Hiking Adventures in Hawaii

How do you feel about spiders, cockroaches, moths, and centipedes? (Save this post as a reminder of the realities of hiking in Hawaii!) First off, this hike was AMAZING! A good workout with epic views of the mountains of Oahu and the ocean out in the distance along with one heck of a sunset! Second, things look pretty, but yall I don't think I have ever tried SO HARD to compartmentalize my way through a situation. Since we hiked this trail for sunset that meant we had to hike back down in the dark and we did follow the first principle of leave no trace and came prepared with headlamps (there is a guide on my page with all of the principles listed in detail if you don't know them, which you should!). About halfway down the trail @_saralilley stopped to take a photo of something that was shining/reflecting in the light from my headlamp. Sure enough, big ol spider! I noped out of looking at it for too long because I am not a fan and I didn't like that its eyes shined in the light of my headlamp but naturally we all looked up to continue down the trail only to see the bushes around us were FILLED with reflecting eyes staring back at us. (I have the heebie-jeebies just writing this.) They didn't harm us or move at all but man could I not get down that trail fast enough. A few days later after @cuyler_thecreator arrived we did another sunset hike where we got to watch hundreds of cockroaches and the occasional centipede scurry around our feet as we hiked down. Again, not a fan as I lived in a roach-infested apartment in college. But for me, the worst part of that hike was a moth the size of my head coming out of the darkness and flying toward my face. I immediately started crying (there is no compartmentalizing when it comes to moths) and screaming and frantically trying to get away from it. I didn't even care if I tripped over a root and fell into a pile of roaches, moths are not for me. Basically what you need to know is hiking in Hawaii can be a lot more about the tiny things under your feet than the grand views in the distance, BUT that doesn't mean it all wasn't worth every creepy-crawly incident! How else would I have fun stories to tell you guys? 🤪