Moleka to Pu'u Ualaka'a Wayside Park

-

 Moleka to Pu'u Ualaka'a State Wayside Park - May 30, 2011


I just did the Stairway to Heaven yesterday and my body was sore. But with Michelle tired from working yesterday evening, I decided that I should take the kids out and give her a break. So another unplanned hike. I didn't know where to go, but I needed to do a short hike, one where my legs wouldn't strain too much. I decided to do the Tantalus-Arboretum Trail.

I started driving to Tantalus a little after 11a. I ended up on Makiki Heights Drive then on Tantalus Drive. And damn it! I couldn't find the trailhead to the Tantalus-Arboretum Trail. So I abandon the plan and decided to head towards the Moleka Trail again. I think the Moleka Trail is the easiest trail to access on Tantalus. There is a big parking lot that can fit at least 10 cars. The plan now was to go on Moleka, then at the hiker's stop, head onto the Ualaka'a Trail to Pu'u Ualaka'a State Wayside Park. One reason was I haven't done Ualaka'a yet.

A few years ago, I took a picture of the kids at Pu'u Ualaka'a State Wayside Park. This place has the best view of Honolulu on the island. Bar none. You can park at the park, but what fun is that. I find it more rewarding to hike there. 

best view

Moleka Trail is your basic novice trail. Its less than a mile long. We took our new dog this time. The kids started complaining, like always. I've gotten to the point where my role is to plant the seed of the hiking plant in their head. Hopefully later on in life they will appreciate hiking. We hit the hiker's stop in about 30 minutes and took a long break.

cook pines

We took a left onto the Ualaka'a Trail and headed toward the Pu'u Ualaka'a State Wayside Park. The Ualaka'a Trail is only a 1/2 mile long. We got to the start of the Ualaka'a trail and headed up the hill to the park.

The kids actually tackled that semi-steep hill right behind them. We ended up at Pu'u Ualaka'a State Wayside Park. It was packed with locals and tourist. You can see all of Honolulu, Hawaii Kai, and the Leeward Plain of Oahu. The view is just sick. We took a super long break and everyone was getting tired, even the dog. We headed back down the hill, Jared slid on his ass the whole time. It was funny. On the way back, the dog was tired and we needed to stop to wait for him. Rookie. 


I wanted to eat at the Greek food stand at the Kaheka Don Quijote store. But the kids wanted a Slurpee at 7-11. So I ended going to the 7-11 at McCully Shopping Center. I bought a salad because I ate healthy all day and wanted to keep the momentum. The kids ate a spam musubi and a suicide slurpee. The drive home was brutal, I was tired as hell. I guess I hadn't recovered from yesterday's hike. When I got home, I hit the couch and hung up the Sorry, I am CLOSED sign on my eyes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring a hike in Mililani

-
Image
Waikakalaua Stream – November 23, 2012 We didn’t find the tunnels today, but that’s okay. A few months back, I scouted possible access points to get down towards Waikakalaua Stream. Today, along with Erik, we would find what we were looking for. Erik has lived in Wahiawa his whole life and I have lived in Mililani most of my life. This hike, albeit an exploration hike would make a lot of sense. Waikakalaua stream separates Wahiawa from Mililani. The hike is described in Stuart Ball’s original book, though I don’t have that book, it wouldn’t matter today as we were going to explore a different route.        Our goal was to find the pool and tunnels. We would allot ourselves 2 hours in and 2 hours out, for a total of 4 hours. Erik and I met at the Park & Ride, and immediately we drove up the road. We took a left on the road across Mililani Ike and followed it till its end. After getting out of our vehicles, we immediately tried to find a trail going ...
Read more

Kipapa Trail to Schofield-Waikane

-
Image
  Kipapa to Schofield-Waikane – June 14,15 2013 First of all, the initial plan was to get to Papali-Uka, but that didn’t happen. It is apparent that this route was for the grinders. Knowing what we know now, starting from Manana and getting to Papali would have been a three day thing or a two full day excursion. What we experienced was two 10+ hour hiking days and it was a hard 10+ hours for both days.  The plan today was to start on Manana drop into the valley towards Iliahi ridge, then drop into the valley towards Waiawa, and drop into the valley again towards Kipapa. From Kipapa, we would make the long hike up to the Ko’olau Summit, then to Waiahole Uka, crossover to Waikane, and then all the way to the Poamoho Cabin where we would set up camp. In the morning, we would make the long traverse to Papali Uka. The plan seemed ambitious, it was. But with ambition comes character building and gained experience which makes us into better hikers. To be a good hiker, you have to pus...
Read more

Getting to the Waimalu Meadow

-
Image
Waimano-Meadow - February 4, 2017 This hike was going to be a grinder no matter what way you cut it up. The overall goal was to hike Waimano-Aiea with backup plan #1 Waimano-Meadow back to Waimano or backup plan #2 Waimano-Waimalu Middle. After doing Waimalu Ditch last week, I had a feeling that the Middle Ridge trail would be in bad condition to hike. This led me to the assumption that going down Waimalu Middle would be a bad idea and we would only  go down as a last resort.  I predicted a 12-13 hour hike. Sarah wanted to invite her boyfriend Uhi and friend from Japan Jena. I said ok, but they probably wouldn't be her friend after the hike. Going on the hike today was the overnight crew; Darren, Erik, Aprille, Bernice, and Sarah. Also Darren's girlfriend Jana would be coming.  I met Erik & Aprille in front of the Aiea gate at about 4:30am to stage a car. From there, I drove us to the Waimano trailhead. A lot of hunting trucks were in the area. We started the hike a l...
Read more