Bamboo Forest Hike

Oh. My. Goodness!
After a crazy week of lectures and class work, some friends and I piled into the back of a pickup truck and a minivan. Driving a good twenty minutes brought us into a rainforest! (Paia is drier, and just a five minute walk from the north shore of Maui). I wish I could post pictures, because the sights were unbelievable, but it was an intense adventure- no one brought a camera...

The "Commando" Hike took us through a field, where I stopped to pet a baby cow, and alongside a trail with plenty of mud to get between your toes. Within two minutes of walking we came to a river. For about an hour, we climbed through knee length water- holding branches and leaning on rocks. Twice we climbed out of the water to skip through plants as tall as us, both times splashing back into the water to continue on. Sometimes the rocks being so slippery made me slide into the water, but it was all worth it. Eventually, we came to a small waterfall. Climbing up it, we hopped under, over and between fallen bamboo trees to the pool of water. Following the river, we climbed another small rock wall overflowing with water.

At this point we had reached a fifteen foot tube, maybe four feet in diameter? Water was shooting over the edge as we took turns shimmying up the tube and found ourselves at the base of a huge cave. Scaling the mouth of the cave, my arms and legs held me parallel to the water below me as I went deeper into the darkness. As my friends climbed up the biggest waterfall yet, their bodies were silhouettes as the light outside burst around them. We were a pretty good sized group; it took about 15 minutes for everyone to get up and inside what ended up being a 150 foot cave! This gave us time to paint our faces with red-clay-dirt. :) The most difficult part of the 'hike' was yet to come. In extremely dim lighting, we crawled up the side of the rock as the forceful river poured over its edge. One by one, everyone made it up! We exited out a small hole and continued the hike, swimming through a lake, marching through a field, and then descending down an extremely steep mountainside. It was CRAZY. Oh my goodness, considering how many people were hiking, it gave way to a trafficked trail. It was incredibly challenging, especially since we were holding onto roots and rocks that could -in an instant- pull away from the earth!

Once we made it to the edge of the mountain, we still had about 45 feet to continue down before landing on solid ground. A banyan tree has grown next to the mountain (which at this point was boulders and slates of rock); banyan trees are unique in that they send down roots towards the ground. This builds structure as the roots, over time, resemble branches quite similar to the tree trunk itself. As we had come out of the cave and swam through the lake, it had started to rain, so things went from funny (sliding down the steep mountain) to quite dangerous; the branches were wet, and we needed climb down it. Okay, it wasn't mandatory- some of the guys got impatient and walked down a trail covered with weeds and ferns. I love trees, so I couldn't resist monkeying around a bit.

To get on the tree, you had to approach the edge of the cliff, hold onto two bamboo poles and swing around so you faced the mountain. Sliding down the shaft of the bamboo, you could put your feet on a rock and turn towards the tree. From there it was just climbing over, under, and between the branches, and I ended up finding a sturdy branch to slide down the final fifteen feet, which more than satisfied my childhood dream of visiting a fire station... haha, we ended the trail by cliff jumping and swimming down the river, walking through some more fields, and running through bright green bamboo trees.

My Father is so creative.
Much love,
Kelsey, Warrior Princess.