Glenn and I joined J, Tom, Kilei and Bob to climb another Kaupo Cliff section – #3 to be exact. We all met at the Tom-Tom trailhead and ran into Marcus who was leading a new group of hikers up the Tom-Tom trail.

Into the bushes we go

The initial trail runs almost parallel to the homes on the left. It’s so close at times, that you can hear people talking and smell what they are having for breakfast.

Getting out of the bushes

About 15 minutes into the hike, we left the bushes and the homes behind as we started making our way up.

Kaupo Chute

Headed into the massive chute that separates Kaupo Cliffs #3 and #4.

Tree root climbing

As we climbed up these tree roots, Waimanalo Bob parted company with us and started contouring to the left to solo climb Kaupo Cliffs #2.

To root or not to root?

Who needs webbing when you have these solid tree roots to climb up?

Small kine rockface

Glenn climbing up a small rockface.

Little bigger rockface

Kilei climbing up another rockface.

Who’s that?

As we were climbing up another rockface, we all spotted Bob who was almost mirroring our progress on nearby #2.

Waimanalo Bob!

Waimanalo Bob waving at us from Kaupo Cliffs #2, another cliff section that I still have to do.

Climbing Kaupo Cliffs #3 – Photo by Bob Tyson

Another view of us climbing up #3, provided courtesy of Waimanalo Bob from #2.

Looking good!

Glenn making his way up.

Bigger rockface

J and Kilei climbing up one of the more challenging rockfaces.

More rock climbing fun

Kilei and Tom scrambling to the top.

The cross-over

Waimanalo Bob as he makes his way to the cross-over from #2 to #3. I understand that you can’t reach the top from #2, which explains the cross-over.

Top of Kaupo Cliffs #3

Group photo at the top: Top row left to right: Bob, Glenn and J. Bottom row left to right: Tom, myself and Kilei.

Hawaii Kai view

We made our way on the Koolau Summit Ridge Trail to meet up with Marcus and the other hikers he was “qualifying.”

Are we missing somebody?

Even experienced hikers can get lost or dis-oriented. As the trail meanders along the Koolau’s, there is a junction where you are supposed to take a right if you want to head down the Tom-Tom trail. However, the junction is not that clearly marked, so some folks follow the more obvious trail as it curves left towards Kamiloiki Ridge. This is what happened to Kilei who got separated from our group. Luckily, we were all re-united several hours later.

Who’s that down there?

We soon spotted the Caveman at one of the “proving grounds” that he uses to break-in new hikers to the group.

Falling rocks!

The new J clause that was created today. Never find yourself directly underneath a climber that is either going up or down if possible. Right after I took this picture, several rocks were dis-lodged that showered J who was checking out the geo-cache at the bottom.

Survivor of the Caveman Proving Grounds

The large rock that J is holding narrowly missed his head and bounced off his leg instead. He was very lucky that somebody was watching over him.

Caveman qualified

The graduating class of April 20, 2013 – Caveman qualified.

Top of Tom-Tom trail

Standing left to right: Glen, Lori, Bob, Kilei, Tom, J and Marcus. Sitting left to right: Kevin, Jessica, Will, myself, Kim, Leilani and Sara.

Going down the Tom-Tom trail

There were a couple more spots that Marcus took his crew to check out their climbing skills and then we all went down the Tom-Tom trail and back to our cars.

GPS tracks

The 3.8 mile hike took us a little under 5 hours, that included spending time at the proving grounds and recovering one of our “lost” hikers. Main thing was that everybody came out safe and had fun.

Ever since Marcus mentioned the seven cliffs of Kaupo in Waimanalo, I’ve wanted to hike all five of them, as the other two are supposedly not doable. Tom was nice enough to be our guide today to Cliff #4.

There’s a trail here somewhere…

We met at Waimanalo Beach Park and carpooled in Glenn’s truck, and then drove into the neighborhood and parked at the intersection of Waiokeola and Manawaiola Streets. It is highly recommended that if you hike to this trailhead, that you minimize your footprint by carpooling as you don’t want to piss off the people that live here. Much like how some hikers pissed off the residents at the Haiku Stairs trailhead neighborhood, same smell but different attitudes. Pushing off around 8:15am, we made our way through the thick grass to pick up the trail that was marked by those always helpful pink ribbons and Tom’s direction.

Kaupo Cliffs Chute

Tom took us on a slight detour to show us the massive deep chute that separated Cliff#3 from Cliff #4. Impressive.

The fun begins

So is this why it’s called Kaupo Cliffs?

Tired of climbing cliffs? Try root climbing!

This was the best part of the hike for me. Climbing straight up these tree roots for about 40-50′. You need some level of upper body strength to make it up this section. Felt like a kid again.

Hitchhiker

This guy took the easy way up, on my pants.

Which way do I go?

After we made our way up the tree roots, a rock section with a narrow ledge stymied us for a bit as we tried out several routes to get past it. We finally edged our way up to the right, past an abandoned bee hive.  

Going up

More scrambling. More fun.

Tom-Tom Trail

Looking to our right, we could see the Tom-Tom trail and the Koolau Mountains.

Still going up

Going up the loose and crumbly rocks, often covered by pine needles, made for a slippery slope at times.

Falling rock!

Always keep a safe distance. As I was preparing to climb up a section, Glenn dislodged a small rock from above and luckily my left hand and right biceps took the brunt of the impact which sent me back a couple of feet. At least I didn’t go over the edge. In the photo, I am resting my bruised hand on the rock that hit me.

Past the Kamiloiki Junction

After making our way to the top of Kamiloiki Ridge and following the trail for a bit, we missed the junction that goes to the Tom-Tom trail and had to double back. While the junction is ribboned, you have to keep an eye out for it, otherwise you may just miss it like we did.

Caveman proving grounds

There’s this particular part of the trail where one can practice down climbing some challenging rock sections. Since I just fumbled a rock football, I passed and watched Tom have his fun.

Panoramic view from the top of Tom-Tom trail

Click here for the larger image.

Going down the Tom-Tom trail

Tom and I on the Tom-Tom trail with the town of Waimanalo in the background.

Headed back down into Waimanalo

Going down the trail was uneventful and within 30 minutes we were back in Glenn’s truck.

GPS Tracks

It took us a little over four hours to complete this short, challenging and fun 1.9 mile hike.