Honouliuli Contour Trail to Puu Kanehoa to Puu Hapapa Loop

It is obvious that trails don’t maintain themselves. Plants and shrubs can quickly overgrow them, trees fall, and landslides/erosion can make a path disappear anywhere from minutes/months. Trail maintenance is important to keeping hikers (hunters, researchers, resource managers, etc.) safe, as well as to help decrease the difficulty to complete a trail. State trails are usually cleared under the direction of State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Department of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), Koolau Mountain Watershed Partnership (KMWP) and the US Army. The Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC) (If you’d like to help maintain trails, the HTMC welcomes volunteers as they clear several times a month), the Sierra Club and many other recreational hikers also do considerable clearing on Oahu. Despite the many agencies and groups that maintain/clear trails, there are still a long list that constantly need work. Besides being overgrown and eroded, some trails are being closed due to trespassing on private land or are restricted by private land owners, etc. Thus, new trails are often cut to create new adventures for hiking enthusiast.

Given that, I was invited to do some maintenance on an overgrown portion of Waianae Summit Trail (WST) this past weekend by fellow hiking celebrity Baron Yamamoto. The specific target area was between Puu Hapapa and Puu Kaua, as we had discovered on a previous hike that the majority of the trail that was once there was basically non-existent. Therefore, we were motivated to re-open this section of the Waianae Summit.

To access the WST, we decided to follow the Honouliuli Contour Trail (via the Kolekole Pass) and attempt to go up one of several ridges that transect the WST.

We were under the assumption that the Honuliuli Contour Trail was well maintained, as sections that we had previously encountered were wide and appeared well kept. However, this is not the case for the areas we did not see (e.g. several sections parallel to the Kolekole Pass and Puu Kanehoa). The trail was exceptionally overgrown with Clidemia hirta, Lantana, Thimbleberry and either Elephant or Guinea Grass (not to good with grass IDs, haha). Despite not being our main objective for this trip, we tried to clear some of the invasive plants on the contour trail, … and unfortunately, significantly impeded our progress.

There were also several landslides and fallen trees that obstructed the trail, and made it difficult to reach our destination to ascend to the WST.

After about 5 miles of ~ 4 hours of hiking on the contour trail, we came to the intersection with a ridge trail to Puu Kanehoa near a grove of Evergreens. The intersection was listed in an older version of Stuart Ball’s, The Hikers Guide to Oahu, though I don’t know if it is listed in the current version. The trail was not obvious by any means, so we flagged the start with pink ribbon. If this color conflicts with any other hiker’s trail markings (i.e. Waianae Steve), much apologies.

Some of the old trail markers were visible, but most of the ridge trail was unmarked and overgrown with Clidemia… and appeared no one had hiked it in “who knows how long…”

As we got nearly halfway up the ridge, near a false-peak, there was an opening where we could see our final destination (Puu Hapapa) and Mount Kaala in the distance.

We finally got to the top and intersected the Waianae Summit Trail after almost an hour of ascending up the ridge (~130pm), and were next to the false-peak just before Puu Kanehoa. We decided to head in the Puu Hapapa direction (opposite to Puu Kaua) as we wanted to reach the KoleKole Pass before dark. Baron made sure to only clear non-native/invasive species or selectively cut native plants that were directly obstructing our path, minimizing the amount of damage to the native flora.

We traveled ~ 1/3 of what was our overall goal, which was by no means meant to be completed in one day. It will definitely take a couple more trips to get to Puu Kaua.

With the sun setting, we decided to wrap and head out to Puu Hapapa around 5pm. We passed an amazing 3-story crag on the way there… would love to climb it someday if we can get some anchors secured at the top. 🙂

We reached hapapa by just before 6pm and took a well-deserved break. At this point, we had almost been hiking/clearing for 9.5 hours and were in deficit of 1000s of calories.

As we descended, an amazing sunset was in store.

Though it was getting dark, we were compelled to take as many photos as we could, as neither of us had been on the notches of this trail in the evening.

I’m sure you would have done the same.

I do not suggest anyone do the Honouliuli Contour to Puu Kanehoa to Puu Hapapa Loop Trail, unless they are planning to help maintain it. Most of it EXTREMELY overgrown and can be dangerous in many places. Traversing from Puu Hapapa to Puu Kaua is not recommended either until more of this section of the Waianae Summit Trail is cleared. If you decide to do either, be prepared for an advanced, all-day hike (> 10 hours). You should carry at least a gallon of water and compact, high-calorie snacks with you. Make sure to not hike alone and with other experienced/advanced hikers on this trail. Let other people know where you are and what time you will be out of the trail safely.

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.