Gen, Jose, Matt and myself met up at the Pali Lookout with the goal to traverse to Kuli’ou’ou. The hot weather would have a say in those plans.

Trailhead

Hiking with headlamps underneath the thicket of hau branches.

Lanihuli

Looking across to the other half of the Nu’uanu saddle.

Notch #1

After climbing down the first notch, we hung out for awhile to catch the sunrise. The clouds did not cooperate.

Notch #2

Gen and Jose coming down the second notch.

Trail

Making our way to the Chimney.

The Nipple

Admiring the view. Photo by Matt Vidaurri.

The Chimney

From this angle, going up looks like a walk in the park. All about angles. Photo by Matt Vidaurri.

Looking up

Everybody waiting their turn. Photo by Jose Luis Delaki.

The Chimney

Gen making her way up. Photo by Jose Luis Delaki.

The Chimney

So many shiny new ropes. Which ones to use? All ropes are suspect and should be treated as such.

The Chimney

Group photo at the Chimney, left to right: Matt, Jose, Gen and myself.

Trail

More climbing ahead.

Trail

Matt making his way to the contour section. Climb or contour?

Rock contour

Gen contouring around the rock. This is the same area where another hiker fell 300′ and survived to hike another day.

Trail

Grab that tree! Grab that rock!

Panoramic view

Click here for the larger image.

Trail

All the hard parts behind us. Cruising on the KST.

Olomana

The sun breaking over Olomana and Kailua.

Trail

Abundant uki grass that we used to pull and move ourselves up on the ridge.

Trail

Matt coming up the ridge with stunning Windward views behind him.

Trail

Splash of color on the ridge.

Mud wall

The mud wall had turned into mud steps. When trails become popular, ropes and increased erosion in the form of handholds and footholds shows up. A good and bad thing.

Trail

Almost there.

Piliwale junction

Matt at the Windward spur ridge junction, named after Silver Piliwale who pioneered the trail back in the 1980s.

Konahuanui

Sharing a bag of tasty beef jerky at the 3,150′ summit.

Trail

We soon headed to the other peak or “testicle” of Konahuanui.

K2

Geodetic mark that was emplaced back in 1927 and used for triangulation surveys.

Panoramic view

Click here for the larger image.

Trail

Gen and Jose making their way down to the saddle.

Looking back

We left the twin peaks of Konahuanui behind us as we descended down from the highest points on the Ko’olau Mountains.

Lunch spot

Who brings hot soup and rice to a hike? Something else was getting hot. The weather.

Manoa Middle

We ran across two other hikers who had come from Ka’au Crater and were going down Manoa Middle.

Trail

Jose passing the sedan rock section of the trail.

Mount Olympus

Group photo at the top of Awaawaloa with Ka’au Crater in the background. It was unusually clear. And hot.

Trail

The heat had started to slowly roast us from the inside and we collectively gave up on our goal to reach Kuli’ou’ou. Dwindling water supplies had a say in that too. Somebody kept saying Makapu’u.

Trail

Jose coming down from Mount Olympus.

Trail

The twin power lines that mark Ka’au Crater.

Panoramic view

Click here for the larger image.

Trail

Looking out towards Ka’au Crater and town views. Photo by Matt Vidaurri.

Tourists

Hikers with a European twist coming down the trail that looped around Ka’au Crater. We also met some channel swimmers who were taking a “break” hiking.

Trail

Jose pointing out the big hill that we still had to climb.

Trail

What goes down …

Trail

… must go back up. It was a steep hill.

Kainawa’aunui

We took a short break at the 2,520′ summit.

Trail

Clouds and the attendant cooler temperatures rolled into the mountains. Somebody repeated Makapu’u.

Trail

Matt looking back at the summit and Mau’umae Ridge.

True Lanipo

Geodetic marking the 2,600′ summit of Lanipo.

Trail

Gen making her along the cloudy ridge.

Trail

Making the steep descent down towards the row of power lines on the ridge.

Lanipo Windward

Looking back at the ridge that connects to Aniani Nui Ridge and Olomana.

Trail

Almost there.

Trail

Matt coming up the trail with the summit of True Lanipo behind him.

Wiliwilinui Summit

Group photo at our last summit on the Ko’olau Range.

Trail

It was all downhill from here.

Swing

I found out that a girl named Tina put up the original swing here. Don’t even know if this is the original swing anymore.

All pau

Our hike was over. Now all we needed was a ride since we came down a different trail than originally planned. Who can we call?

GPS Tracks

While our hike did not end as originally planned, it was still quite a day that covered 7.56 miles with great company. Shout out to Justin for picking us up and shuttling us back to our cars. Post hike meal at Thai Valley Cuisine. Tasty tom yum soup. Matt’s treat.

Waahila State Park was wide open and empty as I pulled my solitary self into the parking lot at 6:45am to hike the last piece needed to complete the Eastern part of the Koolaus from Makapuu to Lanihuli.

First Clearing

Going into the hike, scenic views of Manoa Valley quickly opened up. The good thing about this trail, is that your car does most of the early climbing as you wind your way up through Saint Louis Heights to get to the trailhead.  

Second Clearing

After passing the first clearing, the trail splits into the Kolowalu Trail which descends down into Manoa Valley and the Upper Waahila Trail which takes you to Mount Olympus. I’m not sure if the Upper Waahila Trail is sanctioned or not, as the sign implores hikers to turn back. But turning back was not on the table today.

Third Clearing

The cloud ceiling started to get lower as I made my way to the third clearing. I was hoping that the views at the top would not be blanketed in clouds.

Windward panoramic view from the summit

Made it to the top of Mount Olympus in two hours to be greeted by relatively cloud free views of both sides of the island. Click here to see the larger image.

Koolau Summit Ridge Trail

I climbed back down to the foot of the peak from Mount Olympus to find the trail that would take me to the Manoa Middle Ridge. The trail coming down the hill was very muddy and wet, which led to major butt sliding all the way down.

Looking back towards Mt. Olympus

One hour was spent hiking on the ridge from Mount Olympus to Manoa Middle Ridge. But what a windy hour it was! The wind was blowing hard enough that I resorted to crawling on all fours on the narrow parts of the ridge to avoid being blown off.

Coming down Manoa Middle Ridge

Click here to see the larger image of the view coming down from Manoa Middle Ridge.

Jackson Chameleon

This is the first time that I ran across a Jackson Chameleon in the wild. A female one at that, as only males have the distinctive triple horns on their heads.

Waiakeakua Stream

After crossing Waiakeakua stream and passing several Chinese Fan Palm trees, I spotted the ribboned branches that led me up the hill. Pushing my way uphill through these small but numerous trees made me frustrated and tired. I eventually made it to the Puu Pia trail at the top of the hill and turned right until the trail ended in a clearing with a bench. From that point on, the trail was heavily overgrown and in need of extensive clearing by those good samaritans at the HTMC. I eventually made it out to Alani Drive after six hours of hiking and called 422-2222 to take my dirty and tired butt back to Waahila State Park.