Waianae Kai - July 17, 2011 

It was my second hike with the HTMC in as many weeks. On the schedule was Waianae Kai. I thought this trail would be easy and well marked. The second part holds true, it is well marked, but the trail is not defined, though there is a trail. In addition, I didn't realize that there was a network of trails in Waianae Valley. A club member said it reminded him of the Tantalus network of trails. Although not as elaborate as the Tantalus network of trails, the Waianae trails can still get complicated and confusing.

The day started off at 7-11 in Kapolei. I bought a turkey sandwich, starburst, and Gatorade. Starburst is a good energy boost because of the straight sugar. The meeting place was at Steve's house. I thought it would be a quick drive to Waianae, but it took the same amount of time as driving to Mililani, 20 minutes. We met at Steve's house at about 8:30 am and were brief about the hike for the day. At about 8:45 am we headed towards the start of the concrete road. I also met up with two people I met last week from the Schofield-Waikane hike, Kahele & Kristen. Steve said there were a lot of thefts at the parking lot near the concrete road a week earlier, I made sure to take all valuables with me.  There were around 30 people for the hike and we all started on the concrete road at about the same time. 

I had a chance to walk with Waianae Steve. Waianae Steve is considered a hiking legend. If you go to his website, it provides more information about him. He has been hiking in Hawaii for almost 50 years. He  maintains the Waianae trails pretty much by himself. Though he probably gets help from friends and volunteers from time to time. We were looking at all the peaks in the surrounding area. From afar, Waianae Steve showed us the peaks in the area which included: Ka'ala, Kalena, Hobbs Ridge, etc. He talked about the trails he marked with different color bottle caps. He told stories of great hiking adventures. It was a very enlightening experience listening to him. 

On the way to the trailhead is Waianae Well One, you could actually drink the water. It is a natural well, there is a pipe connected to it and the water goes through the pipe and comes out of a faucet. Amazing! I drank about a cup of water, it tasted like natural spring water. We got to the trailhead in a little over 20 minutes. As you can see from the picture there are two trails.

Straight leads you to Ka'ala and another trail, left is Waianae Kai and Tiki Ridge. The trails to Waianae Kai and Tiki Ridge are initially overgrown, but opens up after a few minutes. There are a bunch of stream crossings, the stream was dry. I guess it only fills up after a down pour. Waianae Steve marks the Tiki Ridge trail with red bottle caps and Waianae Kai trail with white bottle caps. These bottle caps are pressed on trees. Tiki Ridge is on the same trail as Waianae Kai, so you'll see both bottle caps by each other. The trail isn't too defined, it is a little difficult to follow, luckily the bottle caps are in the area. In about 15 minutes we hit a junction. Going up the mountain is Tiki Ridge, going straight continues Waianae Kai. I decided to go up Tiki Ridge. 

In Stuart Ball's book, Tiki Ridge is considered an expert hike. Its all uphill. You gain about 1000 feet in less than a mile. The mountain is steep, I was behind this guy from the country Turkey. We went at the same pace and we both slipped multiple times because of the steepness of the mountain and the smooth leaves that covered the ground. Luckily, I followed the guy from the country Turkey because the people in the front went up the mountain so fast that they were nowhere to be seen. After about 30 minutes of hiking the steep mountain, we had to do some rock climbing. The first two were short, maybe 6 feet tall. The third was a 15 foot face with some cables. The rock face was vertical and if you fell you would tumble at least a 1000 of feet into the valley. That's not good. I waited my turn. After about 5 minutes, it was my turn. The cables were strong. I climbed my way to the top with little problem, there were good footholds, all you needed was to lift yourself up and you'd be fine. After the rock section is more uphill climbing. I lost track of the Turkey guy and took the wrong route to the top of the ridge. The vegetation was so thick, I had to break branches off just to get through. When my head appeared, HTMC members were laughing saying, "what the hell are you doing there". I said, "I knew this couldn't be the route?". They said I had to go around, not through [vegetation]. The problem was three people behind me were taking the same route. As they made their way through the vegetation, I apologize for leading them the wrong way. I joked around saying, "I wanted to give you more of a workout". We got to the top of Tiki Ridge, going left would lead you to No Name Peak. We ended up going right and down the saddle to the rest area. To get down Tiki Ridge, you have to parallel the fence and hop over it a few times. Why, I don't know. There were these wooden planks so you could step over to get to the other side. Going down was quick and we eventually made our way to Three Poles.

Three Poles is a resting spot on the trek to Mount Ka'ala. It also can be an indicator to where you are actually located on the ridge. I ate lunch with all the members. We talked about hikes we've done and analyzed all the areas of the Waianae coast. I took a great picture of the Waianae area. The view was amazing. From Three Poles we descended down the mountain. I tried to follow the members, but they went so fast. The trail down to the concrete road was steep. It took at least 45 minutes. All you have to do is follow the orange bottle caps and you'll be fine. We got to the concrete road and to the parked cars. I checked my car and nothing was broken into. What an experience this day was. My first hike in Waianae. I learned a lot and would like to explore the valley a little bit more.

The hike was fast, around 4 hours. Since I ate a moderately big lunch, I wasn't hungry. I kind of wanted to check out the restaurants in the area, maybe next time. I headed back home to Kapolei.