Aiea Loop Trail

Hello everyone, it's the weekend!

Aiea Loop trailhead sign.

Aiea (eye-ay-uh) Loop trail is one of my personal favorites here on the islands. It's a 4.8-mile loop hike set at the very end of Aiea Heights Drive. True to what the drive suggests, the trailhead is buried high and deep in the Aiea valley. I'm always amazed to climb and climb through residential roads and suddenly burst into jungle straight out of Jurassic Park. It's wonderful to escape the bustle on this trail, even if you hear the roar of vehicles along the H3 for the second half of the hike.

I've hiked this trail several times though I usually only go so far as the H3 overlook before heading back the way I came. The H3 as you can see in the bottom right corner of the picture below is one of three major highways in Oahu. The H3 connects the south to the east and is my family's thoroughfare to get to Kaneohe, Kailua, or Bellows (which was mentioned in a previous post.) Otherwise I have to contend with the mud of the 'lower' section and then push my already muscle-torn legs up the steep road back to the car.

I started recording my return trip from the H3 overlook, so really I hiked 3.16 miles.

There is plenty of skirting mud pits, picking over roots, ducking fallen trees, jumping fallen trees, and hills to fill in the first 'half' of the hike--so my roughly 3-mile stint is satisfying. It also doesn't take an eagle eye to see feral pig signs all along the trail--any spot with churned up mud details a pretty picture of pigs rooting around for, well, roots. And in the right season, the trees will either be in bloom or fruiting. It's not quite as fun catching the after-fruiting season because flora like this strawberry guava drop, rot, attract insects and generally stink.

This trail gets very muddy too. I remember thinking I would hike Aiea a couple days after a storm and it would be fine. Wrong. The trail started out dry enough but the farther you push into the jungle, the larger the mud puddles become. Being stubborn, I threaded my way to the H3 overlook and returned topside with brown shoes, brown legs to the knee, and funny looks.

These puddles will stick around for days and lift your shoes if you're not careful.

But when the trail is dry, it's great! There are some sections that are very narrow and you're rarely far from a drop off. You might have one hand on the wall as you lean away from sheer plunge. Every time I hike this trail there's some new surprise. A new fallen tree blocking the path or having torn out an entire section of trail. I'm not sure who comes in and hacks notches into the more stubborn trees, but it makes the going a bit easier--especially when the other options are belly-crawl under or risk a tumble over. 

Hand and foot notches in one fallen tree along the first half of the trail. 

I do have a couple favorite spots along the trail as well. The sudden wide expanses of eucalyptus trees are a heartsore for me. The dapple of light and whiff of faint but sharp citrus is what really makes me love this hike. There are no falls here. There is a creek hikers cross at what I lovingly refer to as the humid 'lower' section of the trail; literally a hop or skip or jump to ford before you wend your way back up out of the valley.

My favorite spot--a paperbark grove roughly one mile in from the upper parking lot.

I notice most folks seem to pass me in the opposite direction, which means they start the trail in the lower parking lot and enter the nondescript tunnel of floral to begin their trail. I enjoy starting in the upper lot which I believe is the actual trailhead because all the signs and warnings are listed there. Granted, you do have to make that horrible long haul up at the very end when you're already exhausted.

For any interested in hiking Aiea Loop: Bring plenty of water, sunscreen, bug spray (although I usually don't have any bug troubles), an umbrella, and ignore the smaller 'branch' trails. Those are pig trails. There are also a couple other trails that branch off from the Loop but the Loop trail is often the wider course, so stick to that and you shouldn't have any troubles.

Enjoy and happy Saturday!

The H3 overlook as seen from the crest of Aiea Loop.