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Yami and Nizwer joined the Hawaii Trails and Mountain Club Sunday October 4, 2009 on the Tantalus 6 mile hike. The botanical variety on this trail is quite amazing. The night before it had rained considerably, so it was slushy in parts. The trail begins with ferns on the rocky side walls, tree roots on the path, yellow guava, strawberry guava. The Nuuanu Valley lookout was beautiful but the scramble up the ridge was the most exciting part. Next time out will remember to pause and shoot some pics on that steep section.

We continue on with more ridge hiking, bamboo trees and lunch stop in iron wood pines. Then a descent down to a stream that might only be tough to cross in the midst of flash flooding. Stream crossings again and again, then up a tiny dried up waterfall and all the way up to finish the Tantalus loop. After we crossed the waterfall, we were tired and paying little attention to the trail map and went off on some other trail that led us down into a composting path with mosquitoes. Then a gruelling uphill climb backtrack to uphill turnoff we missed. All in all 6 hours of hiking, so clearly more like 8 miles for us. Plenty of mud and cleaning to do.