Met up with Glenn, Ryan and Thessa in the backyards of Waimanalo to explore a new Windward ridge. Many thanks to Nalo Bob for letting us park at his place.

Bears, cats and horses

Only two are animals, the other is a mineral.

Open field

Walking across the open fields under sunny skies. It was going to be a beautiful day. Or at least that’s what somebody said. It wasn’t Guy Hagi.

Got Milk?

Lani Moo left the ranch in 2001. The University of Hawaii is slated to acquire all 360 acres.

Stay to the right

Ryan heading into the forest. Stay to the right of the gully. One of many gullies.

Nice ferns

Surprisingly we picked up a path through the ferns. Hunter’s trail?

Bushwhacking

The trail ended at the base of the steep ridge. No faded ribbons. No signs of civilization detritus.

Steady climb

Where’s that uki grass when you need it? What’s that noise? Rain.

Whichever way works

We clawed our way up with the help of deep rooted plants and sheer upper body strength.

Break spot

Pausing at the “flattest” spot we found on the steep ridge. Photo by Thessa Bugay.

Back to climbing

Climbing and slipping on the wet carpet of pine needles as we made our way up.

Swing

Short webbing and a tall reach helped us past this tricky spot, which lead us to…

One branch at a time

…another crumbly rock face. Three of us climbed and perched on a shaky tree for a better look. A sapling marked the route up. Flashbacks. Was that lightning? Glenn took off his shoes for traction and slowly climbed to the top, mindful of dropping rocks on us. More rain. Glenn lashed webbing at the top for the rest of us to follow.

Falling rocks

Ryan making his way up. Two good sized rocks in rapid succession tumbled down the cliff. The first missed. The second exploded. Near his head. Strawberry season. Time to get a helmet.

Climb or contour

We alternated between climbing on the crumbly rocks until thick clumps of trees forced us to contour to the side and then back again on the slick rocks, mindful of the drops masked by the heavy growth.

Tree ridge

Thessa threading her way through the trees.

One sock at a time

Some people use spikes. Others use wet socks. To each their own.

Hug that tree

We thought the worst was behind us. Until we saw another steep rock face. Then we discovered a contour trail to the summit. We took the easy option.

Summit

Group photo at the 1,513′ summit left to right: Glenn, Thessa, myself and Ryan. The original plan was to go down Hahaione Windward, but strawberries and weather dictated otherwise. We recalibrated our plans to head down the Leeward side.

One Shoe Ridge

And now you know the rest of the story. If anybody knows the name of this ridge, please enlighten me, until then we’re calling it “One Shoe Ridge” in memory of our collective experience.

Windward view

The clouds started to clear. The rain stopped. The cruel irony.

Pyramid Rock

A short rocky climb.

Running on empty

Wet, cold and exhausted. Not necessarily in that order.

Enjoy the view

Enjoy the company.

Dike crossing

Watch your step.

Hahaione Valley

Now we have a view!

New Mariner’s Ridge

We noticed a lot more ribbons on the trail from last time.

Photo bomber

We skirted the water tank fence to make our way down to the road.

All pau

The crew walking back to civilization. Shout out to Jasmin for picking us up. She even had piping hot nilagang baboy in the trunk for us.

GPS Tracks

The crumbly, overgrown and steep hike covered a paltry 2.36 miles. Pouring rain magnified the difficulty of the ridge. Post hike meal at Teddy’s Bigger Burgers. Wrong burger. Free burger. One side of staples to go.