Aikahi Pillboxes - September 16, 2017 

After our failed Manana attempt in the morning, we took a short break to regroup and went for a hike that none of us have ever done before. It was somewhat exciting and I got everyone to participate in the exploration. 

I got some trailhead directions from online and wrote it on a post it. This is what I did back 5 years ago when I did some hiking exploration. I would write down a few words that included: directions, landmarks, street names, etc. With limited information, I would go explore and figure out the rest. It gave me great pride to put the puzzle together. 

The 5 of us (Proo, E, The Judge, Shell, and I) packed the Yaris and I drove us to Aikahi. The initial plan was to park at the Shopping Center, but I wanted to scout the area first, like any true hiking exploration. You need to set up points on where you enter and exit. The two points of entry were Ihihau Street and Aikahi Gardens. I read that the Aikahi Gardens trailhead would take us to the pillbox in 20 minutes, so we decided to try to find the service road from the Gardens.

E, Shell, and Proo suggested at the same time that we should park at the townhouses and head towards the service road. That was our plan. I was hesitant because I lived in townhouses and I didn't like when guests would park in the visitors spot if they weren't going to visit someone. 

Over the years, you could tell who was there for legitimate reasons. 

We ended up parking in the visitors spot and headed over to the trail. From the trail it took about 1 minute to the service road. BINGO!!! The service road paralleled the H3 for about 5 minutes. I was a little preoccupied, but it was apparent that no one was in the area. 

The service road was steep, very steep and it was hot. Sweat appeared on my head, but I was near the top already. Proo noticed that it was a cell tower. We had amazing reception, lol. 

At the end of the service road, we found a trail that led us to the top of the ridge. The pillbox was to the left with dominating views of Mokapu, Heeia and some views of Kailua. 

We took a lot of pictures and stayed in the hot sun for almost 1 hour. We took a load of pictures.