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A Trip to Kōkeʻe
Aug. 16th, 2020 09:50 pmThe plan for Saturday was for my dad, Kimberly, and me to drive up to Hanalei to swim, with lunch at Taco Bell and dinner at Monaco's. Alas, Kimberly has been feeling sick for the last few weeks, quite possibly due to her surgery last December, so we had to cancel that at the last minute, which left me and my dad with the day free. So, after lunching at our respective homes, we decided to instead go with Mary on a hike up at Kōkeʻe State Park.
This is something that's been on my TODO list since before the pandemic, but I've been avoiding going up there because of my knee, but it seemed like we could do a gentle walk.
So we headed over to Waimea, then took Highway 550 all the way back to Kōkeʻe. It's a bit of a trek, and since the speed limit along that whole highway is 25, it takes a while. But you get wonderful views of Waimea Canyon as you get up there, and occasionally the island and ocean too.
We stopped at Lookout #1, since we were up there, and it as usual offered gorgeous views of the canyon. But, it was really eerily empty. By which I mean totally empty. There was one truck in the parking lot when we got there, but the observation platform was totally empty. We'll never see that again (unless we return before the 14-day quarantine ends).
We parked at the lodge and museum at Kōkeʻe, which I've been to once before. We have a magnet somewhere from there (but it's not on the fridge, because it's a stainless steel fridge where nothing sticks to the front). I was really struck by how attractive that area is. There's a broad glen, and lots of picnic tables, and lots of shade. It sort of reminded me of the parks I loved in the East Bay, so I'll have to return there for pleasant Saturdays of my own. But only occasionally, it's 53 minutes out there from our house, most of that on 550, so it's not a quick, easy trip (but I'd sometimes BART down to Fremont or something in the East Bay, so that length isn't undoable either).
I needed to pick a pretty simple hike, since my dad has limits on how far he can walk because of his back. So I grabbed the first one in the book that was only 4 miles (and which said it was easy). It turned out to be quite challenging in its own way.
We were supposed to head back down the highway to a side road called Faye, but the real trick there was that the road had no name sign on it. (And there's no cell signal up there and I didn't have the proper Google Map downloaded.) We were only relatively confident that it was the right road based on looking at the angle of the road and measuring the distance we'd walked on my Fitbit. It was a quiet back-country road with the occasional house, some real run down, some very fancy (and thus likely vacation homes).
It was equally challenging finding the Trail, uninspiringly called "No Name Trail". The main problem was that our guide book totally mis-described its origin point. We in fact ended up back at someone's house, and she yelled instructions at us above her insanely barking dog, and then we walked back and found it. Walking back was the theme for the day. The trail then went a half mile or so through foliage, down to a crick, and back. It was pleasant.
We eventually decamped on another country road, running along houses with huge acreage, mostly nicer looking than the ones on the other side of the trail. From here we were supposed to walk to yet another trail, which would take us back through the park and back to the car.
Two problems.
First, the next trail was totally overgrown. I was pretty shocked, because this was an official State Park trail, unlike the No Name Trail, which was, I dunno what. We gamely waded up the trail for a while, through the foliage. My dad said, "You're probably glad there aren't rattlesnakes here", and I said, "I wouldn't walk a trail like this where they were." Which may be true, but I've walked trails with decent ground cover on them in the Bay Area, and I kept my eyes carefully on where my foot went every step. We struggled up the fairly steep trail for a while, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't getting better any time soon.
Second, my dad's back was starting to hurt. He also noted on the map that we'd done about a third of the planned circuit, so we all decided it was better to go back then do the remaining two thirds. A wise choice, I think.
So we made it back to the car in good time, and from there it was down, down, down to civilization. (Except we made a brief detour down a sideroad that my dad knew of, which had magnificent views of a canyon running down to the sea.)
I haven't gone on a hike with my folks since February or March. We got out of the habit when the most stringent shelter-in-place required us not to see anyone. (Are we heading back to that with 200-300 cases a day on Oahu? It depends on whether the upcoming rules just slam Oahu or all of us, but there's going to be a revolt if it's the latter.)
I do really enjoy the peace and tranquility of going out walking on my own, but it was also great to have my folks with me, so we'll have to do that too occasionally, now that we've remembered. (And we're still hoping to do that Hanalei trip sometime, it just needs to be in the summer, when the North Shore is calmer.)
This is something that's been on my TODO list since before the pandemic, but I've been avoiding going up there because of my knee, but it seemed like we could do a gentle walk.
So we headed over to Waimea, then took Highway 550 all the way back to Kōkeʻe. It's a bit of a trek, and since the speed limit along that whole highway is 25, it takes a while. But you get wonderful views of Waimea Canyon as you get up there, and occasionally the island and ocean too.
We stopped at Lookout #1, since we were up there, and it as usual offered gorgeous views of the canyon. But, it was really eerily empty. By which I mean totally empty. There was one truck in the parking lot when we got there, but the observation platform was totally empty. We'll never see that again (unless we return before the 14-day quarantine ends).
We parked at the lodge and museum at Kōkeʻe, which I've been to once before. We have a magnet somewhere from there (but it's not on the fridge, because it's a stainless steel fridge where nothing sticks to the front). I was really struck by how attractive that area is. There's a broad glen, and lots of picnic tables, and lots of shade. It sort of reminded me of the parks I loved in the East Bay, so I'll have to return there for pleasant Saturdays of my own. But only occasionally, it's 53 minutes out there from our house, most of that on 550, so it's not a quick, easy trip (but I'd sometimes BART down to Fremont or something in the East Bay, so that length isn't undoable either).
I needed to pick a pretty simple hike, since my dad has limits on how far he can walk because of his back. So I grabbed the first one in the book that was only 4 miles (and which said it was easy). It turned out to be quite challenging in its own way.
We were supposed to head back down the highway to a side road called Faye, but the real trick there was that the road had no name sign on it. (And there's no cell signal up there and I didn't have the proper Google Map downloaded.) We were only relatively confident that it was the right road based on looking at the angle of the road and measuring the distance we'd walked on my Fitbit. It was a quiet back-country road with the occasional house, some real run down, some very fancy (and thus likely vacation homes).
It was equally challenging finding the Trail, uninspiringly called "No Name Trail". The main problem was that our guide book totally mis-described its origin point. We in fact ended up back at someone's house, and she yelled instructions at us above her insanely barking dog, and then we walked back and found it. Walking back was the theme for the day. The trail then went a half mile or so through foliage, down to a crick, and back. It was pleasant.
We eventually decamped on another country road, running along houses with huge acreage, mostly nicer looking than the ones on the other side of the trail. From here we were supposed to walk to yet another trail, which would take us back through the park and back to the car.
Two problems.
First, the next trail was totally overgrown. I was pretty shocked, because this was an official State Park trail, unlike the No Name Trail, which was, I dunno what. We gamely waded up the trail for a while, through the foliage. My dad said, "You're probably glad there aren't rattlesnakes here", and I said, "I wouldn't walk a trail like this where they were." Which may be true, but I've walked trails with decent ground cover on them in the Bay Area, and I kept my eyes carefully on where my foot went every step. We struggled up the fairly steep trail for a while, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't getting better any time soon.
Second, my dad's back was starting to hurt. He also noted on the map that we'd done about a third of the planned circuit, so we all decided it was better to go back then do the remaining two thirds. A wise choice, I think.
So we made it back to the car in good time, and from there it was down, down, down to civilization. (Except we made a brief detour down a sideroad that my dad knew of, which had magnificent views of a canyon running down to the sea.)
I haven't gone on a hike with my folks since February or March. We got out of the habit when the most stringent shelter-in-place required us not to see anyone. (Are we heading back to that with 200-300 cases a day on Oahu? It depends on whether the upcoming rules just slam Oahu or all of us, but there's going to be a revolt if it's the latter.)
I do really enjoy the peace and tranquility of going out walking on my own, but it was also great to have my folks with me, so we'll have to do that too occasionally, now that we've remembered. (And we're still hoping to do that Hanalei trip sometime, it just needs to be in the summer, when the North Shore is calmer.)