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| To hike or not to hike was the question on Bev's mind on this particular Saturday morning. The night before we were planning to hike Peacock Flats out in Mokuleia, but when the morning came Bev had a change of heart and was pondering some place closer like Palisades or Aiea Loop. When all was said and done she chose to go with the hike that would provide the best possible workout wich ended up being Peacock Flats. We planned the night before to head out at 6:30 am but after a couple cups of coffee and lounging around, we ended up heading out the door closer to 9:30am. This meant that it was gonna be a hot one! This particular hike is a 4 mile paved road all the way to the top versus the typical dirt or muddy trail on most other hikes. |
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| So we made it through the half mile stretch just to get into the hike and now we're starting to hit some incline. By this time the sun is out and warming up the pavement rapidly and this is just the beginning of the hike. We're about 20 minutes into the hike at this point. |
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| This pic shows a good example of the steep incline. |
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| It was so hot that we had to take frequent breaks and find shade to drink water and cool down. The people in the background down at the bottom were hiking up with their camping gear. One of the wahine was struggling at this point and this was maybe only 1/4 of the way in. |
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| What a beautiful view covering the stretch of coast all the way out to the Pupukea / Ke Iki beach area at the furthest point. Just below you can see the beginning part of the hike on the right side of the valley. If you look closely you can see the winding path on the left side of the valley where the it gets real steep real quick switching back 3 times with a lot of distance between each switchback! |
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| Another great shot of the North Shore from the Mokuleia side. |
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| At this point this is about the half way point about 2-2 1/2 miles up. |
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| This is a spectacular view of the Mokuleia side going out towards Kaena Point. |
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| Our destination was the ridge line of trees to the right. Although it looks close, the road start to increase in steepness making it feel further away than it really was. |
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| This is a view of both sides of the valleys that the trail winds its way through. |
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| We stay! |
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| After reaching the campgrounds, Bev and I hiked another 1/2 mile in up a dirt road and found this rock in the middle of the woods where we could stop to have lunch. |
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| Lunch never looked so good and water never tasted better! |
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| Don't forget about a banana to help out with leg cramps! |
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| What do you know! Looks like we reached Camp SXA out in the middle of nowhere! |
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| Wish we had a 4 Wheel drive to navigate through these steep windy trails. Would've been rad to go all the way to the top to see the Makaha / Waianae side of the island. |
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| This was campsite B at Peacock Flats. Hoping to one day get a permit for this spot and set up camp with the rest of the SXA Ohana. In order to get up here by vehichle it takes 2 hours. You can only enter from the Waianae side and from what I heard it's about an hour up and then another hour in to get here. Throw in some weather and muddy trails and it could take 3 hours. Once you get here it's beautiful and well worth it though! |
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| Happy campers here! The SXA truckers came in handy providing shade and keeping us cool (literally)! |
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| Time to head back down. It's way faster going back down. Probably takes about 45 minutes to an hour versus and hour and 45 minutes coming up. It's pretty hard on these old knees though! |
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| Once you make it down successfully, you have choices of beach to which you can cool off and wash away all the fatigue and sweat from your tired and weary body. We really are lucky to live in Hawaii! |
