Friday, May 16, 2014

Hiking Hawaii: Oahu's Pillboxes Trail

I asked my brother for hiking suggestions before we went on our trip.  Somehow forgetting to take into account the fact that he is 6'3" of muscle and no bodyfat. Who climbs rocks for funsies.

"Try the pillbox trail, it's really short and the views are amazing!"

Yeah, okay maybe.

"There's old military bunkers on the top too!"

Ohhhh. military bunkers. Yes please.

Anyway, after scarfing down beyond-amazing kalua pork eggs benedicts at Cinnamon's for brunch, Sak luckily found parking in the residential area near the trail head in Lanikai. Seriously there's like 3 parking spots.
Salty tender meat under a beautiful runny egg? Yes please!
I'm not sure if it's an "official" trail, but it did have a sign so I felt a little better about the whole thing.

The trail starts with a rapid ascent through two fenced off private properties. It's all dirt, so I would definitely not come here under rainy conditions.  There's some old rope strung along the steepest parts, which was good for when we needed to come back down the trail.
This looks lame cause it's a picture - but it's fairly steep!

Once you get past the property lines, you end up on a ridge.  And that's where I stopped having an enjoyable hike.  I am pretty afraid of heights, so putting me on a very windy ridge, some two feet away from ridiculously steep cliff on either side was a recipe for insta-freak-out.  One slip and I could just see Sak or I plummeting to our deaths!

Sak wasn't perturbed though.  Even though I wanted to turn back that very instant, Sak could see the pillboxes ahead and wanted to continue. Legs shaky, the only way I could do it was by looking only at the ground in front of me and clinging to Sak's backpack.  If one of us fell, at least we'd die together. How romantic.
Wee pillbox off in the distance~


The trail splits at several points, so we (me, screeching) chose whatever looked safer/less cliffy, and only ended up backtracking a few times.

When we finally reached the first pillbox, it was kinda, well - vandalized.  And there were weird noises coming from inside so I don't even know. I just wanted to get back to the car safely, so we didn't continue to the second pillbox. The distance to the first box isn't much though. Maybe under a mile?
Sak at creepy noise box - manly confidence or ignorant naivety?
Kiki stop laughing at me and get me outta hereeeee

But one thing I can vouch for is that the view was amazing. So there's that.

Stunning.

When we made it back down without dying, Sak took me to the craft store for much needed retail therapy. Haha. Though Sak will tell you the trail wasn't bad at all, if you're scared of heights this might not be the best trail for you. Also, I will take all of my brother's future hiking suggestions with some serious side-eye.

Also, I should have mentioned this in the last post but definitely check out Landrum Wife's Oahu hike posts - her series is very well documented and she has amazing photos!

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