pali puka

do you see the tiny people up there?

 ashley and i at the pali lookout (before the craziness)

 no railing!? are we still in america?

for those of you who are wondering, puka means hole in hawaiian.

so now we can say we've been all the way up there!

we came.

we saw.

we conquered.

i've known ashley (and her fam) since elementary years. our families went to the same church, and her parents taught us in sunday school. when we got older, we helped in the toddler/preschool classrooms. i moved away after 6th grade, and hadn't seen her (in person) since. 
so glad to be back together again! 

at the beginning of this summer, ashley, nate and i co-led the games at vbs. ashley did most of the leading though. :)

now, about the hike. our church planned this event, to hike from church to the puka. but at the last minute, they decided to start from the pali lookout. it's "midpoint" between church and the pali puka (~2.5 miles from the church). but since i had hiked up to the lookout before, ashley and i hiked from the bottom and actually met up with the church, because 1. we were super fast (not really) 2. they were having difficulty finding parking. 

i wish i could have taken more pictures of the cliff and sheer drop-off, but my main concern was getting up and down without dying. so that meant keeping my phone in my backpack and using my hands and feet to climb up... should have had a gopro. :) some parts were super steep, gravely and sketch, and at other parts, the path was a foot and a half wide with a cliff two inches to our right. all we had to hold on to was a couple twigs and bushes.  i've texted on trails before (not recommending it), but this one was a different story. haha no texting here. 

oh! i found a youtube video of the hike; i didn't need a gopro after all! :)  
as i was watching this video, my heart rate increased by a lot, and yours will too. 
oh my goodness. it might be hard to imagine, but watching the video is scarier than actually doing the hike.

 umm and, did you see the ropes he's using? well, we didn't have that luxury. someone must have taken them down. :\

if you don't have seven minutes, go to 1:25 & 3:06.

but seriously, it's worth watching!

would you look at that.

guess what, guys!

this picture nate took of my brothers, friend and i is famous.

way to go nate! you can view the article here. 

(it's the last picture on that post.)

Glacier National Park Travel Guide

11 mile hike along a mountain ridge

 don't worry, it was safer than it looks.

 nate, a friend of ours & i hiked and hiked and hiked some more. 11 miles, to be exact. this trail was called the royal summit. i thought we would actually reach a summit, wouldn't you? nope. three miles in, i come to find out there is no summit. so why is it called the royal summit? well, it's  because the neighborhood/subdivision near the trailhead is called royal summit. way to falsely advertise, huh? ha. another thing we learned is that this trail doesn't end. it goes on forever and ever. we ended up hiking up/over/down 15 (i think that was the final count) mountain peaks(?). i don't really know what to call them. stephan had hiked a part of this trail before, but hadn't gone this far. at mile four, we stopped for lunch. and every couple of minutes after that, we debated about whether or not we should turn around. "still have enough water?" yup. "ok, let's keep going." "feet hurt yet?" nope. "ok, let's keep going." we really wanted to find an end to this thing. ultimately, the (pouring) rain made us make up our minds to turn around... very quickly. the dirt became mud, and it got slippery and dangerous. we didn't want local newspapers to write about three hikers gone missing in the mountains (no joke, this happens frequently). i didn't get any pictures of the rain and how drenched we were. i thought it was a little safer looking at where my feet were landing than what my phone was taking pictures of. but just imagine jumping into a pool with your clothes and shoes on, then coming out and going hiking.

we. were. soaked. 

and obviously, we made it home safely because here i am, talking about the experience three-and-a-half weeks later. :)

oh, and i will find the end of this trail someday. 

hiking: ko'olua mountains & the pali trail

 this plant was incredible! it had three leaves per 'row' and they twisted upward kind of like a staircase. God is so amazingly creative.

it might be hard to believe, but we ARE on a path.

 sleeping grass and its pink flower. 

 shortest to tallest

 under the highway

 i got this picture before they came up from under the highway. (yes, this is an official trail.)

 ma bros 4 lyfe (minus e).

 that big building in the middle-ish/left of the picture is where our church meets.

"falling rocks!" and underneath are the words: tripping is just ok. haha :) get it? it took me awhile.

the trail head for this hike literally starts in our church's parking lot. we rose early, went to the earliest service (8 am) then hit the trails. the waterfall is only a little over a half a mile in, so it didn't take long. :) last time we hiked up to the falls, we used the waterfall as a slide... just like the movies, but i think the movies make it look umm, effortless? and they do it more gracefully too.  we ate an early lunch there, then left when it started to get crowded. my mom went back down to the car with elias, and drove up to the pali lookout. my dad, three brothers and i hiked up the mountain and met mom and e at the beautiful windy lookout. great hike. definitely doing it again soon. probably this weekend. :)