Every time I travel over the Pali Highway and get a clear view of the Pali Notches and Konahuanui, I sometimes develop an urge to hike that trail again. I scratched that itch today along with Glenn, Chance and David. But this time, we were going up the Pali Notches and down Piliwale Ridge. We had originally planned to do it this past Sunday, but the tsunami warning canceled those plans.

Wake up cardio

We pushed off a little bit before 7:00am and right off the bat, the going up was a steep and somewhat muddy climb interrupted by a thicket of hau trees.

First clearing

A brisk ten minutes later, we were already at the first clearing, strangely devoid of the powerful gusts that the Pali is famous for. However, vog conditions from the Big Island produced a hazy filter on our scenic viewing.

Coming down the second notch

We made our way to the first notch, where we found that somebody had installed rope, which was not really necessary. Coming down the second notch was also aided by rope, which did come in handy. Photo by David Theriot.

Going up the Nipple

As we made our way up the rock formation known as the “Nipple”, we had already decided to climb up the Chimney with our backpacks on and using our regular hiking shoes. Our last hike up the Chimney, we tried it without backpacks and wearing rock climbing shoes, as that was the going advice on the best way to get up the Chimney. But we found that it wasn’t necessary, as far as our hiking group went. Photo by Chance Viloria.

Climbing up the Chimney

Going up the Chimney was relatively easy going, as ropes anchored by several pitons, provided necessary assistance when needed. However, the bottom piton was noticeably looser from our last visit, I’m afraid it will eventually come loose from it’s anchored point. Photo by David Theriot.

Climbing down the Nipple to the Chimney

Chance, Glenn and David climbing down the Nipple to go up the Chimney. It’s always good to have eyes on each other, especially when climbing rockfaces and tricky parts.

Top of the Chimney

We all made it to the top of the Chimney at 8:00am.

Tricky section

The only real difficult or tricky section that we came across, was a section of rockface that we had to contour around on the Leeward side. The handholds were minimal and our feet had precious little purchase on the narrow ledge. I believe this is the spot where a fellow hiker fell over 300 feet back in September. Thankfully, she survived and I heard is doing quite well.

Looking back

Looking back towards Lanihuli and the Koolau Mountains. It was a gorgeous day to hike the Koolau’s, spectacular views to soak in all day.

Coming up the ridge

Picking our way through the heavily vegetated trail was a somewhat welcome change from the rockfaces that we had just passed.

Wall of Mud

The only difficult part going up the approximately 25′ wall of mud is the initial part. Once you pull yourself up with the installed rope and the low hanging tree, it’s just a little more scrambling using tree roots and vegetation to get past the muddier part and to less muddy parts. 

Panoramic view from the summit of Konahuanui or K1

Click here for the larger image. Photo by David Theriot.

Piliwale ridge

We had our lunch at the junction that goes down Piliwale Ridge. Best lunch spot on the island! The junction is a clump of trees and are marked with two ribbons, or what’s left of them. After eating our lunch, we headed down Piliwale around 11:30am. We also ran into three hikers that were coming up the ridge and going down to Lulumahu falls.

It’s all downhill

The initial part of the ridge was heavily vegetated, which helped us going down. Photo by David Theriot.

Rope and Rocks

There are several steep and crumbly sections going down the ridge, but they are for the most part, roped for assistance.

Looking back on how we came down

Eventually the ridge ran into Maunawili Demonstration Trail, where we then took a left to head back to the Pali Lookout.

Ice cold water, mountain apples and lilikoi’s

Walking along the trail, we were treated to ripe mountain apples and lilikoi’s courtesy of Chance and David who knocked and plucked them from where there were hanging. Leptospirosis was not even on Chance’s dehydrated mind when he refilled his empty water bottle with ice cold water flowing from a water catchment tank.

Piliwale Ridge

Nice view of the ridge we had just come down.

Nuuanu Pali Lookout

We got back to the lookout around 3:30pm, where we had cold Gatorade’s waiting for us, thanks to Chance’s girl. The entire hike was a little shy of four miles and it was an awesome hike with an awesome crew. Photo by Kaimana Augustiro.

What was supposed to have been a crisp hike from Pali Notches to Manoa Middle turned into an abbreviated hike due to lack of time. We decided to just do the Pali Notches and check out the Old Pali Highway.

True Pali Lookout

After scrambling up the steep slope through the forest and hau trees, we quickly gained elevation and saw a great view of the Windward side and the Koolau mountains.

First Notch

We made short work of the first notch as it’s relatively easy to climb down and out going to the second notch.

Second Notch

We got to the second notch and discovered that the rope we had used the last time was now gone. My friend went down first basically going from left to right. I decided it would be easier and safer climbing down without my backpack, so I threw it down to him and missed and it hit the ground and bounced off the mountain, where it joined my friend’s cap that he lost the last time we did this hike. Oh well, better the backpack than me.

The Chimney

I climbed up the bump in the ridge right before the Chimney to get a better perspective of what we had to climb the next time we tackled this hike. The wind was howling and the tops of the mountain was covered in clouds, giving a surreal appearance to the whole thing. Not wanting to press our luck and running out of time, we turned around and climbed back down towards the Pali Lookout.

Old Pali Highway

From the Pali Lookout, we turned right to head down the Old Pali Highway. We followed the heavily overgrown road that hugged the sides of the mountain all the way down to the current Pali Highway and turned around. As we were walking back towards our car, we ran into Masi Oka, the actor from Heroes and Hawaii Five-O. Since today was such a short hike, we ended up having breakfast at Andy’s Sandwiches & Smoothies in Manoa, quite the tasty place.