New areas/off the beaten path you discovered

[Mitzi M]

Just a word of caution about the Red Road and Old Govt. Rd. I have several friends who've had their cars broken into, vandalized and even stolen while parked in various places along these roads. A couple of them only left their cars for short periods of time. I heard an even worse story form a woman I recently met who ran off the pavement a week or so ago on the Red Road late at night. She came back to get her car the next morning to find that it had been burned. This kind of thing seems to happen pretty frequently to unattended vehicles along these roads. It's just a good idea to keep a close eye on your vehicle if you're going to park there.

Aloha,
Mitzi

[Hanalei]

We hiked the Old Puna trail in 2000 from Kaloli in HPP. I don't remember seeing any ruins. We did not have a good map. For a while, we thought we were lost. We then listened for the sound of the waves and walked towards that direction to the lava cliffs and turned left (north) along the shoreline to the Shipman estate. We stayed on the peppered color beach for a while. The area is very beautiful. We plan to hike the trail again next year.

[Carey]

There are rock walls along the trail...The recreation director at Shipman Gym had stated that most of the rock walls are post contact historic (some were from the cane planation days, when there was a workers settlement). This area has a few random lots within the Shipman Property, that I have heard tell, were deeded to workers. There are no housing structures, and no access to the lots except through the Shipman property, but it is neat to look at a TMK map before hiking the trail.
Ha'ena is the rockysandy small beach at the trail forks before the yellow post.
A couple of times we have met a pig....I have heard stories of cattle on the trail too, but have no idea if any are there..
Oh, also at the Shipman beach, there is a sign warning of undertow, this is a constant on the west point of the old landing (so DO NOT go out the deep water channel....this is a dangerous area of a very calm fairly shallow sandy beach)



Edited by - carey on 09/15/2007 17:28:05

[Kelena]

Perhaps we could get some helicopter overflights of the Red Road, the parking lot at Kehena and anywhere that a person might leave their car for more than a couple of hours. Larceny is illegal, doncha know.

[Jeffhale]

quote:

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Jeff, the Bear and I made that drive from the HPP side not too long ago, and that tough spot you mentioned is formidable, but passable from HPP direction in our Mazda 2WD pickup.

Cheers,
Jerry

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Humm,, I did think it might have been better if I'd tried it from the other side Jerry. And maybe I could risk giving it a run for the money. But two things came to mind, 1. What’s ahead even if I did make it and 2. If I get stuck I can kiss my truck good-by.
However, thanks for the tip, now at least i know beyond that point it is not so bad or, that's the worst spot on that road.

Mitzi’s right too, Old beach road is not a place you want to be caught too far from your vehicle or have to leave it for any significant amount of time. There’s kids and 30-40 year-olds, who frequent it at night. The Kids seem to be burning several trees during their play-fair drinking, pot smoking, and probable ice sniffing hang-out hours where there’s plenty beer cans and trash lying about, south of Hawaiian Shores Rec.

One night, while admiring the stars and waves about a mile down. My wife and I were pretty certain we were being stocked by a fellow in a crappy small truck, Mazda or Ford, as he kept driving back and forth, and back and forth each time his return was less time than the prior, slowly passing and staring at us.. Finally we got unnerved and skipped out of there, and felt it might have been ‘just in the nick of time’. Especially, as we got near the Blvd., there he was turning around heading back..

There’s hardly enough Police in this half of Puna to keep up with the creeps out at night in specific areas.

[Carey]

The Red Rd/Puna trail discourse reminded me of one of the times Jim 'n' I went biking the Puna trail between HPP & HA, we were about to turn around because many of the big depressions were filled with water up to who knew where, and along comes a Caravan (of course 2 wheeled) loaded with people, looked very new... & here we were ready to wooose out on our mountain bikes! (It could only be a rental, who whould do that to an almost new van otherwise...)

[emorata]

One of my favorite new adventures is to kayak to the entrance of the wailuku river and up to the falls or close to it and walk up the rocks closer to the falls....its a thrill getting into the opening and past the bridges back into the open ocean....there's actually a hilo tour group that does this tour up to the falls and they launch at the main canoe beach where all the canoe boats launch....definitely a one of a kind experience. (unfortunately I don't know the tour kayak operator)

[Carey]

Kayaking anywhere Hilo bay, into the Wailoa (soo cool to go under the 'caterpillars'), anywhere is fun! It is even fun to kayak out to Coconut Island (Royal & Cathie & Jim & I had a special adventure there).... & you can always rent or borrow kayaks from friends....(Hint, Hint Noel)
Oh, for sailors, the are a couple of clubs in Hilo that have sail boats available for members, and the annual family membership fees are really low (I forget the exacts, but seem to remember well below $100/yr)