Hiking Judd Trail
Trip Start
Aug 16, 2007
1
57
61
Trip End
Apr 07, 2008
Honolulu,
Hawaii,
United States
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Trail is a bit confusing because it intersects with several other trails along the way. Once across the stream, the Judd Trail forms a loop, so hikers may proceed in either direction. The Judd Trail traverses through primarily bamboo, ironwood and eucalyptus forest. This trail connects with Nu`uanu Trail about midway along the loop which in turn connects with the Paua Flats Trail. The complete trail system is 3 miles long.
So we started out on the Judd Trail, crossed the stream and took a left up the path. The first hour of the trail was all switchbacks as we climbed higher and higher. The trail was mostly through the forest which provided nice shade, but the trail itself was very narrow, with steep drops, and made slippery by the muddy leaves and moss covered rocks. On the way up Brett got stung by a bee on his finger, which had Michelle very paranoid because of her allergy.
We continued down the trail and connected with the Paua Flats Trail taking it all the way to the 'summit'. We were a bit disappointed to find that the initial summit only overlooked the Paua Valley. We learned from other travelers that the real summit, which offers panoramic views of Honolulu and the Waianae Range, was another 30 minutes up an even narrower mountain trail! Since we had already been hiking for over 2 hours and still had another 2 hours to go to get back we decided to skip seeing the panoramic views and just make our way back down the trail.
We made our way back through the winding trail making sure to connect up with the right paths to get back to where we started. We were keeping an eye out for the area where Brett got stung to make sure we passed through it quickly to avoid it happening again. We thought we had passed the area when right in front of us another hiker passed us saying he had just been stung by a bee. At this point everyone got a bit uneasy and started to walk ahead slowly to figure out where exactly it happened so we could avoid it. As we looked ahead we saw that somehow the bee's nest had been knocked down and there were about 50 angry bees swarming our only path down. As they started to come up towards us we had no choice but to run through them as fast as we possibly could, slipping and sliding across the loose rocks down the narrow winding path! We ran full force for at least 5 minutes, all the while hearing the bees buzzing in our ears, trapped in our hair, and brushing up against our skin! We finally got far enough away from them, and got all of them away from us, enough to stop and take a breath of air. Thankfully no one got stung, but it was definitely a very terrifying experience! As we continued down the path we warned other hikers about the bees and suggested they turn around.
We finally reached the original fork in the trail and decided to go the opposite way back to the car so we could finish the loop. About 20 minutes down the trail we came to this great swimming hole called Jackass Ginger. There were several families enjoying a swim and the rope swing. We watched for a few minutes taking a moment to sit down before continuing down the trail, passed the streams and waterfalls, up to the trail head. We now know that if we ever decide to do this hike again we will skip all the hiking and go straight to the swimming hole!
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at Ala Moana Beach Park having a BBQ. We grilled up some hamburgers & hot dogs accompanied with chili, rice and macaroni salad from Zippy's - talk about a happy crowd! We went swimming and just relaxed on the beach for a while. It was the perfect ending to a exhausting day!
