My wife and I like to have a little adventure in our lives, and on a day in mid-January 2008, we put together a little adventure in our Hawaii home island of Oahu. We used our car, the excellent public bus system on our island, and our best hiking shoes to connect two trails to hike from one valley (Nuuanu) to another (Manoa). In all, we needed four hours for our adventure and all it cost us was $4 for bus fare and whatever it took in gas to drive from our Kaneohe home to stage our car in Manoa Valley.

We parked our car near the end of Manoa Road right past the last bus stop adjacent to Kumuone Street. We arrived there at about 9:50. Having looked at the bus schedule on the web, we knew that a bus was due to arrive at 10:08. The bus did indeed arrive, albeit a couple of minutes early. Half a dozen folks got off the bus there, and by the looks of the daypacks slung over their shoulders and the hiking shoes on their feet, they were probably bound for the Manoa Falls trail or other trails in the back of Manoa Valley.

In about half an hour, we hopped off the bus at the corner of Kapiolani Blvd and Keeaumoku Street. We crossed Kapiolani and headed to a bus stop on Kona Street which fronts the mauka (mountain-facing) side of the Ala Moana Shopping Center.

We then jumped on the first bus heading to windward Oahu (the bus stop signs along Kona Street clearly marked the location to board) because we knew that any of these buses would head up Pali Highway in Nuuanu Valley where we were to start our hike. We didn’t have to wait any time at all to make the transfer.

At a couple of minutes past 11 a.m., we hopped off the Kailua-Kaneohe bus at the last bus stop on Pali Highway just past Nuuanu Pali Drive. We then walked up Nuuanu Pali Drive to the trailhead of the Nuuanu Trail. This probably took about 15-20 minutes from the bus stop on Pali Highway.

The trailhead is on the right side of the road just past Poli Hiwa Place. There were two port-a-potties at the trailhead but these are now gone because a guy from the porta-potty company was there to haul them away just as we arrived. He did give my wife and me the honor of being the last ones to use the potty there. We thanked him for that.

So about 90 minutes after leaving our car in Manoa, we finally were on the trail for the second part of our adventure, the bus ride having been the first.

The Nuuanu Trail actually is the Judd Trail at the beginning. From Nuuanu Pali Drive, we had to descend to Nuuanu Stream. A sign across the stream marks the place where we needed to cross. As we crossed, a young couple with their young baby arrived to make the same crossing. I mentioned to my wife that hiking with a baby, particularly on a trail that involved a stream crossing, wasn’t a wise idea. My wife agreed and we hoped the couple and the baby would have a safe, uneventful hike.

Right after crossing the stream, we took the upper Judd trail. The lower section of the Judd trail parallels the stream and forms a loop with the upper trail. The Judd trail is well-hiked and easy to follow, and in ten minutes or so we arrived at the signed junction that marked the start of the Nuuanu Trail with its numerous switchbacks. At the junction were a father and his three sons. He stopped to ask us if we knew the trails, and we said we did, and we explained how the Judd Trail was a short one-mile loop and the Nuuanu Trail involved climbing and a ridgetop view. “That’s what we want,” said the dad about the latter, and they stepped aside to let my wife and I pass then they headed up the trail after us.

As I mentioned, the Nuuanu Trail has a number of switchbacks, which lead to the goal of the crest of a mountain ridge which separates Nuuanu from Manoa Valleys. The trail is in excellent shape with no obstructions and good footing almost all the way to the ridgetop. On the Nuuanu side, there is only one place with a significant view, and I stopped to take a picture of Pu’u Lanihuli, the massive peak that sits atop the ridge (Alewa-Kapalama) across Nuuanu Valley.

Once the trail crosses over to the Manoa-Pauoa Valley side of the ridge, there are much better views: of Tantalus, of downtown Honolulu, and of upper-Pauoa Valley. There is also a rest bench along the trail, but a trio of young men were resting there when my wife and I passed, so we just mushed on, with “mush” being the operative word, for the trail on the Manoa/Pauoa side was considerably muddy.

Ditto for the section of the trail that crosses Pauoa Flats, an area marked by huge pine trees and a thick bamboo forest.

We descended the Aihualama Trail on its plethora of switchbacks (also very muddy). On the way down, we passed about ten hikers heading up the trail toward Pauoa Flats.

At just past 2 p.m., almost exactly four hours after we boarded a bus on Manoa Road, my wife and I arrived back at our car by the last bus stop. We had a great adventure and look forward to many more.

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