Hike long enough on Oahu and you begin to notice that the island is small. It also becomes obvious that you can hike trails -- or blaze your own -- and find yourself in another town on the other side of either the Ko'olau mountain range or the Waianae mountain range. And if you plan accordingly, a lot of those "over the mountain" treks can actually be done in a day.
In my pre-hiking days, if someone told me, "Yeah, you can walk over that mountain range to your house in a day," I wouldn't believe it. Take Kahana Valley to Wahiawa for example? I'd think, "Yeah, right!" "How is that possible?" "Who in their right mind would do that?" Well, a bunch of my friends and I did it for my birthday, and it was long, wet, muddy, and cold as fuck.
Hiking with me was Kelven Del Rosario, Johhny Martin, Daniel Napoleon, Lei Yamasaki, and Ryan Chang. We started around 8am in Kahana Valley, a massive valley situated on the northeastern side of Oahu. From Kahana, we ascended the recently cleared Pauao Ridge trail to the Ko'olau summit. From there we hiked southeast along a short, beautiful stretch along the KST to the Schofield-Waikane trail. Upon reaching the Schofield-Waikane trail, we descended it all the way to California Avenue to Wahiawa Heights. A half-mile walk down California Avenue, and we ended at my house.
The day started off perfect for hiking: clouds were high, the tradewinds were blowing, and an intermittent drizzle would cool us down. It was whole different story along the KST and down Schofield-Waikane. The KST jaunt had its fair share of no-rain moments, but the majority of it was spent in clouds and being pelted by heavy downpours, especially coming down the Schofield-Waikane trail. Almost the entire time coming down Schofield-Waikane, we were getting pummeled by endless amounts of rain to the point where we just took off our shirts -- not Lei -- and jetted down the trail to keep our body heat in check. A little after 7:00pm, we were at the water towers at the top of California Avenue. From there we walked to my house and finished around 7:30pm. Drove Kelven's car all the way back to Kahana to drop Lei, Ryan, and Johhny off at their cars; arrived in Kahana a tad before 9pm. Long day, but well worth it.
To see previous write-ups, pictures, and videos of the trails mentioned in this blog post, check out the following links:
Pauao Ridge - October 18th, 2008
Schofield-Waikane Trail - July 5th, 2009
Pauao Ridge (Trail Clearing) - July 10th, 2011
Poamoho to Wahiawa - July 24th, 2011
photo: D. Napoleon
photo: L. Yamasaki
Looking toward Punalu'u Valley. The prominent peak near the middle of the photo is Pu'u Piei.
photo: D. Napoleon
photo: L. Yamasaki
photo: D. Napoleon
View of Kahana Valley and its bay through the bushes. (photo: D. Napoleon)
photo: D. Napoleon
Heading toward the Schofield-Waikane trail along the KST. (photo: D. Napoleon)
photo: D. Napoleon
photo: L. Yamasaki
photo: L. Yamasaki
photo: D. Napoleon
Finally at the road and Schofield-Waikane trailhead. (photo: L. Yamasaki)
Walking down California Avenue. (photo: L. Yamasaki)
4 comments:
That last picture, looks like you guys in outer space. Nice hike, one day you going do the entire KST
Looks like an amazing journey. Did Poamoho this past weekend and enjoyed it. I'd like to tackle Scholfield-Waikane Trail sometime soon as well.
Great !...
Ciao from Italy
=^.^=
Wow, what an amazing idea.
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