Makapu'u Ridge to Kamehame Drive - July 3, 2011

We were supposed to do Makapu'u Ridge and descend down the Tom-Tom trail, but the bottom line was we didn't complete the hike. So now this becomes a lore hike. There is going to be a revisit to the Makapu'u Tom-Tom trail sometime in the future. But for now, this experience was mostly good and sad.

The initial plan was to do this hike with Erik, Blaze, Blaze's wife Jenny, my wife Shell, and I. Blaze and Jenny went to Turtle Bay for the 4th of July weekend and Erik had to do something. 

It was just Shell and I, just like the old days. It took us over an hour to get to Makapu'u. And I do say, it felt like a while. We parked on Makapu'u Lighthouse Road and walked up to the Lookout. I wasn't sure where the trailhead was for the Makapu'u Ridge hike, all I knew was that it was adjacent to the Lookout, so we scouted the place for about 5 minutes. Our assessment came up with two results. There was a faint trail directly across the street and a fence that went up the mountain. We chose the faint trail. Just then a couple started walking up the mountain. That's great we thought, we should just follow them. So we made our way. The couple seemed confused and so were we. The couple eventually found their way and we followed them up the mountain. The best way to get up the mountain is to parallel the fence. It was hot and we both started to sweat like crazy.

We got to the top of the mountain and the ridgeline started. There appeared a number of peaks that had to be traversed. Shell seemed a bit intimidated from the peaks. But I encouraged her to stay focused, safe, and positive. The trail is a little hard to follow, but all you have to do is follow the ridgeline eastward. There are also ribbons to assist.

The trail is scenic. The views of rabbit island, Makapu'u Lighthouse, the Pacific Ocean, the cliffs of Makapu'u, and Sea Life Park are freakin' amazing.

There is a lot of scrambling up the peaks. I do give Shell credit. She has good hiking skills. She always keeps her balance, can climb, and can descend. She also has a cool head which requires little fear of heights and little fear of narrow sections on the trail. 

As we crossed the ridge, I heard a loud banging noise. It just sounded like an impact. I thought someone or an animal at Sea Life Park jumped into the water right below us. A few minutes later, we heard loud profanity and sobbing. Though we were over 1000 feet up on a steep mountain, we could hear clearly what the person was saying. We looked down and saw a person lying on the road. I saw the blood on the road from 1000 feet up on the mountain, which meant a lot of blood. My stomach turned and I felt sad. There we were on top of the ridge watching the remnants of a horrific accident unfold. From the looks of it the person lay motionless on the pavement, that is not good. I thought the person was dead. There was another person consoling the person on the ground, probably the passenger from the vehicle. We watched, seconds felt like minutes. Shell and I were wondering where the ambulance was? Minutes went by and no ambulance. Yelling of profanity and sobbing continued. Cars started backing up. Traffic became a standstill. More blood was spilling on the asphalt. More minutes went by. I felt more sadness come over me. Shell and I stood and watched. Michelle was also feeling the somber effects of the event. Shell who is a nurse by trade, probably didn't cringe as much as I did. 

I remember early in our relationship, there was this horrific accident on the H1 freeway near Kapolei. The man's vehicle overturned and he was ejected from his convertible car. He lay in a pool of blood on the side of the road. We pulled over on the right side  and crossed the busy freeway to where the man was. I stood far away as I didn't  want to see the gruesome sight. Shell went over to the guy and checked his vital signs. When the ambulance arrived, she gave the paramedics a report. Not sure, but the man may have survived. That is heroic stuff. Thoughts of wishing Shell was down there to help the motionless person came over me.

Finally after 10 minutes, the ambulance arrived and took the injured person away, which is a good sign because they didn't cover the person. However, later on, we found out on the news that the person died from his injuries. I wish that didn't happen. The event that took place was a car crossing the center line hitting the person on his moped head on. 

We continued on. The climb up the first major peak wasn't too bad. But the climb up the 4th peak proved to be a bit scary. It was steep. The rocks were sturdy though. 

I'd say that's steep, look at those 15 foot telephone poles at the top. Gives you some perspective.

There were footholds to keep your balance. The height didn't seem to bother Michelle, so I felt good. The ascent up the mountain did bother Shell. I kept positive and encouraged her to continue. After the steep climb, we ended up at some type of military center that looked to be a boot camp of sorts for troubled kids. I don't know, that was the impression I came up with at the time. We passed that area and ended up at the hang glider launching pad. The drop from the launching pad looked nuts. After walking past the launching pad, we ended up at some old military area. I read that it was used for missile launching back in the old days. From here it got confusing. You could either continue on the ridge trail which looked a little sketchy or go on the military road up to the end. We chose the safer route. At this time, the coastline of Waimanalo came into view. We came across a few hikers and asked them if they knew where the Tom Tom trail was. They didn't know, so we asked them how they got to this point? They said that they walked up the road. Shell exhausted from the hike so far had a light bulb go off in her head. She thought, instead of doing the Tom Tom trail, we should go down the road where the hikers came from and catch the city bus back to our car. I told her that we should stick with the plan. She disagreed. So I told her let me find the trailhead to Tom Tom and then we should decide. Just then two guys came down from the scenic lookout and asked me if I knew how to get to Kuliouou. I told them that I wanted to find the Tom Trail. So we ventured together to find the trailhead. We walked to the end of the road and saw a ribbon. So we followed it. The trail went for about 20 feet and ended with choke vegetation. I said, "crap, what the hell?". We went back to the end of the concrete road and looked to our right. We saw concrete stairs leading to a scenic section. We stayed there for a little while scouting the area. We saw a trail along the ridge about 100 yards away. In my mind, that was the Tom Tom trail. We also saw a ribbon and a faint trail nearby, I thought to myself that was the starting point for the Tom Tom trail. But there was all this vegetation to go through. It looked possible, but didn't seem worth it. I told the guys bye and went back to where Shell was waiting. I told her the choices were explore or go down the road. Both choices were iffy. "Choose the lesser of two evils", I said. Shell, her mind set on the road, decided to go down. We went down Kamehame Road. I guess they forgot the "ha". Just joking, my dry sense of humor.

The road went down for at least 1 mile. We ended up in a residential neighborhood. We saw some Lowe's guys unloading furniture. Shell the haole as she is was going to ask the guys for a ride to the bus stop. In hindsight that was a good idea because our legs were so damn sore. But at the time, I was ashamed, a typical local Japanese guy as I am. We argued for a bit about the Lowe's thing and set our sights on the bus stop. We walked what seemed like forever to the nearest bus stop.

Thank god we thought to ourselves. I looked in my wallet and only had $20 and 2 singles. Shit, wonder if the bus driver gives change? Shell called the bus company. The operator said that the bus driver does not give change. The bus also was on its way. If we missed that bus, the next bus would arrive at around 5:30pm. Kind of late already. And so Michelle and I argued again about sticking to the plan. I told her if we went down to Tom Tom, we would have ended up at the 7-11 nearby, so I could get change. Anyway, we put that issue aside and went to look for change. We walked for about a 1/2 mile and ended up at Kalama Shopping Center. But everything was closed. WTF!  We made our way to another bus stop. I left Shell at the bus stop and walked up the road hoping to find the golf course entry so I could get some damn change. It was not there. I ended up at the Kokohead Crater Botanical Gardens. I asked one of the workers if he had change for $20, he said, "no". I asked the others that were there, they had the same answer. So I went back down the road to where Shell was waiting. As I went down, I saw the bus drive by. I contemplated the options. 1) Catch the city bus dropping $20 (ridiculous!) + getting off at Sea LIfe Park + walking 1 mile to our car 2) Call a cab and drop the $20. Because it was late already, the answer seemed simple as apple pie. Shell called 422-2222. Those Frank Delima commercials are helpful. We waited for about 10 minutes for the cab to arrive. 

The cab driver was nice. He took us to our car. The cost was $8.00. It was a good price. I thought it would have been $20, maybe my experience of catching a cab in Washington D.C. prompted my thought. D.C. cabs were very expensive. 

We got to our car and only had to go through one last step. That was to EAT. We narrowed the Shell choices down to the Greek Marina, Teddy's Big Burgers, and Kona Brewing Company. Shell didn't want Greek and didn't have a good experience with Teddy's Burgers, so that choice was easy.

We went down the road to Koko Marina Shopping Center and the Kona Brewing Company. 

To my surprise the food looked rather interesting.  I  really wanted a beer, however that was not a good choice at the moment. It would have made me feel like shit. But where at the Kona Brewing Company!!! The good choice was to re-hydrate. There was a homemade ginger ale, which I sampled, then ordered. They do that over there, good idea. For an appetizer we ordered the roasted garlic with french bread and gorgonzola cheese. For entrees Shell had the Porterhouse Dip, while I had the BLT. Both sandwiches were all right. They make their own bread over there, which tasted fresh and light. With the sandwiches came a green papaya slaw. Spicy and good. For dessert, we had mango bread pudding. It's huge! We ate a little and took the rest home. The taste of the bread pudding was all right, nothing to write home about. 

Well, a good day of hiking. I learned a lot. I was also sad because of what happened to that guy on the moped. It makes you think about life. I always ponder the question, "If I died today, did I live a fulfilling life?". The answer is left undecided, but I tell you what, I'm living the life I want to live, doing the things I want to do, and enjoying every minute of it. One more thing, if you do this hike, reapply sunscreen. You will burn up like the fire.