Konahuanui 3 -- Waiakeakua Loop

Author:  Pete Clines <peteclines@YAHOO.COM>

“Hiking is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.” That held true for several aspects of last Sunday’s outing. The weather, trail conditions, and even the route would all be a surprise when Duc, August, and I started off into Manoa Valley at 8:40am.

First, the route. I originally planned to lead us up Manoa stream and bypass some waterfalls until we could no longer progress, and then we would climb to a side ridge and decide what to do from there. Simple enough, as Laredo and I had done this previously, encountering 17 falls before we decided to loop out another way. But on this day we only got past two falls –by climbing banyan trees as seen below –before we made a split-second decision to keep climbing up the ridge we were on instead of following the stream.Figured we were already pointing that direction....

So up we continued, sometimes with evidence of previous hikers –a swath -and sometimes not. Steep and slick, but not particularly dangerous, we soon hit the crest of the ridge we were climbing from the west (shaded) side. We took a snack break before popping up onto the ridge top where we would be blasted with the heat of the sun. (And no trades to cool us.) Since I mistakenly only brought my thick rain pants –which trap in heat like a rubber suit –I groaned under the knowledge that I would not be able to wear them as we continued upridge. Since this would mean my shins and thighs taking a beating on the overgrown route, Duc and August volunteered to rotate off with me as lead man today.

Below, August takes a picture of the ridge ahead of us. Konahuanui’s major peaks are visible. On the left (in the shadows) is K1 at 3150’...then K2 at 3050’...and K3 at 2900’. Our newly formulated plan would now lead us up to K3at the center of the photo. Notice how sunny (and warm) it looks.

Our next surprise of the day would be the vegetation along this ridge. It was surprisingly easy to get through –at least when compared with other“seldom used” ridges in the area. At times a swath seemed to exist, while at others it seemed we were the first visitors for quite a while. The low-growth meant excellent views and we could see a group of hikers descending the Konahuanui trail across the valley to our left (west). They whooped out upon seeing us –we did likewise –and I imagine they were curious how we got there. 

When we got to the 2500’ mark we were on a level spot and our best guess was that we were standing on the intersection with the old Olympus-Castle trail. This was somewhat “confirmed”as we could see a faint horizontal line continuing along on the ridge to our right (east). Pretty cool. As we scrambled the final 400’to the top, we observed that the weather was rapidly changing. We could see the clouds streaming in from the west, and figured it was only a matter of time before the rain hit us. Below, Duc races to the top as the forecasted lousy weather sets in.

 

We hit the summit of K3 at 1:15pm and were quickly socked in with clouds. The rain soon followed and the temperature dropped markedly. This was yet another surprise/contrast of the day. The hot, sweaty climb was replaced by a downright chilly lunch break. Fortunately, our summit was enclosed by a cluster of those mossy trees like on K1-K2 so we had a windbreak and a partial rain cover above us. August switched into rain gear to stop shivering, while Duc munched, and I carefully applied salsa to my bean/cheese/rice burrito. Yummy.

We hunkered down for over an hour at the summit, and Pessimistic Pete groaned that we would be in for a wet, view-less crossover along the Koolau. But as we popped out of our enclosure, we were thrilled to see our next surprise. High clouds and gray skies remained, but the low clouds were lifting!

So we enjoyed the scene for a bit, and then departed the summit at ~2:40pm heading east. As we hiked along, the low clouds continued to disappear and reveal the awesome terrain below. 

Full of energy and having done this stretch many times recently, Duc raced ahead. August and I poked along at a slower pace to soakin the beauty of the area. The chilly temperatures and light breezes made for comfortable travel. At one point, August and I spotted a ridge far below that appeared to have a swath running through the uluhe. A possible windward route that we were unaware of? We saw no continuation of this route along the summit ridge, but it might warrant an expedition in the future. Below, August points in the direction of the swath. Also visible is “Olympus Windward” from a couple weeks ago. It looks sort of nuts from this angle.

Moving along, we started to get this warm sensation –the sun was breaking through. Rain jackets came off and it started to feel like typical Hawaii again. We took some photo breaks, and August snapped this one of me in my not-so-camouflaged outfit. (My bright yellow backpack can’t be seen from this angle, but I looked like a test pattern for Laredo’s next hairdo.) 

Soon after, we arrived at a trail terminus at 2400’. August and I got thereat about 4pm, but Duc had already been there for a while enjoying the windward views. In no hurry, we all hung out until ~4:50pm when we noticed the clouds starting to engulf us from the Manoa-side. We began our descent into the Middle of the valley, with clouds obscuring much of the way. No worries, we’ve seen it before.

We made good time....dropped below the cloud line...and hit Waiakeakua Stream at ~6pm. We all jumped into the pool out of tradition more than to cool off, and after the break we were on our way out of the valley. Back to the cars at sunset. Another enjoyable loop hike safely concluded. 

Author:  Pete Clines  <peteclines@YAHOO.COM>

Hike date: 30 January 2011