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These dreamy photos reveal a narrow metal path leading to the awesome Haʻikū Stairs, also known as the Stairway to Heaven or Haʻikū Ladder. It’s a steep hiking trail on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu and, according to Friends of Haiku Stairs, there are 3,922 steps on this mysterious stairway.

“The Haiku Stairs, or the Stairway to Heaven, is a semi-secret forbidden hike on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The stairs were originally built in 1943 to install antenna cables as part of a larger military radio communication system to communicate with US Navy submarines as far away as Tokyo Bay. The original wooden steps were replaced by metal, cable-supported stairs in the early 1950s when the US Coast Guard took over the installation.”

Read more about the Haʻikū Stairs over at TYWKIWDBI.

I was thinking that there will be thousands of citizens running into the woods, and fields looking for fragments, as the local and state authorities try to contain what is found, and state scientists try to gather data, and global Meteorite hunters will descend on the area in Chelyabinsk…

I thought I’d share some info with those potential hunters on how to properly document what they find, in order to help out the effort in mapping the debris field.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorite_hunter

http://www.erfm.eu/English/Meteorites/whatshouldyoudoi.html

Manzanitas are the best plants in California.

burchell’s starling

Glacial Waterfall, Jasper National Park, Canada

How to levitate a plastic bag with static electricity

All you need is:

a plastic bag

a cotton towel

a balloon

a pair of scissors

Dave Morrow Photography.

Besides this outstanding photo, Dave has a picture of the Milky Way over Mt. Rainier in a Smithsonian-sponsored photo contest; here is an article about how he did it.

Also Dave offers a free star photography tutorial on his website, which is a real sweet thing to do.

Lost Coast Trail, California, Part 1 (more places to go and see) 

Length: 50 miles round trip (optional shuttle midway)

I went backpacking with two friends to the Northwestern region of California. We did not trek across the entirety of LCT, but also climbed into the mountains into some uncharted territory. First night we stayed in an abandoned lighthouse, which was interesting. Then we trekked past a destroyed and abandoned house into the mountains, through a roaming pasture and the mountain into a creek.

If you are interested in attempting this area, you absolutely must have a tidal chart or else the sea will carry you away and there is absolutely nowhere to run if you are in the unpassable region.  The average mileage on this trail is seven a day; it seems low, but don’t risk getting caught between the high tides. Climbing on sand is very painful and slow, especially if you are lugging a 50 pound backpack.

Here are two nice .psf file for this place. This is probably more appropriate.