Life At It's Purest Form

Max ended crashing at my house last night. We had 2 hours of sleep, due to the fact that we were too stoked for what we've been waiting for. Finally getting the chance to take on "Stairway To Heaven". We all woke up at 3:30, & I wasn't ever more ready to do something. Got a text message from Mason saying, "It's dry," & that was it. The ride there, singing along to some Dubkonscious to calm the soul & put us in a positive mind state, we come across this gnarly accident right before the H3 tunnel. I took it as a bad a sign, but I just kept my mind at ease. I too excited & curious. Parked the car, loaded up, & started walking. There's about a 20 minute walk/trail before you even get to the start. Walking in the dark morning with the cold, a hoodie, backpacks, & friends, along with the sound of nature, I couldn't ask for more at the moment. The closer we got, the more I couldn't stop shaking. My legs felt like jello & I was really nervous. Finally, under the H3, we started tripping out on the fact that we're under the H3! Just rocks & nature & moss. Finally, we see the stairs. There's two gates that are supposed to keep people out, but you can easily walk around them. Once on the other side, we were ready. The adrenaline just took over. Shook hands, did a group "discussion" about being careful. The steps are metal, & slippery. The railings were wet, but it was all good. Too be honest, my fear of doing this all disappeared. As long as you were careful, all you could do was enjoy yourself. I could not believe I was beginning this for myself. Too stoked. About 15-20 minutes in, Aaron started falling behind. We took about a 15 minute break while we tried to rejuvinate him & encourage him to go on, but he couldn't. The morning sun starting rising & I could not wait. I started making my way up by myself. In the beginning, there's a part where you're pretty much climing the steps like a ladder. With no support, you have no choice but to grip the railing & not lose it because it's a long way down. I climbed it slowly. I had no fear at this point because I was too stoked & curious. At the top of that part, I stepped back to snap a few photos & saw Max heading up towards me. Unfortunately, Mason stayed with Aaron & called it quits. I felt real bad, but it was something Max & I had to do. From then on, it was Max & I taking this on. Just the two us, up on this amazing nature, life altering journey, we couldn't stop talking about what we're feeling & seeing. We finally reached the first lookout. We climbed over the railing here to sit on this platform that was at the very edge. We sat there & enjoyed a few Nutter Butters & took in the view. By now, we realized that a lot of people were doing this hike today. Continuing on, we noticed we were at eye level with the clouds. It was so gnarly. Probably a few 100 more feet from that spot, we started getting ingulfed in these clouds. It was mystical, magical, all of the above. It felt like were standing in the center of a huge brush fire. I looked to my side & saw clouds just flying up the side of the mountain. We also noticed that the H3 could no longer be seen. The temperature started dropping & it felt good. Throughout this whole hike, we didn't break a sweat, nor got thirsty. Not mention, my bottles of water in my backpack stayed ice cold. Approaching the second platform, there was this little building covered in grafitti. It was pretty cool. By now, you couldn't see no more that 10 feet in front of you. I got text messages from both Aaron & Mason around this time telling us to be careful because the weather started to look ugly. Right then, it actually started raining. But that just made it so much more epic. It was cold, you could see our breathe, & the clouds were just so damn gnarly!!! After about 30-40 minutes of this mystic journey, we could see the very top. Now, the visibilty was real bad & it was super cold. At the top, it was rainy & windy. There's a building up at the very top & inside were trash bags, grafitti, & a string hanging from the roof with a ziploc bag attached. Inside, was a notepad where everyone who got there got to write in. "Manana Rats" was what I wrote. Max & I chilled up there for about 15 minutes & enjoyed a cigarette that lasted almost forever. There was also a group of Navy Seals up there celebrating the re-inlisting of one of their buddies. They were on the roof of this builing (the highest peak possible) drinking beer! It was sick! One of the guys said, "Good team, good unity." I was like, "Yeaaah!" -- After awhile, we decide to trek back down. Walking back, it got real cold for a little bit, that's when I noticed that the rain drop falling on Max's beanie turned into frost. Also, walking back down was when the good conversations took place. Unfortunately, the clouds started clearing up a little on the way back down.

But overall, doing this hike & being up there made us realize that this is life & that's all to it. The whole way down, Max & I were just talking about how we didn't care about time or what day it was up there in clouds. To be honest, time was infinite up there. Life was infinite. Feeling was infinite. The feeling of infinite was infinite. Felt like everything was off our shoulders. Back at the first lookout, we sat at the edge for a good 10 minutes & just talked. Talked about how up there, we felt different & how we felt life at it's purest form because we were away from responsibilities, jobs, just civilization in general. Like, our main & only purpose on that hike was to enjoy ourselves. That's it. Sitting up there, was the first time I actually can say I felt Life at it's best. I thought about Leslie up there & how we're perfect strangers now. How she left me & how our "love" is gone & how much bullshit I went through, & she told me she still "cares", still "loves" me. Up there, it was all gone. It made me realize things & made me just say, "Fuck it" y'know? I'm tired of it all, tired of all the bullshit I was fed, she doesn't care, & if she can't atleast keep in touch with me...forget about it. I mean, if later on down the road, somethings happends, I'm down to see what the hell went wrong. & Sure, she'll guarantee cross my mind still, but it'll be different. All this was gone when I sat up there. It was a true & pure feeling. It felt like I had no job up there, haha. It just felt like straight up living, & that was a taste on how we should truly be living. I don't know how else I can say that this feeling was too true. So, we're planning on doing these kinds of stuff more often. I think it's good for the mind & soul, haha. But the feeling up there is just amazing. It could be just the nature you're in, it could be just the mystic feeling from the clouds, it could be anything, but I was glad I got to experience that. The nature up there is definately "magical." For the first time, I picked up trash while walking up to the top. It's too beautiful up there for trash. I was also thinking about why Hawaii has so much "sacred" land & how some people here are so protective of it. Not only does Hawaii have so much history on land, but it's beautiful...


--I highly recommend this to my fellow friends. Keep the crew small. If you did Koko Head, you'll realize that Koko Head is so much harder than Stairway To Heaven, I promise you. On Stairway To Heaven, you don't even pay attention to how tired you're getting because you're caught up in the sight & feeling. Once you get to the first lookout, you don't even break a sweat. It's a beautiful journey that we all need to take on. Certain parts, you really do need to be careful & pace yourself, but that's it. Just be careful when you're climbing & you'll be fine. Not so much fear on this hike. Chayne Amaki, you're coming on the next one, bro!

I probably forgot some of the best lines we talked about there, but I tried my best to remember, haha. Damn.