Pupukea Summit
Pupukea Summit – March 31, 2012
Being my 32nd birthday, I decided to plan a birthday party at a summit. I haven’t celebrated my birthday in 20 years. My last birthday party celebration was when I was 12 years old, 6th grade. Over the years, my birthday just became another day. Usually a lot of 30 year olds have their parties at clubs or restaurants. A few things I hate about that, 1) Too much unwarranted attention, which I hate 2) I have to share the room with others, which I hate. While planning a birthday hike, I had to choose a non-popular trail, so we would have the summit to ourselves. Going through Stuart Ball’s book Hiking on Oahu, there was no doubt which hike I would choose: Pupukea Summit Hike.
This hike is about 9 miles round trip. It’s an easy 9 miles because the trail is graded and most of the trail is on a paved road. Although relatively easy, the trail for some reason gets little traffic, maybe because of a few complicated junctions. You can compare it to Palehua-Palikea trail, if you did that one. I asked my wife, who hates to do long hikes to join me on this hike. In addition, I also put an invitation to my facebook friends and texted my long time friends and family about the hike. Only Ikaika and Marvin were able to come. The rest had other plans or commitments.
During the week, I prepped my party by buying birthday hats, 7D dried mangoes, and cake (which Michelle made). The meeting place was at Pupukea Foodland at 9am. After going into Foodland to get wine, Michelle and I met Ikaika and Marvin in the parking lot. We drove up Pupukea road and parked near the locked gate.
We passed the Boy Scout camp on the left and headed towards a junction to where the Kaunala trail started. The Kaunala trail appears to be popular as there were many hikers heading that way. I would like to do that trail and Ehukai-Kaunala one day. At the junction we went straight and headed towards a paved road. The road goes up and down for about a mile before arriving at a picnic bench. After a short break, we continued on the paved road for about another mile before hitting mile marker #19. After the mile marker a wide trail appears on the right. I was perplexed because there was no Pupukea sign at the trailhead. I’ve seen pictures of the sign when I did some research about the trail. Marvin felt confident that he was leading us in the right directions. Marvin knows his stuff and makes connections and draws conclusions as good as any hiker I've hiked with.
Black Junction
We entered a forest. The trail took us around the ridge. I knew this was the correct trail because Stuart Ball's book mentioned that the trail was a graded trail. No doubt this trail was graded. The Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club did this trail a few month ago, so it was cleared well. After 30 minutes, we hit Black Junction. Going left would be to a lookout, going right would be to Pupukea Summit. We chose the first option and headed towards the lookout. The clearing was wide and windy. I took out the cake and put the icing on. Ikaika took out tiny bottles of vodka. We (Ikaika and I) drank vodka and had cake at the windy lookout. The crumbs from my cake were blowing off the plate, which amused me. The vodka was kicking in a little. I thought to myself, where on Oahu can you celebrate your birthday at 2,000 ft of elevation? Only here, as I quoted, “the more I’m up here, the more beautiful it gets”, while Ikaika laughed and reiterated my quote. Must be the vodka kicking in. After a 30 minute break, we headed towards Black Junction again and took the right onto the Ko’olau Summit Trail to the summit of Pupukea.
It was surprisingly longer than I expected. Michelle decided she had enough and chose to wait for us near a clearing. Marvin, Ikaika, and I went up to the summit. The lookout to Kahuku was nice, but not one of my favorites. Even on a clear day, it wouldn’t be one of my favorites. At the summit, we ate some 7D mangoes and chilled out, talking about dieting among other topics.
On the way back, we met Michelle and headed towards Black Junction. The walk back felt long for some reason. At Black Junction I took out 2 small bottles of wine and gave one to Ikaika which we would sip on the way back. I was buzzing a little, but was more tired from the alcohol in my system. I drank water to hydrate myself. After about 6 hours, we were done. Not the fast pace were accustom to, but fun nonetheless.
While driving, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I pulled over and asked Michelle to drive. I took a nice short nap on the way to Wahiawa where we would rendezvous at Dong Yang’s. This Korean Restaurant has a reputation of being the best Korean Restaurant in Central Oahu. After eating the meat jun and kalbi, I do confer. This birthday party is the best I’ve had so far, if my passion for hiking is still going strong next year, I will definitely do a birthday hike.
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