Mount Olympus to Manoa Middle (July 9, 2011)

Hall of fame hike? That’s what it felt like with the presence of so many hiker “greats” on the same trail. Nate Yuen, Steve Rohrmayr (Waianae Steve), Marcus Griego, Baron Yamamoto, Jeremy Kreis…. just to name a few (Just missing David Concepcion and Laredo Muredo for a full house!). Despite my feelings that I’ve over-explored Manoa Valley, I was somewhat entralled by a new hike (to me), “Mount Olympus to Manoa Middle loop trail…”

Organized by the Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC), several of it’s members and a large turnout of new faces convened at the Puu Pia / Kolowalu trail head in back of Manoa Valley. HTMC president, Jay Feldman, gave us a short speech about hike objectives and safety (left). After introductions, we soon took off up a muddy Kolowalu Trail (right).

Most of the HTMC crew swept the back, while the new school held down the front. Pictured above, Shaun/Ryan Armstrong, Jason Antolin, Jeremy Kries, James Beckwith, Baron Yamamoto, Justin Ugalino, Nate Yuen, Chris Wong, Wendy Tan and Marcus Griego.

We soon hit the Waahila Ridge junction and started hiking in an open canopy.

The guys taking a break at one of the ridge clearings. Waikiki and Manoa Valley in the background.

Justin snapping some iPhone pics. Views (left to right) of Mount Olympus, Diamond Head, Waahila Ridge, Manoa Valley and Tantalus.

After one last muddy section we reached the summit (summit pic located at top), where you could see Waimanalo, Maunawili, Kailua, Kaneohe to Waikiki.

We soon found ourselves on the Koolau Summit Trail (KST), heading northwest.

Baron representing on one of the high points of the ridgeline.

Wendy, looking lovely as always. Rest of the crew traversing a narrow saddle portion of the trail.

Once we reached the top of Manoa Middle Ridge, we were treated to views which now extended to Manana (Rabbit) Island in Makapuu.

The decent down Manoa Middle Ridge was a mild graded one and was fairly wide (thanks to our vegan hiking colleagues).

Baron and Marcus passing through the bamboo forest near the bottom of the ridge, where the gradient became very steep through a thick forest of Strawberry Guava.

At the bottom, we junctioned with Waiakeakua Trail, about 15-20 minutes before the series of large waterfalls upstream (note: Waikeakua falls pics of David Chat were not taken on the same day).

After having a considerable break next to the stream, we headed up the Puu Pia Trail junction (surprisingly only a few minutes downstream) which lead us back to the Kolowalu trailhead (see below).

The Kolowalu and Waahila Trail are wide and fairly moderately easy in hiking level. However, crossing the Koolau Summit Trail and Manoa Middle Ridge is probably intermediate in difficulty because of some narrow, eroded portions of trail. The loop took us about 6 hours, but we hiked moderately quickly up Kolowalu/Waahila thanks to Marcus Griego, lol. Make sure to bring plenty of water and shoes with grip (possibly microspikes). The KST can be very windy, and there are several steep drop-offs. Make sure to verify the local weather forecast before hiking and if you do decide to do this loop, please be careful.

To view this location on a Google Map also known as my “Adventure Map“, Click Here. For more adventures of the Lost Trailblazers, either look at my other blogposts or “Adventures with the Lost Trailblazers” photo gallery.