January 28: A Great Hike

See those people at the foot of this long concrete incline?  They are beginning the two mile climb up the Wailhe’e Ridge Trail near Wailuku, Maui. Ben and I did this beautiful and well maintained hike yesterday and although it was tough and long with a 14,400 foot elevation gain, we really enjoyed it.

After you get up that incline the hike passes through a lovely forest of thick trees in the West Forest Reserve.

 Then you come out onto the ridge itself where the hiking is described as “ dramatic and always scenic.”

There are stretches of rocky uphill, sets of stairs to huff and puff up, and several switchbacks.

And when you think that surely the summit must be right around the corner, you realize there is still more to go!

The views from the top are amazing but it started to rain as soon as we hit the end of the trail.  It can quickly become slick in the rain so we turned right around and beat a hasty retreat down a quarter mile or so to outrun the shower.  

 Here’s a panorama from a bit below the summit to give you an idea of how you could see the ocean. 

And here’s me enjoying being in better shape than when I did this hike back in July 2018. We think we were about the oldest people we saw on the trail and were a bit happy with ourselves!