Mariner's Ridge:The Adventures of Staley the Dog

In my never-ending quest to trek all the hiking trails in Hawaii, I am always looking for family-friendly trails.  There are a handful of hiking trails that are appropriate for kids of all ages.  We thought Mariner's Ridge was one of them...

The reviews on the interwebs say it takes people about an hour to get to the top of this trail, and 45 mins to come back.  So we planned on spending 3 hours on the trail, thinking that shirley would be more than enough time for us.  After 2 hours of climbing and trodding, we were only about 2/3 of the way there.  I guess toddlers hike at about 1/3 speed of regular adults. 

Had we continued on this trail, it would have taken us at least 5 hours.  On this day, we decided to turn back but vowed to return again another day.

When I found time to attempt the hike again, I decided to being my trusty sidekick, Staley.

Bonus points if anyone knows why I named my dog Staley.

I wasn't quite sure how she would fare because it has been a long time since I have taken her on a long excursion.  Her brother has a bum leg and he doesn't always get along with other doggies.  So Staley doesn't get a whole lot of one-on-one time with me out in the open.

This trail starts out like many hikes here on Oahu- with an ominous "No Trespassing" sign.  This only serves to ward off some ignorant tourists.  So under the chain and onward we go.

Since this trail starts out high on a hill, it isn't long before we get to some really nice views of Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, and houses that cost more money than I will make in my entire life.

Over the ridge and through the forest, this trail has several switchbacks and some easy rocks to scale.  Staley handled everything with ease, and only nearly fell off the mountain a few times.

At the end of the trail is a fantastic landing area that has some sweeping views of eastern Oahu.  It was a bit cloudy and rainy on the day I went, but I can imagine how spectacular the view would have been.

All in all it is a fairly easy hike with great views.  It is easy enough for a toddler to scale, but we needed to plan for much more time.

Here are some pictures where I was playing with my macro lens.

And here are some more random pictures of the hike.  Thanks for reading!

Diamond Head

This post comes as a special request from my biggest fan and most avid reader (or at least, the most avid commenter).

When you visit San Francisco, you have to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  When you visit New York, you have to see the Statue of Liberty.  When you visit Chicago, you have to see the Sears Tower (no apologies to the new name holders; I know it's not the Sears Tower anymore but I refuse to call it anything but Sears).  When you visit Oahu, you have to hike Diamond Head (after seeing the Arizona Memorial, of course).

Diamond head is the most popular and accessible hike on the entire island.  On any given day, the parking lot will be full by 8AM, and you can see people from all walks of life and fitness levels making the climb.  It is a relatively short hike, and only has a few dozen stairs to navigate.  My 3-year-old did this hike very easily, and proudly told everyone on the way down that he made it to the top.

Like many hikes here on Oahu, Diamond Head has a long history of serving other functions before it became a tourist trap.  Once upon a time, it was an active volcano and helped form this part of the island.  I won't bore you with the science, so instead I will give you this link to Wikipedia.

Then when the US military came to town, it set up a communications station and defensive position at Diamond Head.  The military still owns and operates some facility here, but what you can see from the hike are the remnants of the pillboxes and other features that have long since been abandoned.

What makes Diamond Head one of the most universal trails on the island are its facilities.  They have a bathroom with running water, a parking guard to keep your car from getting broken into, and a nice sign to take your picture in front of.

The trail itself is fairly well maintained.  It is part concrete, part packed dirt.  There are guard rails as you go up the switchbacks and climb the stairs to the lookout points.  There is plenty of room to pass and be passed by other adventurers.  There is one long tunnel that is now illuminated by running lights.

This is one hike where you don't feel like you are about to fall to your death with one wrong step.  On the danger scale, I would put the Diamond Head hike somewhere between running with scissors and sticking your tongue to a frozen pole.  Actually, nobody here in Hawaii would understand that last reference, so let's just say it's less dangerous than eating poke (raw fish dip).

The view from the top is pretty neat.  You have a good view of Honolulu, Waikiki, and some of the surrounding features.  In terms of scenery-per-effort, this is one of the best values on the island.

The real problem with this hike is getting a parking spot.  Either you need to get here early and beat the jetlagged tourist rush, or you need to come during the hottest part of the afternoon (1PM ish).  The parking lot is small, and if you don't get a spot you have to hike from down the hill somewhere.  I would honestly say it would be better to find something else to do than to make the hike twice as far as it needs to be.  So, get there early.

That is all there is to say about this hike: short, easy, running water, bad parking.  Enjoy a few more random pics of this hike...

Haiku Stairs: The Forbidden Fruit

Gather 'round kids.  Grandpa has another story for you.  Back in my day, we didn't have these fancy cell phones or satellite communications.  If we wanted to send messages over long distances, we either had to use carrier pigeons, or shoot radio waves from mountaintop to mountaintop.  How did we get this radio equipment to the top of the mountain?  We took the stairs!

Way back in 1942, the US Navy constructed some communications towers on Oahu that were capable of communicating with the fleet as far away as the Sea of Japan.  Naturally, these sites needed to be at the top f the highest mountains to get the maximum possible reach.

To access and maintain these stations, they built a series of wooden stairs staked to the ridge of the mountain.  Then they had to climb them.  With heavy equipment.

I can only imagine the feat of engineering it took to construct the buildings atop the mountain.  Take, for example, the cement buildings.  To get these buildings up there, they would have either had to prefabricate them and lift them there, or carry the supplies and a cement mixer up the mountain for the job.  Keep in mind that helicopters had just barely been invented by this time and probably weren't capable enough to lift heavy materials

Some poor 19-year-old E3's and E4's I'm sure had a miserable time with this tour of duty.  Commanding Officer: "How would you like to be assigned to Hawaii?" E3: "Sounds like fun in the sun!" CO: "We need you to build a set of over 4000 stairs and construct buildings and a communications site on the top of a mountain"  E3: "Are you F-ing kidding me??"

I imagine this lift house made things a little easier on the poor 19-year-olds

Like Diamond Head and Koko Head, the Haiku Stairs started out with some useful purpose, but after it got abandoned people started hiking it for recreation.  Let me say that again.  People started climbing 4000 stairs.  On purpose.  For fun. Repeatedly.

In the early 2000s, the city/county spent ~$875,000 renovating the stairs, replacing the rotting wooden stairs with metal ones, and generally making the hike less dangerous.  The intent was to officially open it back to the public as a sanctioned and maintained hike on the island. 

Unfortunately, the stairs never reopened.  There are a few theories about why it remains closed.  One is that the local residents got accustomed to the lack of traffic on their streets while the stairs were under reconstruction, and didn't want throngs of hikers all times of day and night.  Another theory is the land between the main road and the bottom of the stairs is owned by a private company that does not want people trespassing.  A third theory is that part of the hike is on city/county property, and part is on state/federal property, and none of the parties can come to an agreement on who would be held liable if, say, someone went tumbling down the mountain.

So that is why this post is titled "the forbidden fruit."  This is one of the most epic hikes on the island, yet it is illegal to hike it.  Moreover, there is a guard posted there during the day to prevent people from climbing the stairs.

The Haiku Stairs are also the worst kept secret on the island.  Everyone knows that the guard gets there by 0330 in the morning, so you see throngs of people climbing the stairs at 0300 or so to "beat the guard."  Let me say that again.  Throngs of people gather in the wee hours of the morning.  To climb 4000 stairs.  In the dark.  For fun.

I am told the sunrise from the summit is amazing.  I have attempted this hike twice now, and I have yet to watch the sunrise from the top.  On my first attempt, we got about halfway to the top before my wife freaked out and we stayed on the first landing for the sunrise.  This is when she learned she was scared of heights.  The sunrise was pretty cool nonetheless.

I recently attempted the hike a second time with a friend from work.  This time we made it all the way to the top.  After climbing 4000 stairs in the dark, I encountered a scene that I can only assume is reminiscent of a modern dance club- tired, sweaty people crammed in a dark, stuffy room with dim lights and loud thumping music.  Yes, someone brought an iPod dock, and it actually put out some decent sound.

It would suck to make it up 4000 stairs only to be impaled by the loose rebar and other metal hazards at the top

Despite the successful climb to the top, my sunrise was foiled by mother nature.  We were smack in the middle of a cloud with ~100ft visibility.  Instead of getting to see the sun rise in the distant ocean, I watched it gradually go from black to light gray. 

Then I had to climb back down 4000 stairs.

Overall, it was a pretty epic hike.  I really felt a sense of accomplishment once I made it to the top and back down again.  This item is still on my bucket list though, and it will remain there until I get a good sunrise.

Here are some more nice pictures...