This is a very minor summit rising in Waianae Valley on the west side
of Oahu, surrounded by higher, far more impressive summits on three
sides. Still, it makes for a short, fun outing that can be done in
about an hour - not bad if you have limited time. Access is from
the end of Waianae Valley Rd, the same trailhead used for Ka'ala,
the island highpoint. The TH has a terribly sketchy feel to it -
homeless folks camp in the parking lot
and nearby, and it has a reputation
for break-ins. Still, on most days there is a collection of tourist
vehicles for this popular TH
and the best strategy is to leave the
car completely empty. I hiked up
the road that starts the Ka'ala
Trail for about half a mile until almost due west of Koleali'ili'i.
A break in the tall grass gets you easily to a remote
weather station
just east of the road. This really just saves about 100yds of brushy
cross-country. From the weather station, one drops a short distance
to the normally dry Hiu Stream, then starts climbing up the west side
of Koleali'ili'i. The going isn't particularly difficult, but
necessarily slow unless you want to face-plant after tripping over
any of the many lava rocks hidden in the tall grass. The
grass & forest
slopes seem to have a pace of their own, about 1.5mi/hr if
you want to enjoy the experience without being rushed. There are a
few cliff areas
that can be bypassed on one side or the other. I
used the trunks of the mostly small trees (2-3" in diameter) to pull
myself along and use as support on the steeper sections. I found
plastic bottles and old beer cans
from previous visitors at
various locations - not the remote, untouched Wilderness experience, this one. It took about 30min to make my way to the top, a little
faster on the descent. The summit
was open with views and a welcome, cool
breeze blowing across the top. No nice places to sit for a rest,
though. I initially tried to descend what looked like
a good use trail going off the south side,
but that seemed to quickly
disappear, prompting me to reconsider and eventually go back
the way I had come.
Pu'u o Hulu Kai
This coastal summit
on the west side between Maili and Nanakuli sees
a good amount of taffic. An unsigned but good trail climbs up to the
summit from the north side as depicted on the topo map.
It has a number of pillbox emplacements, WWII-era relics now covered
in graffiti. They're supposed to be neat locations from which to
watch sunset, so that's what we planned by starting around 5p. We
were
able to hike directly from our AirBnB, less than a mile to the
trail. It was easy to find the start of
the trail where half
a dozen cars had parked along Kaukama Rd. The trail was in good
condition - dry, no brush, and very popular. There were several
dozen folks scattered about
the various pillboxes that line the
summit ridge. We hiked up to the highest one
and settled in there, but there was not going to be a good
sunset today. Afternoon clouds had
rolled in to cover most of the western sky.
There was some rain
falling over the Waianae Range to the east, but it only threatened
to move over us. Views are quite fine, however, sunset or not.
We all agreed they were the best we'd had on the island yet.
We were back down before it got too dark and
avoided any rain showers. We'll have to try again another day when
the sunset has more to offer...