Ka'iwa Ridge aka Lanikai Pillboxes - June 10, 2011

Start of the hike!

Girls hike day!

I love hiking with Jenna, we pretty much have the best time ever, can stop and take as many pictures as we want, and just chill without having the guys waiting ahead for us!! We were deciding between a few different hikes, I mentioned this one, then was thinking it was going to be boring, not realizing the trail had actually gone past the pillboxes. 

Going up to the first pillboxes

The short, steep hike to the “pillboxes” offering views of the Mokolua Islands and Koolua Mountains. It is unclear how many were actually constructed, but it is known that both the Lanikai and Diamond Head pillboxes were part of the island’s defensive system. They reportedly were observation posts built between World Wars I and II, which could alert shore artillery batteries to any approaching enemy ships. Eventually they were stripped out and left abandoned by the military.

Small climb down some rocks

So, this hike is very popular, parking was pretty hard, but thankfully driving a VW Beetle allows for easier parking! We begin our trek, seeing a lot of people, tourists, locals, and families, I believe it was the second couple we saw, this older asian couple, they were friendly said hi, I turn around and look and all of a sudden the lady just took a HUGE digger, legs up in the air and all, I'm not going to lie I laughed (I am not a mean person HAHA), the initial climb to the pillboxes was pretty steep, making me realize that I need to 1. start hiking more and 2. frikin work out more! This will happen when I finally quit my job and can focus on things that are important to me, instead of always being TIRED!

Jenna @ the point where it loops back to the ocean

Just past the pillboxes start the Ka'iwa Ridge hike, which basically just leads down and around to the area south of the pillboxes, it wasn't a hard hike, but there were some up and down hills, and few rocks to be climbed down, and a MASSIVE hill at the end! We weren't sure how far we would actually go on this trail, just because we were not sure of what to expect.

Anyway, we were leading ahead of a few people who also decided to take the loop around, it was SO windy, like extremely, and there were parts that were just dead heat, which seemed to be when we were going up hill at the hardest parts! Overall, it wasn't hard, I'd say the hardest spot was the going down, which I'll explain in a few. The trail was pretty over grown, actually really over grown, watching your step was important a few steps were not on flat ground and falling would of put a rock in a place you did not want a rock to go, and the bees, I HATE BEES! we made it up and down, and around to the finally area, where in the beginning of the trail we saw a trail leading down from where the pillboxes were, and this is the trail we were finally at, lets just say it was STEEP!!

We began going down, and immediately I gave it and just slid on the the rocks trying to to get one in a place I did not want one placed! There were lots of cactus plants, which were picky, we got them in our legs, which wasn't exactly a pleasure. So we kept on slowly making our way down, when we saw what we thought was a bum, HAHA, but it was a lady who had a husky, the husky obviously NOT the best dog for this climate, was probably about 1 or 2 years old, and was over heating on the mountain, she asked us before I saw the dog if we had any water, I said no just my camelback, until she mentioned the dog and I couldn't get the water out fast enough for the poor dog! This might say something about which I care for more, and it will always be the animal, these people had no idea what they were doing, dog sitting and bringing up a dog a VERY rocky, steep, and dry hike, I could not believe it. We fed the dog water, and continued, just wanting to GET OUT, finally made it down, it was about 2 hours when we popped out of the trail in the residential area, and had about a 1/2 mile walk back to the car. Awesome hike as always! Hoping for a few more girl hikes soon! Or at least some more hikes in general!!

Elevation: 600 feet

Distance: 2 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Calorie burn: 1800

Directions: Trail Head