Ka'au Crater

On Oahu, we hung out with my college housemate Laura and her man Nick.  On Thursday, before Kaimana started, we got a chance to do a strenuous and exciting hike from the edge of Honolulu up to the ridge of the Ko'olau Mountains, the "spine" of the island.  It was cool to see the extinct Ko'olau volcano, with all it's erosional stream valleys.  At 2.7 to 1.8 million years old, it is a vision of what the Big Island will look like after it is battered by time, rain, and waves.

We started heading up a hot and muggy stream valley....

full of critters that liked it hot and muggy.  This slimy worm with a semicircle hammerhead was about 18" long.  For all my creepy crawler lovers out there.

We climbed up/around about 5 waterfalls.

Here are Nick and I on the final ascent to the peak.  In in the background, notice Diamond head to the left, downtown on the right.  This trail was really steep, following a ridgeline once we climbed out of the valley.  The flat floor of Ka'au Crater is below us. 

We made it to the top about 5 minuted before clouds socked in the east side of the island.  Somewhere down there, we could see where we would play frisbee in two days.