Maui Memories

The day began early here in Maui as I am still trying to adjust to the time change. Jon and I were ready to run the trails that surround the resorts by 5:45. We discovered it was a bit too dark still so we sat by the ocean and watched the waves roll in and out repeatedly until the sun  came up. It was a glorious way  to start the day.
The plan for the rest of the day...The Road to Hana. It  is said to be the most beautiful drive on Maui and just the sound of the journey made it sound appealing; waterfalls and black sand beaches were some of the promised sights. But we discovered more...

The zig-zag of the road was slow moving and around each corner a new discovery. At some points the foilage looked like Wisconsin, fur trees and sycamore trees and the next corner had passion fruit trees and palm trees. The road narrowed often before old one lane bridges and we many times had to wait for oncoming traffic to cross. Sometimes the bends in the road would rise so high we could look down to ocean and valley scenes that looked like paintings.

We, Jon, Jake and I stopped several times to hike into serious jungle terrain. These were true adventures. We hiked and found HUGE red-barked trees that had soft, peeling bark.It was  a beautiful trail and the clouds were billowy and huge and the breeze was perfect.

The second place we stopped was so fun and adventurous, and honestly a bit scary at times. We walked right down the trail quickly to see the waterfall. It wasn't terribly high and below us was a small rock filled stream where the water spilled in. We looked up to the top and saw a man taking pictures. We decided that UP was where we wanted to go. I should tell you at this point it had begun raining some but the foilage was so dense at times we rarely felt the drops of rain from above. More often we were soaked by the close and narrow paths and the slippery mud beneath our feet. There were tiny man made steps into the soil and the climb had us twisting and bending to fit through the narrow paths. I think atleast twice I said something like,
"Are we sure we want to keep climbing?"
I could hear the falls to my left but had no clue if we were on the right path to take us to the right spot. Jon was ahead of me and Jake behind me as they both decided we should continue on. So we did. We came to a spot where our climb up was done and all that was left was a short descent of maybe 30 feet. This was the hardest place of all because there were no longer man made steps. Just a straight shot downward with some vines to hang on to and a rope sealed into the terrain to hang on to. I stopped and watched  Jon move slowly and how he grabbed and stepped into each nook availble for footing. I was nervous about falling. Jon's feet slipped out from under him at one point and he slid a small distance. I knew my fall would never be that short or graceful. I had to remain on my feet! It was really muddy and I stepped into each spot carefully to keep from slipping. I clung to the rope and made it down...probably not real pretty in my descent but upright.

There we found huge rocks that sat level just before the falls. Jon and Jake began to climb around the rocks and Jake decided to go look down at the falls at the rocks edge. He slipped immediatley there and came too close to going over for my comfort. I stood and watched these two men climb carefully in the rocks and took pictures. Jake took another terrific spill further back. That one looked painful.
When we finally left I was energized to pull myself back up the rope and through all the greenery to get to the car. We were all covered in mud but still exhilerated by the expereince.

Last stopping spot was a BEAUTIFUL black sand beach with giant black lava rock. We walked into the water there and it was very cold. It had stopped raining and we had fun there...so beautiful.
For the first real day of discovery since being here it was great. I would never want to have missed such an adventure, but I never want to do it again.