Day 4 : Lots and lots and LOTS of hiking!

Chris decided to continue on his adventurous hiking trail streak and took us to a 2.5 mile loop behind the Hawaiian Nature Center.  I think it was called the Na' Ale Trail System (or something close to that).  We hiked through beautiful bamboo forests, streams, and lots of pretty Hawaiian Nature. 

From there, we walked back to our car, and drove up to the next hike, at the top of the mountain on a road called Round Top Drive.  The drive alone up the mountain was spectacular.  It offered great views of Honolulu, and it was such a pretty day.  We parked at the trail, ate lunch, and then headed on Manoa Cliff Trail – distance of 6.0 miles.  All in all, we planned on hiking 8.5 miles today.

The Manoa Cliff Trail was absolutely beautiful.  We were high up in the ridges and could see all of Honolulu, as well as so many breathtaking nature views.  We got to a point where the trail split, which we were concerned with because the trail map did not show a split.   It was supposed to be a loop.  We took the direction that made logical sense to following a loop, and after about 45 minutes, we came to a road – Tantalus Drive.  Whaaa???  That was not expected.

See ... we're lost and we still have each other and are smiling :-)!

There were some locals walking their dogs, so we asked them about the trails.  They were obviously not hikers, and told us our car was parked on the other side of the mountain, and that if we hiked up the road (UP = STEEP mountain incline road) about another mile and a half, the road turned into Round Top Drive, and then we could take that down to our car.  Since hiking up the pavement in our hiking boots didn’t sound like fun, we headed back into the woods. 

At this point, we were getting a wee bit concerned with time.  It was 3 o’clock when we came out to the road, and we wanted to be out of the woods by dark…5 – 530 at the very latest.  We high-tailed it back to where the trail split off, making it in 30 minutes this go round, and took the other direction.  After another 15 minutes, we got to another split in the trail.  I had taken a picture of the trail maps with my camera (there weren’t any brochures, just the one in plexi glass at the Nature Preserve place), so we looked to see where the new trail name fell into the trail systems, and it only did a loop going up to the top of the mountain and then dropped us back off right where we were.  So, grudgingly, we headed back to the street.

It was a beautiful forest to get lost in, but I had images of rationing water and sleeping in the woods dancing through my head.  I’m a drama queen with these things though, and always picture the absolute worst.  Chris, of course, thought I was being a retard.  Typical.  J  We made it back to the road a little before 5, and then hiked up in our boots the mile and a half to the road that our car was on.  Our hiking boots at this point felt like lead weights.  We were being goofy as all get out because we were slightly delirious from being so tired.  The Manoa Cliff Trails prior to splitting off to another trail was filled with lots of steep climbs, which were a ton of fun, but by the time we got to the road, we were definitely feeling it.

All in all, we hiked a little over 10 miles today.  We made it to our car safely, and headed home exhausted.   What a day!