Ferlino joined me on the last hike of the year as we met up at Hawaii Loa.

Trailhead

Somebody looked at their calendar through beer colored glasses, so off we went on the trail that we had just come down from last week.

Hawaii Loa Ridge Trail

Heading into the stand of ironwood trees that provided temporary refuge from the cold winds that whistled through the hardy crowd.

Hawaii Loa Ridge Trail

Breaking out onto the exposed ridge section that provided unfiltered views of the mountains.

Hawaii Loa Ridge Trail

Passing through native forest as we gained elevation.

Hawaii Loa Ridge Trail

One step up at a time to the top.

Hawaii Loa Summit

The sun was shining on our slightly sweaty faces at the 2,520′ knob.

Ko’olau Summit Ridge Trail (KSRT)

Stepping foot on the spine of the Ko’olau Mountains as we began to connect the summits together.

Kulepeamoa Summit

Coming home to briefly roost at the flapping chicken while stealing a glance at the near vertical approach down to the Windward side. Unfinished business.

KSRT

Mother Nature continued to bless us with balmy weather on our hiking traversal.

Pu’u O Kona Summit

Enjoying the Windward views from the 2,200′ grassy flat topped hill.

Pu’u O Kona Summit

The mass of evaporated water seemed to be suspended above the mountains, providing us with temporary diffused cover. Photo by Ferlino Carinio.

KSRT

Brushing past the waist high overgrowth as we continued our way on the ridge line to the next summit.

KSRT

Looking back at the Windward side of the Ko’olau’s with her fluted ridges cascading down into the valley floors. Photo by Ferlino Carinio.

KSRT

Crossing the eroded section of the trail.

Kuli’ou’ou Summit

Two legged and four legged hikers quickly filled the 2,028′ eroded hill.

KSRT

We bumped into Trina and her birthday friend who were on their way to Pu’u O Kona. Photo by Ferlino Carinio.

Hahaione Junction

Turning left to avoid going down Hahaione Valley, as I mistakenly did on an earlier solo cross over.

KSRT

We briefly broke free of the tree lined ridge to soak in the views at this vantage point.

KSRT

Making our way around the eroded and slippery trail that soon contoured around the Hahaione Pyramid.

KSRT

Enjoying our temporary respite from the overgrowth on an exposed section of the ridge.

KSRT

Ferlino climbing to the summit of Kaluanui.

Mariner’s Ridge Summit

Group photo at the top of the ridge trail that Kamehameha Schools would like the public to forget. Flashbacks of Kekoa Paulsen and Keoki Kerr ringing in my ears.

KSRT

After masticating our lunch, we resumed our hike on the edge of the cliff bordered by trees of varying heights.

KSRT

Plunging back into the mixed forest carpeted with pine needles that was alive with aloha.

KSRT

Panoramic view before the approach to the apex of the Tom-Tom trail.

KSRT

Looking down into the always hypnotic, for me, gorge.

KSRT

We picked up the pace to seek shelter from the now searing temperatures that was unevenly tempered by the random trade winds.

Kamiloiki Summit

Enjoying the shaded summit with views of Waimanalo and beyond.

KSRT

Preparing to drop down into the saddle.

KSRT

Climbing out of the saddle. Photo by Ferlino Carinio.

KSRT

Panoramic view of the saddle before the communication towers.

KSRT

Feeling the wind against our faces and wishing we could fly. With a hang glider. Photo by Ferlino Carinio.

KSRT

Making our way on the hardscrabble ground that was largely absent of appreciable cover and bereft of cooling trade winds.

KSRT

Ferlino preparing to climb down into our last saddle.

Makapu’u Puka

Somebody took the saying “Take a flying leap” literally.

KSRT

Watching several paragliders from a distance soaring and swooping.

KSRT

Up close and personal with one of them. What was your name?

KSRT

Skirting the patch of cacti as we followed the fence line down the look out.

All pau

Mahalo to Ferlino’s friend, Mike for the ride back to our cars.

GPS Tracks

Our last hike of the year covered 9.44 miles under sunny skies and intermittent gentle trade winds. Congratulations to Ferlino for finishing the Southern half of the Ko’olau Mountains today. No post hike meal today so that we could spend time with our families to usher in the New Year.

Note: I have been made aware that some hikers have been using my blog as a hiking guide and getting lost on the trails. Please note that this blog was made to document the hike for the crew(s) that did it. That is why some of my comments will seem to have no relevance or meaning to anybody outside of the crew(s) that hiked that trail. My blog was never meant as a hiking guide, so please do not treat it as such. If you find inspiration and entertainment from these hikes, that is more than enough. If you plan on replicating these hikes, do so in the knowledge that you should do your own research accordingly as trail conditions, access, legalities and so forth are constantly in flux. What was current today is most likely yesterdays news. Please be prepared to accept any risks and responsibilities on your own as you should know your own limitations, experience and abilities before you even set foot on a trail, as even the “simplest” or “easiest” of trails can present potential pitfalls for even the most “experienced” hikers.

Rain rain go away, come again another day. That childhood nursery rhyme was going through my head as I pulled in Wa’ahila Park at the top of St. Louis Heights to be greeted by morning showers. I met Jason there, as Glenn had bugged out due to the rain. We talked about it and hoped the rain would pass, so we got into my car and drove to Hawaii Loa to start our hike at 7:15am.

Going up Hawaii Loa Ridge

As we made our way up Hawaii Loa ridge, the clouds seemed to be settling lower and lower on the Koolau Mountain tops. The rain had not followed us, but what we got instead was clumps of dirty water drops.

Hawaii Loa Summit

We got to the top of Hawaii Loa Summit at 2,520 feet in whiteout conditions. The views of Waimanalo and the Windward side of the island were nowhere to be seen. Not having anything to keep us at the summit, we proceeded to follow the heavily vegetated trail on the left.

Wailupe Middle Ridge

We hiked the Koolau Summit Ridge in the clouds and at times, could barely see in front of us. The top of Wailupe Middle Ridge harbored the same whiteout conditions we had hoped we left behind at Hawaii Loa. There was a little sign on the ground that pointed in the direction of Wailupe Loop, didn’t seem too stable as somebody or something could easily move the marker.

Wiliwilinui Ridge

About an hour later, we still had no view at Wiliwilinui ridge. But we did see the communication tower appearing out of the clouds like a pirate ship. I was beginning to think the whole hike was going to be in these conditions, a total bummer.

Diamond Head

A funny thing happend coming down from Lanipo where we had our lunch, the clouds started to clear up. As we made our way down into this little valley and climbed back out of it, the views started opening up, which gave us renewed energy to push on.

Mount Olympus

We could finally see our goal ahead of us, which was Mount Olympus or Awaawaloa.

Panoramic view going toward Mount Olympus

Click here for the larger image which shows the split views of the Town and Windward side.

Ka'au Crater

As we passed the two powerlines on the ridge, we saw the marsh filled Ka’au crater nestled against the Koolau Mountains.

We're coming Zeus!

Little wisps of clouds started rolling in from the Windward side, threatening to cover the summit. That made me push harder to get to the top as I didn’t want to miss an opportunity for a clear view from the top, something which rarely happens. 

Olomana

Going up Mount Olympus, we had to climb a narrow and rocky ridge that was followed by a 10′ rockface and a somewhat steep hill. No ropes required.

Top of Mount Olympus

The top of Mount Olympus at a little over 2,400 feet was remarkably devoid of clouds, the last time I was here, there was zero visibility. The original plan was to continue until Manoa Middle Ridge and then double back. That would have completed the last part we needed to finish hiking the Eastern part of the Koolaus. But that idea was scratched due to lack of time and being plain tired on our parts. So we began the long descent down the Waahila Ridge trail towards our car.

Panoramic view of Manoa Valley and Town

Click here for the larger image of Palolo and Manoa Valleys.

The long trail home

Only twenty minutes until we get back to the trailhead (inside joke).

Need water!

We completed the hike in twelve hours, which was drawn out by being tuckered out and a tad dehydrated as we didn’t bring enough water. But how often, can you do three hikes all rolled into one?

This was our second chunk of the Koolau Summit Trail that we started last month. Today we only had half of the horsemen in attendance, Chance and myself. We checked in at the Hawaii Loa gated community and was told that they let visitors with Hawaii ID in once the sun was up. This contradicts what an earlier guard told us, which was 7:00am. We have a failure to communicate. Go with the 7:00am. We drove all the way to the top and into Paka Nahele Park and discovered we were the first of only 10 cars they allow up here.

Mariner's Ridge

We left my car at the park and drove in my friends car to the top of Kaluanui Road to start our hike to Mariner’s Ridge. Since we were early, we shared the trail with only a couple other hikers. Usually the place is packed with hikers going up and down the trail with their kids and dogs taking point. We got to the top of Mariner’s Ridge in half an hour and debated about continuing the hike as the weather looked sketchy.

Koolau Summit Trail

After spending some time watching the clouds rolling in from the ocean and talking story with some other hikers on the ridge, we decided to continue the hike by climbing down a small rockface to get on the Koolau Summit Trail.

Haha'ione Valley

The trail turned into crumbly rock and dirt as we made our way past Haha’ione Valley on our left. You can see Mariner’s Ridge on the left and Kuli’ou’ou Ridge on the right.

Koolau Mountains

As we made our way to Kuli’ou’ou, the trail became vegetated again and the clouds started to mask the top of the Koolaus. I was just hoping that Mother Nature wouldn’t decide to turn the faucet on while we were hiking up here.

Toy Soldiers

Somebody marked this particular stretch of the trail with toy plastic soldiers stapled to tree branches and cacti. They reminded me of the toy soldiers found on top of Pu’u Hapapa.

Power Lines

Here we are passing the first set of power lines that sits on top of the Koolaus. Luckily HECO work crews were not scheduled for today, as I heard they have to stop work when hikers are around for obvious safety reasons.

Kuli'ou'ou Summit

After passing a second set of power lines, we soon got to the top of Kuli’ou’ou where there was a bunch of people checking out the views. The Kuli’ou’ou hike is quite popular and can get very crowded on the weekends. After a short break, we continued past the warning signs where the trail started to get a little narrow and the drops seemed more pronounced.

Panoramic view from Kuli'ou'ou

Click here for a larger image of the view from the Kuli’ou’ou lookout.

Bear Claw

This is the lookout point where the Bear Claw trail from Waimanalo ends here at the top. Another hike to do on our bucket list.

Eroded trail

We came across this eroded part of the trail that looked the same from the last time I did this hike. The bark is worse than the bite, if you know what I mean.

Pu'u o Kona

The view from Pu’u o Kona was actually a lot better than the one we had at the Kuli’ou’ou summit. After taking another short break, we took a little while to find the trail that would allow us to continue the hike. It’s actually not marked, but we just basically followed the ridge to get back on track.

Kulepeamoa Ridge

The trail after Pu’u o Kona seemed less traveled and closer to the steep windward drop offs, so we concentrated more on watching our steps on the narrow and heavily vegetated trail and less on picture taking. We soon reached the top of Kulepeamoa Ridge which connects down into Niu Valley if so desired.

Hawaii Loa Summit

Chowing down at the top of Hawaii Loa, the lookout area is quite small but there was nobody else but us to share in the clouded view.

Headed down Hawaii Loa Ridge

It took us about two hours to get back to our car, along the way down we passed an abundance of red ohia lehua trees. In Hawaiian legend, Ohia and Lehua were lovers. Pele had eyes for Ohia, but he scorned her and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. So she turned Ohia into a tree and the other gods took pity on Lehua and turned her into a flower to put on Ohia. We didn’t pluck any lehua flowers as it is said that when they are separated, the heavens fill with their tears which turns into rain. Trust me, you don’t want to come down from the top of Hawaii Loa ridge in muddy conditions.

Hawaii Loa Ridge is a sleeper of a hike, located in the uber-rich gated community of Hawaii Loa in Hawaii Kai. Much like public beaches, gated communities have to offer public access to public hikes. The guard will let you in after 7am, where you must present local or military ID and sign a liability waiver. I also found out that not more than 10 cars are allowed in at one time. After checking in, I drove up to Paka Nahele park at the end of Puuikena Drive and started my hike.

Heading into the forest

The first part of the trail was hot, sandy and rocky. Heading into this stand of ironwood pine trees, the wind was making this weird whistling sound that would go over great on moonless nights and a couple too many drinks.

One of many hills

The trail follows a couple hills as they go up and down, leading to a rollercoaster effect, all depends on how fast you are hiking! Keep your hands in the car at all times.

Guava trees

As I started walking into this strawberry guava tree “tunnel”, the wind picked up and started that eerie sound that I thought I left behind in the ironwood pine tree stands. Glad I wasn’t doing this hike at night!

View of Diamond Head

Approaching the summit, the trail started to get steeper with dirt steps reinforced with plastic slats, punctuated by a couple spots with ropes to help you get to the top.

View of Olomana

It took me roughly 90 minutes to make it to the summit at an elevation of 2,520 feet. The easy part of this hike is that you are not starting from sea level, I believe the elevation at the trailhead is roughly 500 feet.

Town of Waimanalo

The town of Waimanalo, along with the Mokulua Islands off shore. I was very lucky today as when I was approaching the summit, it looked like the clouds were rolling in. But when I reached the summit, clear blue skies and fantastic views welcomed me.

Pu’u o Kona

The summit of Pu’u o Kona which can be reached through the Kuli’ou’ou Trail, which is the ridge next over. There used to be a sign that announced the end of the trail, apparently somebody took it home for a souveneir.

Koko Crater and Koko Head

Going back down the trail which took about 90 minutes, you can see Koko Crater and Koko Head to your left.

Ridgelines

So many ridges to hike on! The middle one is the Hawaii Loa Ridge trail and the way back to the trailhead. This hike is relatively easy, as there are only some spots where you go up and down, and finished with a brisk walk up hill to the summit. Also, don’t let the gated part put you off from doing this enjoyable hike, think of it as your own semi-private trail!

GPS Tracks

The 4.3 mile hike rewards one with uber-views with little effort.