Kolekole Pass to Puu Kaua, Waianae Summit

A long one, but bear with me on this… I’m trying detail some bad and unsafe hiking habits so that others can learn from our mistakes this day…

On a typical day, Puu Hapapa Ridge Trail is a pretty awesome trail (Photo: 04/2011). On Scholfield Barracks in Wahiawa, you drive up to the apex of the Kolekole pass and begin your “short and sweet” journey up to Waianae Summit… calling it the Waianae Summit Trail (WST) from here on out (see map at bottom of page).

The trail is a short and sweet scramble up and down several notches along the ridgeline… (Photo: 04/2011)

Breathtaking, scenic views of Waianae Valley, the North Shore, Wahiawa, and rest of the southern Honolulu cities until Diamond Head can be viewed at several points (Photo: 04/2011).

Most of the trail is fairly safe, well maintained and maybe rated moderate-intermediate in difficulty (Photo: 04/2011).

One of the areas where scrambling / free climbing is used… though if you are hesitant about this there are usually contour trails / paths present (Photo: 04/2011).

The summit is gorgeous and one can almost appreciate a 360 degree view from Waianae, Honolulu and the North Shore (Photo: 04/2011).

However, Baron Yamamoto, Julie Lee and I hiked the along the Waianae Summit Trail from the Kolekole Pass on a, “Not so typical day.” We met at 6am near Palehua Trail Head to stage our cars, as we were about to attempt completing the entire southern Waianae Summit (From the Kolekole Pass to Palehua: 11 miles).

“A lesson learned” is what I’d title this day’s hike… Almost like we were getting tested on our hiking ability and safety techniques. Yeah… I’m pretty sure those are clouds beneath me. Crazy.

The normally dry rocks were extremely slick from being socked in by the dense cloud cover. We actually started in clouds from the parking lot, and here, the pass totally encompassed by them. I would never recommend anyone scramble or climb rock under these wet conditions, especially without proper footwear (e.g. spiked / felt footwear)… Red flag #1.

The trail, or lack there of, past the summit of Puu Hapapa was EXTREMELY overgrown. The above photos do not describe how congested the ridge was, as I could not take out my camera to take pictures while crawling on my hands, knees and stomach. Intentionally or “unnecessarily” pushing oneself through such thick vegetation is not safe and is by no means encouraged, particularly for a long / narrow / unmaintained hike (at least at the time) such as this one… Red flag #2.

There were short stretches of narrow, exposed ridge that lifted our spirits… especially since the elevation of the clouds started to raise as if they were curtains showcasing a grand prized view.

Julie also had a death defying moment one hour after passing the summit of Puu Hapapa. Years ago: “Her mother developed severely allergic when she was near Julie’s age, and almost lost her life when she was stung by three bees outside of her home… She thought she was fine, until her speech started to slur and her tongue felt numb. Her pulse started to race, and then drop severely… to the point where her breathing stopped completely and needed to be resuscitated in an emergency room. Her mother was fortunate that she survived this traumatic experience… Julie herself, was once stung on the ankle over 20 years ago, and could not walk for two weeks due to the extreme swelling that occurred following the sting. Afraid that she would go into anaphylactic shock like her mother, she often carries a self-injectable EpiPen (epinephrine injection) when committing to outdoor activities.”

Today was the day she had to pull it out of her pack.

Feeling like a knife had stabbed her through her left pant leg, she found a honey-bee removing it’s own stinger from it’s abdomen. We quickly checked the sight of penetration for remnants of a stinger. Julie ended up using both oral and topical benedryl (H1 Blocker) as we iced the site of the sting, but we had the EpiPen ready need be. We also gave Julie a Pepsid AC (H2 Blocker)… H1 and H2 are two different types of receptors that react to allergies, and using both would hopefully minimize the allergic reaction. She called her colleague Andy, an ER physician, who quickly summarized minute-by-minute breakdowns for the symptoms of a anaphylactic reaction. Baron and I tried to calm her down, reassuring her she would be okay and that we were by her side, as she seemed like she was going have a panic attack. She reported having numbness in her lips, though we were considering this to be at least partially due to the anxiety. Being much colder than usual on the ridge, we wrapped her in a large poncho and actually started playing some mild folk tunes from an ipod to keep her calm.

After 20 minutes of regularly monitoring her pulse and assessing for any symptoms of an anaphylactoid reaction, she felt a little better and could move around more freely. Though not fully in the clear, we all decided that it would be best at this point to move her to a part of the ridge with less tree canopy where she could be easily be medivaced in case things turned for the worse. Baron carried her pack and lead, while I followed Julie closely from behind and made sure she was exhibiting coordinated movement and that she was physically capable to hike across the narrow, overgrown ridgeline.

After reaching a clearing on a false-peak near Puu Kanehoa, Julie reassessed her symptoms as we all took a break. Feeling she was in good health enough to not make an emergency call, she gave us all hugs and agreed to push on…

…as the trek back “appeared” even longer than our final destination (Final destination left, return trek right). Red flag #3.

At this point, I mentioned to baron if he could check the gps on his phone to determine how far we were along the summit trail, as it was about 2:00 pm. Stubbornly, he stated that he didn’t want to know where we were, as it might demotivate him from going further… A little over-ambitious and over-confident, on an under-spec’d trail (no offense bro… trying to have others learn from our mistakes). Red flag #4.

Pushing on to Puu Kanehoa, we were treated by superb views of Honolulu and Diamond Head, as well as unusual geographical features…

A huge boulder, or small crag, several stories high was planted into the ridgeline. The rock feature had extremely vertical faces, similar to that found at Makapuu Crag.

After passing Puu Kanehoa (which was too overgrown to get any view), through what seemed like miles of intense vegetation on the WST, we reached the two tooth like features near the base of Puu Kaua. The first peak didn’t look too difficult to scramble up, but the second one looked pretty nasty. Baron checked his phone just prior to the base, and realized we were barely half way to Palikea. Being almost 4pm, we had to evaluate our options; to continue on and finish in the last part of the trail in the dark by (a) climbing both, (b) climbing the 1st peak and contouring around the 2nd, (c) contour both peaks… OR (d) bail out down one of the adjacent ridges next to the teeth / Puu Kaua, and still get out while in daylight. Baron attempted (a) and/or (b), but quickly changed to plan (c)… Doing so, we ended up on the side of the steep, crumbly slope on the side of the peaks… Trying to contour and encountering a series of red flags, we realized we were not going to get around and up Puu Kaua, at least, not safely today. Now off the Waianae Summit, we had to recalculate how we were going to execute (d). We tried as best we could to traverse the slope of peak side bases and work our way back to the top of the ridge coming down perpendicular to Puu Kaua and the WST. I was optimistic that this ridge had a maintained fence-line on it, as it would make our trip down far easier than continuing to push our way or crawl through the brush as we had been doing all day.

After a few sketchy moments scrambling up and sliding down steep slopes, I saw the fence-line and a cleared line down the ridge.

We ended up intersecting the Honouliuli Contour Trail, perpendicular to the ridge line. This was a relief to be walking on an actual trail again, but we still had to figure out the best path to get back to civilization. The Honouliuli Contour Trail is a long trail that starts near the Kolekole Pass and intersects Palehua Trail (where we were trying to reach earlier)… However, it was far too late to try and reach the cars at Makakilo by foot and ended up jumping onto one over several unlabeled trails towards Kunia.

At ~ 5:00pm and hiking for almost 10 hours, we reached a well traveled dirt road and could now easily determine the quickest route to Kunia Rd. It was still almost an hour more of walking to our rendezvous point for pick up, but we were hiking out safe just before sunset and were going to be home soon.

What you can learn from the above details of this past weekend??? Probably several things… Hiking in Hawaii is a privilege, don’t abuse it. Not everyone hikes at the same level… Just because someone else has done it does not necessarily mean everyone else can. Research your hike and make sure to estimate how much time you will need to finish the trail… There are several informative blogs (e.g. Kaleo Lancaster’s Blogspot, Nate Yuen’s Native Forest site, Dave Concepcion’s Blogspot, David Chatsuthipan’s Unreal Hawaii Site, Josh Serrano’s 808 Goonies site, Troy Takara’s blogspot) that detail most of the hikes on the island and illustrate them with photos and/or videos. The Oahu Weekend Hikers Facebook Group / Forum is a great place to ask questions of which many Oahu hikers of various skill / experience will respond to (including the hikers mentioned above). Moreover, you should map your geographic challenges and break down your hike time and predict your daylight with mapped landmarks (e.g. above). Several 3-d mapping applications are available, e.g. Google Earth and ArcGIS Explorer. Familiarize yourself with how to read a topographical map, especially if you are using a 2-D mapping service. Make sure that one or more people in your group has a stocked first aid kit, as well as knows basic first aid. Know what kind of allergies you have, if any, as well as how to treat a severe allergic reaction in the event that you do encounter an unfavorable scenario. Wear appropriate footwear and don’t attempt to hike in bad weather, regardless of how much planning and how anxious you were to do the trail on a given day. Hike on well maintained trails. Don’t crawl or shove your way through bushes, when if anything, you should be clearing them first. Know what your options are and know how to come up with new ones. Be able to accept when you’re beaten and how to cut your losses. Make sure other people know where you are going to be and what time you are expected to come out.

There are obviously a myriad things you should know and acknowledge before hiking, but I was trying to convey what could be learned from this particular hike. This goes to show that even hikers with quite a bit of experience are vulnerable to screwing up. I hope you learned something by reading this. Stay safe out there and happy hiking.

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 and “Adventures with the Lost Trailblazers” photo gallery.