of eyes. It was an emotional thought but one that made that moment, right there and then, even more special because the transient nature of “now” is always eclipsed by the daunting nature of the next “first step”.
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