Monday, September 16, 2013

Natives are retreating

I got invited to look for native Lobelia in the mountains of Oahu a few weeks ago.  My friend knew where and when they were flowering.  It was quite a treat to see.

Getting there was tough!  It required hiking through a valley and going to the summit of the Ko'olau's.  Even though walking though  climbing waterfalls are cool we had to go past the usual turn around spot for this hike.  The spine of the ridge after climbing the waterfalls is brutal.  There was a point where I was going to give up.  

When we reached the top it was white out conditions.  We took a long break eating some food and taking some pictures before we went to visit the Lobelia's.  Kiko who I met for the first time was getting cold so he put on a jacket.  But not just any kind of jacket.  He was actually wearing a nice dress shirt at the beginning of the hike but once we hiked through the valley he had some mud spots staining his shirt.  At the top he pulled out a blazer!  It was awesome! He looked his "Sundays Best".  
Crossing over to where they were was a short jaunt reaching two peaks and going windward down a ridge.  It was hard to see where we were going with such cloudy conditions, but Josh knew exactly where we were going.  

 Katie climbing a waterfall.
 I took a 50mm 1.8 prime lens with me that day.  I don't like it as a walk around lens but it takes great focus point photos!  

 Katie and Kiko in his blazer watching Josh photograph some plants.

 Bearing the windward winds was this lonely Koli'i.  This was the first Lobelia I saw on the hike.   

 The not so flowering lobelia.  

 The flowering Lobelia.  

 Close up of the flowers with some droplets of moisture. 

Thanks Josh for the invite to this hike.  Josh in his element.
Lobelia are hard to find but if you look closely at higher elevations you might be lucky to spot a few! 




No comments:

Post a Comment