Superblog: Makapu'u Ridge Hike

Today, we planned to go to Ka'iwi and do the path there with scooters, but it was crowded all the way to the street so we had nowhere to park. We usually go down to the beach at the end, called Alan Davis, so we know the place as Alan Davis instead of Ka'iwi. We had never gone along the trail that would take us to the lighthouse, and we decided that we would try it. The path there is a paved one and perfect for a family outing or in our case as a recovery trail. The guys didn't wanna do anything hard since we just did Dupont. I was up for something good, and I would have done Dupont again if someone came with me. But everyone else was sore so no intense hikes today. When we realized that we wouldn't get parking at Alan Davis, we left Ka'iwi to find something else to do and I asked if they wanted to do the Makapu'u Tom Tom hike. They said ya, so I was happy since we were doing something that involved more than just walking or riding scooters along. We drove down the road to the next lookout and actually got parking there. From what I had heard and read, you would have a view looking down on the road below as you hiked the Makapu'u Tom Tom trail. Not a trail for people scared of heights. No Alan Davis today; maybe this weekend. The next time we go to Ka'iwi/Alan Davis, I'll put up some stuff on that. It turns out we hiked some of the Makapu'u Ridge trail and didn't get to the Tom Tom trail at all.

Kendall took Mits, so he, Jared, and I were at the lookout, and while everyone else there was going to the lookout to see the views and maybe climbing up to the lighthouse, we looked to the opposite side, searching for the trail head to Makapu'u Tom Tom, but we couldn't see it. Luckily, there was a guy going up by himself so we decided to follow him. The path he took was only kind of worn down, and he mostly scaled the fence for the climb up. The warnings on the fence say that it's dangerous on the other side, and we knew that the rocks in the area inside the fence were prone to falling so we stayed out of that area. There were nets to keep falling rocks from pelting the cars below. After the fence ended, you could basically hike whichever way you wanted. We wanted to hike up the mountain, so we just went whichever way we wanted. It's not too difficult to go up if you're in good shape, but there are plants with thorns and also a plant with poky thorn-like things that stick to your socks and shoes. It gets irritating and we stopped a bunch of times to pull them off of our shoes. It was because of this plant that we won't be doing this hike again for a while unless we have a machete or something to cut the plants down. Be careful when hiking up this trail because there are some loose rocks and a fall from that trail means death.

We went up the first hill, then it flattened out and we climbed some more. After reaching the top of the first peak, we continued on toward the higher second peak. The third and even higher peak was in the distance, but we were bored with the repetitive scenery. Also, it was getting past lunch, and none of us had planned to hike this trail or packed any food. The most we had was a couple bottles of water. So we turned around and went back down. The guy that was in front of us had made it about half way up the third hill, but he turned around too. We stopped to talk with a older couple who were from Seattle and had come up the trail from Koko Marina side, and the guy passed us as we were talking. After a long talk, we continued heading down, and since there is no definite trail, we made our own, and even scaled the side of the mountain for a shortcut. We started the hike at about 9:45 in the morning and finished at a little after 1. The views down are nice, and you don't get very high up, but it seems like it. At least we did the trail so we know what it's like, but it's not as good as any of the others that I've done. But our adventures for today don't stop there. Continue on for some more fun.