Stairway to Heaven

This was the hike that we completed this past Sunday called "the stairway to heaven". It is 3,922 stairs up a very very steep mountainside. At some points it is like you are climbing a ladder. It took us 1.5 hours to get to the top. It was extremely challenging, sometimes scary, but had views like no other. However, 2 days later I am still struggling to walk.

Joel scaling a fairly steep spot. You might be able to tell that it wasn't the best day for a hike. After we got halfway up, we were completely in the clouds were it was wet, windy, and cold. At times we felt like the wind could blow us right off the mountain!

Here we are at the beginning of the hike. Actually, this is on our way back down because it was dark on the way up. We started at 5:15 am. The hike is actually illegal because of some political disputes so in order to do it, you have to hop a couple fences and reach the stairs before a guard is posted at 6am. Poor Joel was very against this (mister never done anything wrong in his life) but I was going with or without so he was kind of forced against his will.

This is the view at the halfway point. The little dot in the ocean is the island called China man's Hat. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Here we are in "heaven" at the top of our climb. It was a nice view of the clouds, and heaven sure is cold! We were huddled together freezing in the wind and rain. You can see the ocean peeking through the clouds behind us. Someday I would like to do it again when we can actually see something from the top but at least I can say I did reach the top!