We visited Schofield Barracks to climb the 2,883 foot mountain of Pu’u Hapapa, a trail that is reportedly rarely hiked and maintained. The last time we were here, we had hiked Pu’u Kalena, which ended with us on top of Oahu’s second highest mountain.

Kolekole Pass Rock

The trailhead is clearly marked by signs that say “Warning Dangerous Trails Ahead.” We went down the dirt path which led us up wooden steps and arrived at the Kolekole Pass Rock or Pohaku Hupeloa, which was supposedly used as a chopping block for some unfortunate Hawaiians. After one of our hiking group, Lianne, demonstrated how the rock was used, we continued around a communications tower and took the next two left forks.

The notched ridge

We came to this open meadow, where views of Lualualei valley awaited us at the edge and then we saw the ridge that we had to climb in order to get to the top, we would start from the left going to the right, until we made the summit of Pu’u Hapapa.

Paper bark trees

We walked past more danger signs on the far left of the meadow to get back on the trail which soon entered a grove of paper bark trees, that we followed to get to the top of the ridge.

First notch

We used the dirt and grass trail that is on the left hand side of the first notch to make the climb.  To mix things up, when we came back down, we climbed down the rockface of the first notch which made it a tad more challenging.

Looking back

Looking back, we saw the rock formation that juts out right before the first notch.

Second notch

When we started going up the second notch, the wind really started gusting and we actually started to feel a little chilly.

Ridge

After we climbed the two notches, it was pretty much straight forward ridge hiking to the top of Pu’u Hapapa. You know you are almost to the summit, when you come across the fence that is supposed to keep the goats and pigs out.

Top of Pu'u Hapapa

It took us about two hours to reach the top of Pu’u Hapapa, with great views of Lualualei valley and the Waianae coast below us.

Mount Ka'ala and Pu'u Kalena

Looking to our right, we saw Kolekole Pass and the Waianae mountain range. We also noticed that some hikers had stapled toy soldiers to the slats that marked the top of the mountain.

Central Oahu

A view of Schofield Barracks, which is where the toy soldiers came from real soldiers?

That's the ridge we're supposed to be on!

On our way down, we took a right turn by mistake, which would have made our hike into a loop except we didn’t know how far off we would end up at. So we ended up backtracking up the ridge to go back down the correct ridge. Nothing like a little extra cardio exercise to spice up one’s hike!

Bunny ears

Going back down the trail, we noticed that the Easter Bunny had left his/her ears on one of the trees. We didn’t find any Easter eggs waiting for us at our cars after 4 1/2 hours hiking, so we had lunch at Dot’s in Wahiawa and called it a day.

Originally we had a group of three to hike Pu’u Kalena, Oahu’s second highest mountain at 3,504 feet located on Schofield Barracks. One bailed to go kayaking instead, on that scorcher of a day, I’m not sure who made the better choice. We drove through Lyman Gate after showing our papers and were given a day’s pass to roam Schofield Barracks at our leisure. We drove straight down Lyman road and turned left on KoleKole Road passing housing, motorpools and military ranges. We parked at a small clearing to the left just before the KoleKole Pass gate and walked across to road and passed two concrete blocks that marked the start of the trailhead.

What trail?

We made our way up the dirt road and came across this rocky and crumbly section of the mountain. We just followed the path of least crumbly rock resistance.

Good morning Wahiawa!

After only 15 minutes of huffing and puffing, we saw the sun warming up Central Oahu.

No ropes here

Climbing up the mountain, we noticed that Pu’u Kalena is one of the few hikes that ropes are noticeably absent on the trail. Also with today being Memorial Day, the military’s guns were deafeningly silent.

The first peak

After passing a narrow dike section, we made the first peak in about an hour. There are two false peaks that must be climbed, before starting to tackle the last peak of Kalena.

Break area

Climbing down from the first peak into a saddle that goes into a valley, we took a short breather on somebody’s home made bench. Must have been an Eagle Scout.

Second peak

After getting our second wind, we climbed out of the saddle to a small hill and went back down another saddle before going up the second peak.

Mount Ka'ala

Pushing up to the final peak of Kalena, we saw one of the few ropes on the trail. The heavy vegetation seemed to mask the steepness of the climb, as it didn’t seem all that bad. We made the top in a little over three hours.

Waianae coast

The views from the top were stupendous, with sweeping views of the Waianae coast and Mount Ka’ala. We signed our names in the guest log that was hanging from the moss covered ohia tree. The log is actually just a Post-It pad in a thermos.

Going back down the dike

After soaking in the views and grabbing a bite to eat and drinking warm water, the hardest part of the hike lay ahead. The trail going back down to me is the hardest part of any ridge hike.

Kolekole Pass Road

After making our way back down the trail on wobbly legs, we came across the rocky and crumbly section, where sliding on our feet and okoles was the fastest and safest way to get down back to our cars.