R got itchy on Saturday; sitting by the pool and reading the newspaper was just too much work so we pulled out the O'ahu books to see which hike would be strenuous enough to deserve a shave ice but wouldn't take so long that we might be caught in the dark. Sun set is about 6:30 p.m. right now, but it feels earlier under a tree canopy and dusk does not last very long. We picked the Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail because it fit the above qualifications.
The trail follows one of the many ridges of the Koolau Mountains and starts where a gated community tucked into the mountain ends. How nice of the gated community folks to let us traverse their streets to get to the trailhead.
The trail starts off on a water company service road. We met a pair at the summit who biked up this first portion of the trail. It's hard to see in this picture but the dirt here is probably the reddest we've seen on O'ahu.
How thoughtful of "Na Ala Hele", the State's trail system authority, to install stairs in what otherwise might be a slippery slope.
It was a relatively tranquil hike though the trail follows a bunch of power lines (or do the power lines follow the trail)?
Here is R checking the guidebook. The silly guidebook lady likes to tell us to turn around at random points. Here she says to turn around when the power lines rejoin each other. Had we listened to her we would have missed the summit! Good thing we only use her as a "guide" not an "authority".
We don't know anything about plants but we do like to take pictures of things that are pretty:
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| This tree was big! |
Pausing to look back we started not far from this Aina Haina neighborhood, just east of town. The clouds were thick the entire hike as is common over the mountains and we were sure we would get drenched from a sudden rainstorm. Surprisingly it didn't rain and the dark clouds kept us cool.
Nearly at the summit we passed this cluster of antennas and wondered how those antennas might get serviced. (We later learned during the Hawaii Public Radio fund drive that HPR will moving their antenna from this ridge onto a better accessible ridge since they often cannot land a helicopter here due to the dense cloud cover.)
We just had to scale some rocks as a last obstacle to the summit.
Here's a good sign that we made it:
And a few more pictures from the summit!
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A view of the Windward side, R-L: Waimanalo, Bellows Air Force Station,
Lanikai & the Mokulua islands, and Kailua |
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| We live down in that community (just left of center)! |
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| View of town |
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| At 2,600ft this is the highest we've been on O'ahu. |
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| The Olomana Ridge in the background is on our list of hikes. |
The climb back down was not terribly eventful once we passed the few spots that had helpful ropes to assist with the descent.
Of course we were rewarded with shave ice from Shimazu's. Mango, coconut, and vanilla creme for R; lychee, li hing apple, and strawberry creme for A.
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| makes tongues red! |
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The trail follows one of the many ridges of the Koolau Mountains and starts where a gated community tucked into the mountain ends. How nice of the gated community folks to let us traverse their streets to get to the trailhead. 
The trail starts off on a water company service road. We met a pair at the summit who biked up this first portion of the trail. It's hard to see in this picture but the dirt here is probably the reddest we've seen on O'ahu.
How thoughtful of "Na Ala Hele", the State's trail system authority, to install stairs in what otherwise might be a slippery slope. 
Here is R checking the guidebook. The silly guidebook lady likes to tell us to turn around at random points. Here she says to turn around when the power lines rejoin each other. Had we listened to her we would have missed the summit! Good thing we only use her as a "guide" not an "authority". 
Pausing to look back we started not far from this Aina Haina neighborhood, just east of town. The clouds were thick the entire hike as is common over the mountains and we were sure we would get drenched from a sudden rainstorm. Surprisingly it didn't rain and the dark clouds kept us cool.
Nearly at the summit we passed this cluster of antennas and wondered how those antennas might get serviced. (We later learned during the Hawaii Public Radio fund drive that HPR will moving their antenna from this ridge onto a better accessible ridge since they often cannot land a helicopter here due to the dense cloud cover.) 
The climb back down was not terribly eventful once we passed the few spots that had helpful ropes to assist with the descent.
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