Hawaii, United States


Hiking in Oahu: Wa’ahila Ridge Trail

Hawaii United States

My best friend and I arrived in Hawaii early February without any expectations. We had no idea what we were getting into. We quit our jobs, bought a plane ticket for 97 days in Hawaii and had the best time of our lives.

One word. UNBELIEVABLE. This is how I will always remember Hawaii. We decided to say “yes” to everything. We found out that Hawaii was heaven on earth for hiking. Hikes for days! Seriously, we could’ve done one hike a day and still find more. First hike we did was obviously Diamond Head. It wasn’t bad and there was a nice view up there. It left us wanting a more hardcore hike though.

We found the Wa’ahila Ridge Trail. Located near Honolulu, it’s a 5.2 mile round trip (mostly maintained trail). We heard it was supposed to be a five-hour hike. Five minutes later into the hike, we were already exhausted. The hike was kind of steep; there were even some ropes for us to grab. For some parts of the hike, we had to climb rocks and do big steps but I’m 5.2 so it was hard for me. It was also pretty muddy. We brought only a small bottle of water each. Then, an hour later into the hike, we were already half way through our water bottles! We decided to continue anyways and reach the top of the mountain.

My best friend Pamela Perrault is my favourite, most clumsy person on earth. Half way through the hike, she decided to take some cute selfies of us with those super nice selfie sticks! She put her phone on it and I don’t exactly remember why, but she had to remove the phone for a reason. So you know how there’s an elastic part on those thing to keep the phone on?Well… when she tried to take her phone out of the elastic, she kind of tossed her phone into the wild! You should’ve seen her face!

Off she was, going off of the trail and near a steep cliff. She needed to get her phone back. I was still laughing until I heard a branch crack and Pamela screaming of fear! I stopped laughing and started screaming to her! She finally burst out laughing and said she found her phone. She came back up to the trail with scratches all over her body but she had her phone back!

We never made it to the top but we could see the summit. The view from where we were was enough for us. We didn’t have much water so we rushed down to the start of the hike. We went to ask people if we could find some water somewhere. They could tell we were exhausted and offered us water. They were so kind! We talked a little with them and then we head back to the bus station to find out that our bus would arrive in an hour. We laid in the grass and a man came over to us, seeing how tired we were. He invited us into his house to give us some more water and also he cleaned Pamela injuries! A special thanks to these people!

Lesson learned. Pamela and I never went hiking without water again and we are now always careful with the selfie stick. Despite everything that happened that, we still had an amazing time!

Contributed by Kimberley Pinheiro