Today I had to go on a BIOL 204 class trip to the Aiea Ridge summit hike to learn about plants and birds unique to Hawaii and about the geology of the land and rock formations. It was a long day: 7am-7pm of hiking and learning!
The Aiea Ridge starts in Aiea, and leads you all the way to the Ko'olau mountains, where you can see Kaneohe, Kailua, etc. We hiked mostly along the ridge that is above the H3 on the right side when you're heading to town.
The views were amazing; on the right you could see the tiny H3, and on the left you could see vast valleys of untouched Hawaiian land.
My friend Mel and the rest of the class hiking along the ridge:
The hike itself probably would take about 5 hours or so, but it took us so long because we were constantly stopping and learning a ton of stuff from Brother Bruner.
Like, the Ohia lehua flower:
and the I'e I'e plant:
My horrible point-and-shoot died on cue at this point, so I didn't get all of the pictures that I would have liked.
The whole trip we had to carry plant and bird books, and take notes on all of the names and info we were given. I felt like an incredibly lame tourist everytime other hikers walked by....carrying books and taking a bunch of notes with people in a group! But I had to, since after the incredibly long hike, we got to take a quiz on all that stuff! Sunburned and all!
The quiz was alright...just a bunch of leaves that all looked the same that we had to identify and know its classification. I'm just happy to be home now, even though I am pretty sunburned and completely worn out!
