Royal Summit Bike Trail

It was great for the many years it lasted. Seems to be closed off now with lots of shinny new fencing now. The other entrance by Hapaki St is not fenced but has scarey signage threatening to prosecute «trespassers.» Another one bites the dust!

Great place to ride and right in my backyard.

A little bit of everything. ex cross country, all mountain, light downhill and light freeride. There’s hikers that walk up the bike trails so be careful.

Please disregard the street number, had to put something there to register this report. Though it IS on Ka’ahele Street, also known as Royal Summit in Aiea. It’s the road that starts under the bridge near Dave’s Ice Cream and goes past the Newtown Golf Driving Range, though the expensive housing, all the way to the very very top. Park around the culdesac, walk to the right of the gate and you’re in like sin.
I usually like to hike these type of trails but like last week, we took our mountain bikes up again and planned a charged ride down. The place seems to be designed more for mountain bikers anyway. Probably because it’s not that scenic and has a lot of dirt ramps and bridges built into the trail.
At a point, we got to hang out with some older biker dudes who, despite me saying older (middle aged), rode all the way up from another neighborhood, up Royal Summit and about a mile up the freakin’ bike trail. Ho, sorry, ah! Nah, those guys were ultra-​chill and obviously way more in shape than my friend and I.
They took the side path which connects to another mountain, leading to upper Newtown:

Before they took off, they told us we were just about near a summit. So despite my friend and I already tired at this point, we went on. It’s a nice view (you get an idea in the photo). Though not the same landscape contrast you see on the Ko’olaus, which I’ve come to love. It overlooks the valley of lower Newtown and Kaonohi street (the road that goes up past Pearl Ridge and the old Kam Drive-​in). Here’s where we finally made our trek back down. It took us about 30 minutes to get the top from pedaling, pushing and short breathers.
Again, a lot of cool ramps and bridges on the side trails. My friend even ate near one of the man-​made bridges. It was probably from the sun blaring in his face, like it was mine. Now I know the latter part of the afternoon is not a good time to do a downhill mountain bike ride. BTW, this trail is frequented by many cyclists. So expect traffic on your way up and down.
Here’s more short clips of our day and me not swearing this time:



4 stars
Royal Summit Bike Trail in Aiea