Kealia Trail - March 19th, 2011

Kealia trail

Kealia "salt encrustation"

So, I was kind of annoyed, we had planned to go hiking, and it was all nasty raining outside on our side of the island, I then looked up the forecast to the west of us, and it was sunny, YAY, good hiking day! Well, of course, I have to work every WEEKEND! It makes it hard to spend time with Matt, so if anything is going to get done, it will require me to do something after working, and being up at 3:30, no bueno. I am totally tired from work, but I can usually deal with it. Anyway, I got off of work at 10:30, got home, threw some beach clothes and workout clothes on, and decided this hike would be ok to not wear my boots, that went over terribly! Anyway, about 40 minutes later we end up on the western point of the island at a place called Dillingham Airfield.

View from the middle of the mountain

We suited up, and started out on the hike, knowing this hike is 7 miles round trip, I was worried that I was going to be exhausted, from the lack of sleep, food, and motivation, well it sort of was true, but I did ok I guess! To start this trail, we were on a paved road, until we reached a chain link fence, and proceeded on a well marked trail, I was worried with the amount of flies, I HATE FLIES, but they disappeared quickly, the trail was well maintained for the most part, a downed tree was the only real problem, besides all the rocks from the mountain obviously, they weren't kidding when they said rocks fall often. On this trail there are 19 switchbacks, which  is basically just a zig zag pattern going up the mountain, you climb an elevation of about 1,000 feet, some parts were slippery, some were a little steep, but the views from the climb up were gorgeous, you see anything from sky divers, parasailors, to glider planes, alone with spectacular views of the north shore!

We made it through the 19 switchbacks, and still had about another 1,000 feet in elevation to climb, we didn't look up the trail as well as we should of because we definitely took the wrong turn and ended up in some weird hunting area, we then headed back up and got back on the right track, where it then started raining pretty decent on us, which was weird because it was only raining in one small area, we then made our way down a 4x4 trail and also is a hunting trail, it was kind of boring during this part, in the end it was nothing but a dirt road that climbed up the mountain, and that thing was STEEP, it wasn't extremely terrible, but it worked up a good sweat, and pretty much made my calves and feet burn like crazy! We made it to the end of the trail where it did continue on, but we opted to make it our turn around point, there were some nice views of the Waianae mountain range, similar views to the ones we saw when we did a short little hike on Schofield Barracks, up the kolekole pass, but none the less the views were gorgeous. I love having clear hiking days, so glad summer is near, and the rain should be less, allowing for better views, I definitely want to do the Haiku Stairs again in hopes for a better view!

Crazy rocks

We then started our way back down, and let me tell you, I think I would rather go up than down, especially since it was hard to judge how slippery parts were, and once ya started moving there was no stopping, and my shoes were not cooperating in the least, my toes kept jamming into the front of the shoes, causing HUGE amounts of pain, and the switch backs on the way down sucked, due to the fact that my shoes weren't made for traction, I made my way down like the nervous nancy that I am, pretty sure Matt was getting annoyed at me, but what can ya do, I'd rather not fly off the end of the mountain on a normal day! This was a good work out hike most definitely, and pretty sure I'll do it again, if it's not to hot, for there is NO shade from the sun on this hike!

Elevation: 2000 feet
Distance: 7 miles round trip
Difficulty: Intermediate
Calorie Burn: 1900!!! Insane!!

Directions: Dillingham Airfield