Sunday, February 6, 2011

Kamehame Ridge

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Another Saturday, another trail, hiking in the pre-dawn darkness.

Sommer and I invited our friends, the Duvernay's, for a "hike" up the road to the old Nike missile site on Kamehame Ridge to see the sunrise.  We pushed off from the gate at the end of Kamehame Drive at 6 am in the pitch black morning.

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The road up Kamehame Ridge offers no protection from the beating of the sun, but at 6 in the morning, the only light came from the stars and our flashlights.  Under the cover of darkness we quickly made it past the Winner's Camp facility and the various communication towers along the road.

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Winner's Camp

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We made our way around the abandoned guard shack and fence near the end.

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Just 30 minutes after setting off from our car, we reached the top!  Our goal was to see the sunrise, and we beat the sun by about half an hour.  We made our way to an outcropping on the ridge and setup to watch the start of the day.

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We sat on a platform that dropped off the cliff, straight down to Waimanalo a thousand feet below.

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We were surrounded by the ridge one side, with its arrays of platform towers and antennae...

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...and the ocean on the other side, with beautiful views of Waimanalo and Kailua.

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Within a few minutes the sun finally peaked above the clouds.

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From atop Kamehame we enjoyed beautiful views of Manana Island (Rabbit Island) and Robin's Nest of Magnum P.I. fame.

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We got a few pictures in before heading back down off the ridge.

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Even got some little bugs in on the action.

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On the way down we checked out some of the abandoned (and not so abandoned) buildings and towers along the road.

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We stopped at the launching pad for hang gliders who soar above the Waimanalo coast.

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Sommer looking over the 1000 foot drop.

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A few hours after starting we made our way back down to our car and off to get some sushi for lunch!

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More pics here.

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