Haiku Stairs: The Forbidden Fruit

Gather 'round kids.  Grandpa has another story for you.  Back in my day, we didn't have these fancy cell phones or satellite communications.  If we wanted to send messages over long distances, we either had to use carrier pigeons, or shoot radio waves from mountaintop to mountaintop.  How did we get this radio equipment to the top of the mountain?  We took the stairs!

Way back in 1942, the US Navy constructed some communications towers on Oahu that were capable of communicating with the fleet as far away as the Sea of Japan.  Naturally, these sites needed to be at the top f the highest mountains to get the maximum possible reach.

To access and maintain these stations, they built a series of wooden stairs staked to the ridge of the mountain.  Then they had to climb them.  With heavy equipment.

I can only imagine the feat of engineering it took to construct the buildings atop the mountain.  Take, for example, the cement buildings.  To get these buildings up there, they would have either had to prefabricate them and lift them there, or carry the supplies and a cement mixer up the mountain for the job.  Keep in mind that helicopters had just barely been invented by this time and probably weren't capable enough to lift heavy materials

Some poor 19-year-old E3's and E4's I'm sure had a miserable time with this tour of duty.  Commanding Officer: "How would you like to be assigned to Hawaii?" E3: "Sounds like fun in the sun!" CO: "We need you to build a set of over 4000 stairs and construct buildings and a communications site on the top of a mountain"  E3: "Are you F-ing kidding me??"

I imagine this lift house made things a little easier on the poor 19-year-olds

Like Diamond Head and Koko Head, the Haiku Stairs started out with some useful purpose, but after it got abandoned people started hiking it for recreation.  Let me say that again.  People started climbing 4000 stairs.  On purpose.  For fun. Repeatedly.

In the early 2000s, the city/county spent ~$875,000 renovating the stairs, replacing the rotting wooden stairs with metal ones, and generally making the hike less dangerous.  The intent was to officially open it back to the public as a sanctioned and maintained hike on the island. 

Unfortunately, the stairs never reopened.  There are a few theories about why it remains closed.  One is that the local residents got accustomed to the lack of traffic on their streets while the stairs were under reconstruction, and didn't want throngs of hikers all times of day and night.  Another theory is the land between the main road and the bottom of the stairs is owned by a private company that does not want people trespassing.  A third theory is that part of the hike is on city/county property, and part is on state/federal property, and none of the parties can come to an agreement on who would be held liable if, say, someone went tumbling down the mountain.

So that is why this post is titled "the forbidden fruit."  This is one of the most epic hikes on the island, yet it is illegal to hike it.  Moreover, there is a guard posted there during the day to prevent people from climbing the stairs.

The Haiku Stairs are also the worst kept secret on the island.  Everyone knows that the guard gets there by 0330 in the morning, so you see throngs of people climbing the stairs at 0300 or so to "beat the guard."  Let me say that again.  Throngs of people gather in the wee hours of the morning.  To climb 4000 stairs.  In the dark.  For fun.

I am told the sunrise from the summit is amazing.  I have attempted this hike twice now, and I have yet to watch the sunrise from the top.  On my first attempt, we got about halfway to the top before my wife freaked out and we stayed on the first landing for the sunrise.  This is when she learned she was scared of heights.  The sunrise was pretty cool nonetheless.

I recently attempted the hike a second time with a friend from work.  This time we made it all the way to the top.  After climbing 4000 stairs in the dark, I encountered a scene that I can only assume is reminiscent of a modern dance club- tired, sweaty people crammed in a dark, stuffy room with dim lights and loud thumping music.  Yes, someone brought an iPod dock, and it actually put out some decent sound.

It would suck to make it up 4000 stairs only to be impaled by the loose rebar and other metal hazards at the top

Despite the successful climb to the top, my sunrise was foiled by mother nature.  We were smack in the middle of a cloud with ~100ft visibility.  Instead of getting to see the sun rise in the distant ocean, I watched it gradually go from black to light gray. 

Then I had to climb back down 4000 stairs.

Overall, it was a pretty epic hike.  I really felt a sense of accomplishment once I made it to the top and back down again.  This item is still on my bucket list though, and it will remain there until I get a good sunrise.

Here are some more nice pictures...