Hiking Manoa Falls
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2008
1
4
6
Trip End
Jun 08, 2008
Manoa,
Hawaii,
United States
Saturday, August 30, 2008
creepy twisting trees everywhere
Have I mentioned how gorgeous it is here? And I'm not talking about just the women, though there's plenty of those.. .in all shapes, sizes, colors. In Taiwan you couldn't swing around a dead cat without hitting a pretty girl, and its the same here, but.. how can I put this lightly. Its like if you're a car lover, and your in an area where there's all these great cars but they're all Toyota's or something, but here, there's every kind of car under the sun, with just as many shapes, models, colors, options, you name it. 
ferns and trickling brooks everywhere on trai
So speaking of gorgeous things, I went on one of the greatest hikes the weekend of Labor Day. Think it was Saturday or Sunday, can't quite remember which one now (as seems ancient history being a few weeks ago :) The crazy thing about this hike is that its very near Honolulu and its the wildest, rainforest hike I've been on yet. I've gone hiking all over Colorado, some in California, South Dakota, Taiwan, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, even Jamaica, and I don't think I've said "wow" so many times on a hike before. It was that cool..
this.. looked alot better in person
Everything about Manoa Falls was so gorgeous, like walking through a paradisic rainforest, like the movies. Its no wonder they shoot Lost, Gilligan's Island, Jurrasic Park and many other shoots out here on this island. http://www.hawaiiweb.com/html/hiking/manoa_falls_trail.html The setting is perfect for wooing, and not surprisingly I saw many a couple out there. I only passed one other guy going the other way alone, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was.. "Where's my bikini clad Linda Carter when I need her?" Well, maybe not exactly what I was thinking but you get the point.
Even the parking area was awesome (see pict
Even parking area is gorgeous. :)
).. must do something to people.. get them all feeling romantic, so what better thing to do then to carve your undieing love into this tree
poor tree has been carved up over the years
But the coolest by far was this tunnel made by the twisting branches.
this was awesome.. branches making a tunnel o
This part of the trail was well groomed, which if you're like me you don't really care for. You could tell they tried to make the part leading up to the falls very "safe" for your average American (and by that I mean your average overweight american who doesn't get out much) as it had pletny of trail groming and the slick parts were reinforced with non-slick bits of wood or in the tougher parts (like this tunnel) that might get washed away, a full on metal horizontal ladder like structure, so you're guaranteed not to loose your footing. 
waterfall through the first break in trees
That was cool, since my hiking boots were still in storage at that time, so I was out there in my sneakers, so at least on that part they didn't get very muddy. But of course I fixed that soon after I got to the waterfall. :)
base of the waterfall, now real trail begins.
But before I got there, there was this one last bend and when i came around the corner heard this really loud bird and saw this flower and freaked out a little. Thought it was some Macca(?) going to fly at me and bite off my face.. just had this visiion of that beak that I remember hearing can put out some impressive psi, just flashed through my mind. Used to running into bears, snakes, maybe even a mountain lion, but face eating birds is a bit of a new thing for me I guess. :) 
this flower freaked me out.. though bird was
Getting to the falls was just the first 1.5hrs of the hike, and then it got interesting.. now interesting for me is, when I go out on a hike, the more rural, untended, wild the better. Having to work in high tech field all day, when you go out on a hobby, its good to get away from that (guess why I like camping away from civilization so much too) If I had my way, I'd like to just get dropped from a helicopter with a backpack of stuff and then wander my way out. :)
and trail is no longer groomed woot!
The trail got really hard to follow, and lost it a couple times, but was definately the best part and some of the coolest images. I only wish I'd had my hiking boots with me so I could go farther. After falling 3 or 4 times, figured I'd better try it another time just in case I broke my leg out there with no one in yelling range, so headed back. At that point I found it funny that I could still see houses out beyond the "wilderness".
goreous view... can see they build everywhere
They seem to put housing anywhere theres a view or beachfront. :)
this was a cool view through bamboo trail
But one other thing freaked me out on the trail, was this "tunnel" through the foliage of so many roots.. they looked like that scene in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark when they threw down the torch.. all those writhing snakes slitherin around. Couldn't get that image out of my head as I was walking along this "root" path. Kept wondering when one was going to react to me stepping on them, hissing or taking off.
snake trail
And then when I came back, kept getting asked how it was, was it worth it, etc. Had to tell all the couples it was worth it with a wink. Gorgeous trail, especially if you keep going past the waterfall. Most of them though didn't have the shoes for it so warned them it gets slippery and muddy in parts.
Speaking of slippery and muddy ,had to laugh at this sign.
thought this was hilarious at time.. never se
Never seen something like that before. Well, on to the next entry about surfing for first time! 
