Life of Larisa or LOL

Month four of my Dirty Dozen Challenge and I ended up doing another hike.  For the month of April I summoned three of my funniest hiking partners for a sunrise to sunset day of hiking.  I decided it might be fun to hike several consecutive Pillbox trails.  Popping Pillboxes!  We popped from one Pillbox Trail to another all day and ultimately ended up hiking five different Pillbox Trails.   The day started bright and early with a sunrise Pillbox hike.  I was up and out of the house a little after four in the morning, picked up two of the three other hikers and we were on our way to the windward side to "Pop" our first Pillbox---Lanikai .  The parking gods granted us a great parking spot and we waited at the trailhead for the fourth member of our group to arrive.   I hadn't really been hiking too much since my last Dirty Dozen Challenge at the end of February so I immediately felt the burn in my calves and breathless as we quickly ascende...

My second long hike in my "Dirty Dozen" challenge was completed at the end of February.  I realize it is now April.  I'm a little late on blogging about it.  I theorize my procrastination in blogging had everything to do with---I don't want to think about this trail ever again.  The hiking company, wonderful.  My backpack, perfect.  Water supply, more than enough.  The trail...ugh.  That's as good as my description is going to get.  My face in the photo above sums things up for all you visual learners out there.     I have hiked a portion of Maunawili Demo Trail at the base of the Ko'olau Mountains on several occasions.  I have hiked in from the Waimanalo trailhead a couple of miles.  I have hiked in from the Kailua (off of the Pali Highway) trailhead a couple of miles.  I was familiar with the beginning and the ending miles of the Maunawili Demonstration Trail.  However, I was quite unfamiliar with...the mi...