I joined the OHA ( Oahu Hikers & Adventurers ) group to drive and hike up Poamoho Trail today. You will need a permit (free – click on this link) and 4 wheel drive to make it up the trail. We met at the parking lot right before the entrance to Helemano Military Reservation at 8:00AM or something close to that. I picked out a familiar rainbow colored hair in the form of Laredo who arrived fashionably late. Everybody else was a first time greeting.

The long road up

Udom, who was the hike leader, gave a short briefing on what to expect in terms of hike conditions and duration and then took our group photo. The group then split into three 4×4 vehicles and made our way to the first of three gates along the six mile jeep road. Udom who had the combinations that came with the permit was nice enough to hop out and open and close each gate. Along the way, we saw numerous cattle grazing and the views of the valley opened up as we gained elevation.

Trailhead

Group photo at the trailhead. Left to right: myself, Laredo, John, Rebecca, John, Amelia, Jim, Rene, Cindy, Vivian, Fanny, Elmer, Terrence, Cody and Udom (sitting).

Easy trail

We pushed off and started making our way along the relatively wide open trail carved out of the side of the mountain. I understand this trail receives periodic maintenance from DLNR. Thanks guys!

Hole in the clouds

 Checking out the nice cloud formations in the sky.

Poamoho stream

Looking down into the valley, we spotted Poamoho stream.

Mango break

Udom was nice enough to share her ono mangos with us as we took a short break and another group photo. Top row left to right: Cindy, John, Rene, John and Cody. Middle row left to right: Fanny, Vivian, Rebecca, Amelia, Elmer and Terrence. Bottom row left to right: Udom, Jim and myself. What happened to Laredo? He had broken off from the group and speed hiked his way to the summit. That guy is in super shape.

It gets harder?

After this point, the trail became narrower, steeper and muddy. Real hiking!

Stream junction

We soon crossed the stream junction, turned left and resumed our way to the summit.

Waianae Mountain Range

Crossing the meadow and looking back towards the flat topped mountain of Ka’ala.

Cline memorial

This rock memorial was built in 1978 to honor Geraldine Cline, an avid hiker. It marks the junction where the Poamoho summit meets the KST.

Panoramic view of Punalu’u Valley and Kahana Valley

Click here for the larger image. The windswept vista views at Poamoho summit are hard to beat. You have to see them in person to truly appreciate the views!

Check out the view!

Pu’u Manamana, True Manamana, Kualoa Mountains and Pu’u Ohulehule behind me. The views were just fantastic. One could sit here for hours soaking them up.

Poamoho cabin

After the rest of the group caught up to us at the summit, we turned right along the muddy trail to Poamoho cabin. We signed the guestbook, some used the outhouse and we all climbed up the small hill to have our lunch.

Celebrity hikers!

Soon we saw some other hikers returning from their snail hunting expedition. They turned out to be left to right: Tom, J, Nate and Agnes. Back in 2012, Agnes fell 300′ off the Pali Notches trail and lived to hike another trail! Rene from our group had to have her picture taken with them. Their fame in the hiking community had preceded them! Photo by Udom.

You got 12 seconds!

We took a last group photo from the top of the hill looking down towards the cabin. The camera was set on 12 second timer and Jim volunteered to press the shutter and run down the slippery and muddy slope to ham it up for the picture. Sporadic rain signaled it was time to start heading back.

Marsh

As we made our way back towards the summit junction, we saw some interesting scenic spots such as this marsh…

Kahuku windmills

…and the windmill farm over at Kahuku. Arriving back at the summit junction, the cloud deck had lowered and blotted out the tasty views we had enjoyed earlier.

Bench with a view

Where was Laredo again? It turned out that he had some kind of baby shower to attend, so he ran down the six mile jeep road. What a hiking beast! The rest of our group made our way back down the trail, to the cars and rode down the six mile jeep road.

GPS Tracks

The entire trail was 19.57 miles, but subtract the 12 miles of the jeep road, and we actually only hiked 7.57 miles round trip. But if you have the chance, hike this trail to some of the most amazing views on this island! You will not be disappointed.