I’ve been fortunate that most of my ultrarunning destination trips, often planned months in advance, have had ideal weather and smooth travels. Because of work schedules, as well as having to lock in travel and accommodations, there is always a risk an ultrarunning destination weekend won’t work out as planned. This is a story about when things didn’t go as planned, but I still had an amazing day in nature, traveling, and meeting new people.

On a recent trip to the island of Lanai, I spent one day on a nearby island, Molokai. I found flights between the islands, but while I could get a direct return flight from Molokai, the flight to Molokai connected through Maui. This connection meant I’d be getting a relatively late start on Molokai, but I thought there would still be enough to squeeze in an ultrarun and make it back to my flight at 6pm.

As I’ve discussed in my other posts about runs in the Hawaiian islands, a lot of the islands are private and covered in No Trespassing signs. The private land makes finding runs more difficult than in most places I’ve traveled. For many of the runs I researched on Molokai, it turned out that they were on private property or the access to them was only from private property. Sadly, what looks like the coolest place on the island to run, a path up the towering sea cliffs, the tallest in the world, can only be done as part of a tour. At this time, in 2022, the tour was closed to protect the village from COVID. You can go to the Kalaupapa Lookout to see the cliffs and the village at their base, but because of the clouds, I could just barely make out the village. The only way to hike the Kalaupapa Trail is on a tour. Some tours are even on donkeys. It’s too bad this hike can only be done on tours as it’d be an amazing hike to the peak of the cliffs, then down.

The lookout is found within Palaau State Park, which includes Phallic Rock. There is a short hike down to the rock, and a few trails you can explore in the area. It was completely deserted when I was there, so it was a good opportunity to have some quiet time.

Despite the challenge of finding a long run on the island, I found one out and back of about 26 miles (44k) that is within the Molokai Forest Preserve that is also open to the public. From the comments I’d read, the trail is a very challenging 4x4 jeep road, but it’s also open to runners and bikers. The Maunahui-Makakupa'ia Trail Head is very convenient to the airport, just a 10 minute drive, with easy parking at the cemetery just off the highway. However, I only ended up being able to scout out the trail for a few miles since my inbound flight was delayed and there were thick clouds on the summit. The trail is very runnable despite being a very rutted jeep road made up of red clay. Definitely not something you want to attempt when it’s wet. The beginning of the trail is made up of rolling hills through ranch and farmland. My conclusion is this is definitely a run to do, but best to schedule it last minute if you are in Hawaii so you can hit it on a perfect day since it’d make for a really cool 50k into the mountains.

Since the mountain was fogged in, there wasn’t the payoff I would hope for from a long run. Therefore, I decided to go for a run at the Papohaku Beach Park. While I was thinking it’d be a deserted beach experience like I experienced in Lanai, there were about 10 people visiting. I also thought I’d be able to run down to Dixie Maru beach, but the sand was way too deep to run on. Beaches typically have some area of packed sand, but I tried to find some part of the wide beach to run on, but there wasn't any firm sand anywhere. I also tried to go north through some grass, since I saw some paths, but had to turn around when I ran into no trespassing signs. The paths are from an old abandoned hotel resort, but still private property.

The surprising part of this trip was that the high point of the trip had nothing to do with running. Right after I landed, I drove over to the Kualapu'u Cookhouse to have breakfast since I’d read about their amazing food. However, when I got there a sign was up saying they were closed for COVID but were accepting call in orders. I figured I’d call in and then just eat in the car. When the woman answered, she said it’d be another hour till they opened since she was at the dock picking up supplies, so I thanked her and hit the road instead. Later that day, just as I was heading to the airport for my return flight, I got a text that my flight would be delayed by two hours. I was happy for once to have a delayed flight since the extra time meant I could try out the Kualapu’u Cookhouse. I called them and she answered again and said that she was closing, but when I told her my story of being stuck with no food, she said she’d be happy to cook something for me. She recommended I have the Saute Ono, which I ordered, and then I made the 15 minute drive. Once there, I waited in my car until the food was ready. I am so thankful she made that meal for me. It was a great way to wrap up my day in Molokai with amazing hospitality and excellent food. It was very nice that she went out of her way to cook for just me, and left me with a full stomach and with a smile as I returned to the airport.

While my trip to Molokai didn’t turn into the ultrarunning adventure I had planned, it was still an amazing day of hiking, exploring, and eating some great food. The flights between the islands on Mokulele Airlines is also a big part of the experience, so just getting there is an adventure on its own. I’ll return some time to do a complete ultrarun on the Molokai Forest Reserve Road now that I’ve scouted it out since its said the views from the top are amazing.