Kainawa'aunui via Mau'umae Trail - June 15, 2011

Today I was supposed to get to the Lanipo summit, but misunderstood where Lanipo was actually located. The Mau'umae trail is as intermediate as it gets. It's also listed in Stuart Ball's book as an intermediate trail. This trail can get physically taxing to a novice hiker

I had an early 8:30 am start. I was on my way to the Kaimuki area and up Wilhelmina Rise. This road goes straight up the hill. When you get onto Maunalani Circle, park on the side of the road. The people there are pretty cool, as long as you don't do anything stupid. 

The start of the trail is along a fence. When you get to the top of the hill, the ridge opens up. There was some rock scrambling which was great, not too dangerous. There are beautiful views of Diamond Head, Honolulu, Palolo Valley, and Waialae Nui Valley. 

After walking on the open ridge, the trail starts to enter a forest.

The uluhe ferns have invaded this area of the mountain. You go up and down the mountain through uluhe ferns. Crap. Scratchy as hell. Not pleasant. I fought my way through about a mile of invasive uluhe ferns. I thought I was going to bleed, the pain of the scratching can get into your mind, but don't let it. To distract your mind is Ka'au Crater and the cascading Wai'o'ma'o falls to the left. This was my first real-life visual of Ka'au Crater. 

I thought it would look majestic like the pictures on the Internet. But the pictures on the internet look better than the real-life Ka'au Crater. FYI I have still yet to do this hike. What a shame, it looks to be one of the best hikes on the island.  

There are some steep climbs and the trail gets extremely muddy. I was more out of breath than physically tired. I'm usually okay, but I think two weeks of binge hiking is wearing on my body. My mind is willing, but my body is breaking down. The final push to Kainawa'aunui is an all out go for broke to the top. I gathered the last of my energy and pushed my way up the hill to the summit. 

The summit is amazing. You can see all of the windward and eastern side of the island. Too bad my camera doesn't have panorama on it. Adding to the panorama is Mount Olomana located in the middle of the picture.  I sat down looking eastward wondering if I should continue on and tackle the mountain to my right. I decided not to, little did I know that was Lanipo. Shit! I should have done it and should have thoroughly read Stuart Ball's book. The Mau'umae trail is nice, but I'm not sure when I'll do it again. The HTMC clears the hike annually, maybe I'll go then. 

I ate a snack at the summit of Kainawa'aunui. I stayed longer than usual, maybe it was because I was tired. I headed back on the Mau'umae trail and bumped into 7 young adults. I guess college is off for the summer. They asked if they were close, I told them yeah only 2 more hours! The look on their faces was priceless. But I told them that Ka'au Crater would come into view on the left side and the summit features all of the windward and eastern part of the island. That gave them some motivation. Around 5 minutes later, it started to rain.  

I slipped on my ass about 5 times on the way back. On one of the slips, my left foot got stuck under my left hamstring. My leg was in an awkward position, I thought I hurt myself. It felt like that for a little while, but I shook it off and continued on. Great I thought, if I was hurt, they would have to MEDIVAC me off the ridge. Embarrassing. I started to hit the wall on the way back.  I was extremely tired. I also ran out of water which was not good. I had over a liter of water, but this hike requires more than a liter. I staggered my way back to my car. The total hiking time was 4 hours and 57 minutes.   

The after meal hike was 8 minutes away at the Fat Greek. I was so tired that I forgot to take a picture of the food. I ate Gyros, it came with tzatziki sauce. Healthy! A side salad comes with it as well.  The total cost was $8.00.

Ka'au Crater is to the right side and Diamond Head is to the upper left side. Two of the three tuff cones (a violent volcanic explosion can start the formation of tuff cones) on the island of Oahu are featured in this picture. You can also see Koko Crater on the Mau'umae trail. Just Amazing. And I'm not a volcanologist!