Rain kept me off the mountains. Again. Plan B. Despite assurances from a hunter at the Manana trailhead, that it only rains in the morning, we all piled into Jose’s car and drove to the West side looking for a dry trail to hike.

Westside Pavilion

We soon found ourselves roughly two miles deep on Lualualei Naval Road in Nanakuli, where we parked outside Westside Pavilion, a party venue. If one has the proper military clearances, the road goes all the way to Kolekole Pass and beyond. A somewhat suspicious caretaker swung by and quizzed us as to what we were doing and if we worked in the insurance or law enforcement fields. Hiking was our reply. His parting advice to us was “Lock your car as this is Waianae.” Sound advice anywhere.

Trailhead

The trailhead is across the street and easily gained by climbing up a concrete wall and squeezing in between a barbed wire fence.

Where is the trail?

We followed the faint foot trail in the dry grass and kiawe trees.

Heiau?

Going up the rocky slope, we skirted the remains of a rock wall. Perhaps it was once part of a heiau?

Scrambling

The trail going up the northern ridge is somewhat obvious, punctuated with faded ribbons that marks the path.

Two more humps

Going up the somewhat steep ridge provided a cardio wake up and several rock faces sprinkled along the way were easily climbed thanks to numerous handholds and footholds.

Can you see the rainbow?

Rain made a quick show in Lualualei Valley and a rainbow soon appeared over the coastline, washed out by the strong Waianae sun.

Maui!

Passing the second false peak, the triangular face of the adjacent ridge which bears a striking resemblance to a pyramid, popped into view. Heleakala means “where the sun is snared” as the Hawaiian demigod, Maui, caught the sun and slowed her down so that his mother’s bark cloth would have more time to dry.

One more hump to go

Thessa climbing towards the summit of Pu’u Heleakala.

Pink flowers

As we neared the summit, we left behind the dry shrub, which was replaced by greener vegetation and a profusion of these tiny pink flowers.

Lualualei Valley

Looking down into Lualualei Valley and the Navy’s VLF Antenna Farm that towers over the land at 1,503′.

Hawaiian Pyramid

Jose pointing to the ridge commonly called the “Hawaiian Pyramid” for obvious reasons. As one climbs higher, the perspective changes and it looks less like a pyramid and more of a ridge.

Pu’u Heleakala

Group photo at the 1,900′ summit left to right: Jose, Brian, Thessa and myself. I heard that a Buddha statue once marked the summit, Buddha was nowhere to be seen.

The trail to Palikea

Looking towards the 1,000′ drop to the saddle and the 1,200′ climb back up towards the pyramid ridge. The ridgeline continues to Palikea and Palehua if one so wishes. Today we had no such wish. Another hike for another day.

Going down

We decided to take the gradually sloped southern ridge, which splits Nanakuli and Lualualei Valleys, back down.

Baby mantis

Jose found this tiny critter, which was about the size of a grain of rice. Thank goodness for macro capability in cameras.

Raining in the ocean

Looking out towards the ocean, we saw several rainclouds. Recycling in action.

Looking back

The summit of Pu’u Heleakala is easily gained and easily lost. The hike seemed too easy to be true.

Henry Guevara, we meet again

Coming down the ridge, we ran across this base that had “Henry Guevara” tagged on it. Apparently, he had just died a week earlier as his ashes are hanging on a tree at the summit, perhaps this was his favorite trail. Luckily, Brian did not sit in the ashes, like the last time on Olomana. Inside joke.

Down to the pillbox

We started descending down from the ridge before the residential housing area and towards this white topped pillbox.

No vacancy

The pillbox was taken, in terms of occupancy, by homeless people as their camp was located nearby.

Trail out

Walking back towards the road with Puu o Hulu Kai and Uka in the background.

Following the tracks

Remnants of railroad tracks that once crisscrossed the island.

Emergency Access

The road to nowhere? Photo by Thessa Bugay.

Is the coast clear?

Thessa hamming it up. No palm trees were taken or harmed during the photographing of this event.

GPS Tracks

Our dry hike in Nanakuli was a short and sweet 3.9 miles, as compared to a wet and long muddy hike if we had stuck with the original plan on going from Manana to Waimalu.

After our warm-up climb at Mauna Lahilahi, we drove towards Sea Century, a subdivision in Maili. Chris staged his truck at the end of Anaha Street and we all drove in Glenn’s truck to park on Kaukama Street where we would hike up Puu O Hulu. This volcanic hill separates Maili from Nanakuli and is actually made up of two hills, Puu O Hulu Kai and Puu O Hulu Uka.

Trailhead

The trailhead is located between the 7th and 8th street light on Kaukama Street.

Scenic view

Less than five minutes up the hill, we were rewarded with scenic views of the Waianae coastline and mountain range.

Manini rockface

Going up the rocky and grassy hill was uneventful until we came across one of numerous rockfaces that injected some sorely needed fun into this hike.

Bombucha rockface

I tried climbing up this rockface, but failed. So I took the trail that contoured around it. Guess I didn’t eat my Wheaties this morning.

Pillboxes

After about 30 minutes later, the pillboxes popped into view. There are five of them that are sprinkled on the top of the hill, affording commanding views of the ocean.

Pillbox view

Most of the pillboxes or bunkers had their blast shields and doors intact. Of course they were heavily graffitied with seemingly random shapes, letters, numbers and colors. Some of them could actually be hung on a wall.

Summit of Pu’u O Hulu Kai

We reached the 856′ summit of Pu’u O Hulu Kai under ample cloud cover and breezy tradewinds.

Headed down towards the saddle

We met another hiker at the summit, that had started from Hakimo Road, which I believe is the slightly easier route to take if one is so inclined.

Another puka

Headed down towards the saddle, we ran across another puka, which was smaller than the ones found at the Pali or Makapu’u.

Rock climbing practice

Glenn and Chris climbing down one of the last rockfaces before we hit the saddle. If rock climbing or scrambling is not your cup of tea, there are trails that contour around most of them.

Climbing up towards Pu’u O Hulu Uka

Following the fenceline up towards the sister hill of Pu’u O Hulu Uka where it soon ends to be replaced by a short section of rockfaces and ledges.

Top of Pu’u O Hulu Uka

Once past the rocky terrain, it was an easy walk towards the flag marked summit of Pu’u O Hulu Uka.

Lualualei Antenna Farm

Looking towards the twin towering 1,500′ antenna’s of the Lualualei Naval Radio Station. I believe these are the tallest artificial structures on the island. To put this in better perspective, these antenna’s dwarf the tallest building in the State, which is the First Hawaiian Center at a relatively puny 429′.

Last climb down

We made our way down the backside of Pu’u O Hulu Uka which was capped by one last rock climb down. Chris shows how it’s done with no rope. A clearly marked trail through the grass took us back to Anaha Street and Chris’s remote controlled air conditioned truck. Sweet.