Location: Honolulu, HI
Length: 1.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Duration: 1.5 hours
Elevation Gain: 554 ft

Covered with huge trees, the Trail Hike looked adventurous. It rained on the day of hiking. Hence I was informed that the trail was going to be slippery and I have to be careful. As it was drizzling, I decided to buy a cap and had my left knee braces in place to hold my weak knee.  The guide provided us a walking stick and a poncho as a rain coat. I began my walk. This time my wife decided to stay back which left me with no choice but to do it all alone from the beginning to the end.

Walking amidst green forest, that too in drizzling was fabulous. But the pathway was not flat nor it had the side metal rail to hold on. Walking in such a scenario seemed the major challenge for my hiking this time. I wasn’t also aware of the distance and inclination I might have to face during the walk. I did take it as a challenge. As usual, the walk was fine at starting but things started changing once the climbing was onset.  It was impossible to segment my path due to huge trees and plants on the way. I had no clue about when to stop but decided to run a mind clock to have a halt at every 5 minutes whenever I could find a place to stop in the narrow path.

Bored of walking alone, this time I decided to do a small study to find out how people would answer to a person (Totally a stranger) like me when I ask them questions like, “Am I almost there?” “Do you think I could make it?” I picked 4 different race to get the answers at a different interval who where all returning back.  I am not going to reveal which answer belongs to which race but chances are there you might guess right. This has nothing to put any race down or one better than the other but just to see how the cultural behavior pattern varies from different culture while responding to a stranger.

Below are the responses i got from 4 different individuals from 4 different race.

1. First Person – With a big smile – “You are almost there, worth the hike to see the fall…keep going…”
2. Second Person – This person felt I was about to ask a question so decided to see somewhere else and walked off, I was standing there with no answer.
3. Third Person – With no friendly smile, “You are more than half way, then there will be a steep walk and then you will get close to the falls”
4. Fourth Person – Gave a harsh look and asked “What?” When I repeated my question the answer was “You still have 75% more to go.”

Single trail, four different persons and four different responses

1. Encouraging, Friendly
2. Leave me alone attitude
3. Accurate, detail focused but did not express it in a friendly way
4. Harsh, I am a celebrity leave me alone attitude

Fun part of my hike was finishing the trail by seeing the beautiful water falls. I think, if I missed any of the following points, who knows, how tough my hike would have been!

• Organizers Suggestion to take a walking stick for support and a poncho for being safe in rain – Expert opinion
• My preparation with knee braces and a cap to avoid the rain – Preparation
• Even though it was a mixed type of responses, an approximation on how close I am to my destination did help the progress – Random opinion on progress