Chris, Justin, Ryan and myself piggybacked on HTMC’s planned hike up to Waiau Ridge today.

Trailhead

We met ahead of the club at the top of Ka’ahumanau Street to begin our long day. The plan was to break away from the club at the summit and continue to Waimalu Middle Ridge to see the “mythical” meadows if the weather held.

Scenic point

Enjoying the breaking sun over Pearl Harbor.

The road

The crew walking up the paved road to the water tank.

Trail

Time to separate the trail from the road.

Country

Six miles of ungraded ridge separated the summit from us.

Trail

Mahalos to HTMC for clearing the lower portion of the trail.

Power lines

Chris passing underneath the power lines on the still wide open trail. Photo by Ryan Leano.

Junction

Justin looking at the Halapepe Nui trail that comes up from Hapaki Street. Go straight young man!

Trail

Chris going up the somewhat steep but still cleared trail.

Waianae Mountains

Looking out towards the West side. Photo by Justin Hirako.

Trail

Justin ducking under an arched koa tree.

Uluhell

The cleared path soon disappeared as Mother Nature reclaimed the trail with a vengeance.

Sunshine

Sunbeams poked through the heavy cloud cover down to Waimalu Valley.

Geocache

Plastic bottle marks the spot. A small group from the club soon powered past us. What the heck? One eventually turned back, saying the overgrowth was insane. What the heck?

Trail

Yup, the trail for lack of a better word, was almost completely lost to the heavy overgrowth.

Trail

Approaching the big dip where one loses a couple hundred feet in elevation, only to regain it back. The whole ridge was a bunch of big dips and little dips. All in all, a trail that does not endear itself to no one. That was a common sentiment that was echoed repeatedly on this trail. Photo by Justin Hirako.

Trail

How many false summits are there?

Trail

The last false summit. Promise.

Waiau Summit

We caught up with the club hikers at the 2,312′ summit overlooking Waihe’e Valley. Group photo by Justin Hirako, left to right: Cisco, Steve, Justin, myself, unknown, Chris B and Ryan.

KSRT

Some of the club members pondered about coming with us to Waimalu but decided to return back down Waiau. Looking at the clouds rolling in, I could forecast that the now clear meadows would be swallowed up in clouds by the time we arrived there. It’s still worth it. So off we went. I guess better than going back down Waiau. Photo by Ryan Leano.

KSRT

Hiking close to the Windward edge on the Ko’olau Summit Ridge Trail.

Looking back

Leaving the summit of Waiau behind us.

KSRT

The meadows loomed larger in our vision as we traversed the KSRT.

KSRT

Climbing the last hill before dropping into the meadows.

Panoramic view

Click here for the larger image.

Panoramic view

Click here for the larger image.

Panoramic view

Click here for the larger image.

Lucky Buddha

It’s rumored that rubbing the belly of a jolly guy, will bring good luck, in the form of clear weather. Photo by Justin Hirako.

Waimalu Meadows

Urban legend.

Cartwheeling

Trying not to land in a water hole. Photos by Ryan Leano.

Missing in Hiking

O Kikaida, Where Art Thou? Photo by Ryan Leano.

Waimalu Meadows

We wandered around the meadows. Waited for the clouds to clear. In vain. Even considered rubbing that belly again. Group photo by Justin Hirako.

Waimalu Meadows

The rain and wind started to come down sideways. It was time to pack up and leave. We spent several hours too long at the summit. We would be coming out in the dark.

Waimalu Summit

Group photo by Justin Hirako at the cloudy 2,283′ summit.

Waimalu Middle Ridge

Hiking into the clouds.

Pray for Sun

Wishful thinking?

Sunshine

Prayers have been answered.

T-Chute

Chris pointing to an obvious dry waterfall chute. Must be nice when it’s raging.

Twilight

Dropping down into Waimalu Valley from the middle ridge.

Waimalu Stream

Stream flows down from the mountains. We need to get away from the mountains. Thanks Justin!

Spider web

Spider, Spider. Does whatever a spider can. Spins a web, any size. Catches hikers just like flies. Look out!

Tunnel

The original ditch and tunnel system ran three and a half miles underground to provide fresh water to the Kalauao cane fields, now replaced by housing.

Memorial

Mickey had some great friends that carried this hefty slab of granite all the way out here on this trail. We soon saw the city light and the uphill switchbacks that signaled the hike was nearing the end.

All pau

Justin can you bring your truck closer, so I don’t have to walk 50′ more? Pretty please.

GPS Tracks

Our ridge loop hike covered 12.29 miles through rolling ridges, taxing overgrowth, a short KSRT traversal, cloudy meadows and endless stream crossings. Exhausting but exhilarating hike with great company. Post hike meal at Zippys.

In my ongoing goal to segment finish the KST; Donald, Jasmin, Jose, Marvin, Ryan and Thessa joined me on this sunny day or was that on a Sunday? As we gathered outside the Keaiwa Heiau State Park, Donald showed a big mass of clouds sitting over the Koolau’s on his phone app, however, Marvin aka Guy Hagi  assured us it would go away. Guy Hagi is never wrong, right?

Early start

We passed the caretaker’s barking dog at the entrance and made our way up the road to the start of the Aiea Loop Trail. We totally missed the plane wreckage and waterfall in the cover of darkness. That would be for another day and under better lighting conditions.

Off the loop trail

After trudging in the dark on the loop trail, we soon turned left at the junction to start the Aiea Ridge Trail as the sun woke up the morning.

Up in the uluhe ferns

Our favorite friends on the trails – uluhe ferns. What would we do without you?

H-2 freeway

The H-2 Freeway running through Halawa Valley. The constant humming of cars followed us up the ridge.

Sorry Jose

The ridge soon started to slightly undulate like a kiddie rollercoaster. It was an easy ride, for now.

Spot the waterfall

Rainfall replaced the noise coming from the H-2 as our companion on the hike. We also saw several waterfalls spilling down from the mountains in the distance. No rainbows though.

A little climbing

The rollercoaster ridge kicked up a notch as the up and down climbs increased in pitch and the trail bordered between grass, rocks and mud due to the rain.

At the first false peak

Group picture left to right: myself, Jasmin, Ryan, Marvin, Thessa, Donald and Jose. The clouds actually parted to tease us with a view and then snatched it away again.

Great weather ahead

We resumed our hiking in the clouds and became resigned to the fact that we would most likely be having a zero view hike.

Taking a break at the second false peak

Yup, clouds still all around us and the intermittent pitter patter of rain. Lovely conditions!

Powerlines in the clouds

Approaching the shadowy structure of the powerlines that mark the false summit of Aiea Ridge. The trail winds to the left of the powerlines to gain the true summit. After gaining the summit, we hanged a left on the KST towards Waimalu.

On the KST

Donald and Ryan wisely decided to put on their long pants as we started our hike on the KST, which was heavily overgrown.

Going up

All that stood between us and Waimalu were eight major peaks and who knows how many small ones. It was going to be the sequel to our rollercoaster ridge coming up Aiea.

Powerlines again

Donald checked his phone again and offered up the faint hope that the clouds were moving away.

Going down

No, it seemed we were heading deeper into the clouds.

Enjoying the views

After coming up a small hill or was that one of the major peaks? We decided to have lunch and soak in the wet vegetation and enjoy the cloudy ambience.

Where are the meadows?

Making our way down on the Leeward side of the KST which gave us a brief respite from the narrow and overgrown Windward side.

Is this the right way?

There was a slight disagreement around this point as to whether we were on the right track. We eventually backtracked a little to regain the KST. Being socked in and having no visible landmarks probably didn’t help as well. Always pays to have experienced hikers and GPS in your crew. Or a lot of time on your hands as you wander around the mountains trying to find your way.

Are we having fun yet?

Sliding down the mountain to regain the KST trail. All we needed now was cardboard boxes!

Almost there

Making the final push to the summit of Waimalu Ridge.

Waimalu Middle Ridge

The original hike was supposed to end at Manana and pass by those meadows I heard so much about. But since we were running out of time, we decided to go down the Waimalu trail.

Wide open

The initial trail going down was a wide open freeway.

Not for long

That would soon change as the ridge became overgrown and narrow. Typical KST ridge.

Sunshine!

As we lost elevation and dropped below the cloud deck, sunshine and views of Pearl Harbor and surrounding areas greeted us. Better late than never.

Looking back

Looking back at the cloud capped Koolau mountains.

Waterfall sighting

We left behind the rain but not the waterfalls. That was a good thing.

Sunset

We almost made it to the bottom of the valley before the sun set. Time to break out the headlamps.

Waimalu Ditch Trail

Crossing the Waimalu Ditch Trail at night was definitely an experience. Something I would like to repeat in daylight one day. We must have crossed the good flowing stream at least 8-9 times, I heard a couple hikers got lost and died on this trail, which can get confusing, especially if you do it at night! Travis was nice enough to pick us up at the trailhead on Onikiniki Place and provide us with ice cold Clementines!

GPS Tracks

The hike was a grinding 12.8 miles in cloudy and rainy weather. Wished we could have continued onto Manana, but time and weather was not on our side. It was still a great hike with a great crew.