Pupukea to Laie Trail – May 27, 2012

Never hiking anywhere near this section of the Koolau Summit Trail (KST) before, I readily snatched up the opportunity to hike from Pupukea to Laie with Chase Norton and Scott Bowling and do some strawberry guava removal/ Trail re-flagging. Chase had told me that one of the most overgrown sections, and areas one could get lost in on the northern KST, was a section between the Pupukea Trail junction with the KST and the summit of the Malaekahana Trail… The particular section did not appear to be maintained for quite some time and was choked with strawberry guava that could viciously gouge your eyes out… No, not really, but it would definitely slap you in the face while walking through it. Not wanting this to happen to anyone else while traversing along the KST, we did some light pruning of the invasive species along the trail on our way to Laie… Once there we pushed on to check the Kawailoa Cabin (no longer there) and lookout, as the view there was far better than any other area near this section along the KST. We later backtracked and went down the Laie Trail, where we had staged a car earlier that morning. Not the most exciting section of the KST, but definitely one of the safe ones.

After following a short section of dirt road, the trail becomes a well-kept, paved road. No really, seriously, the asphalt looked brand new and in better condition than almost any other road on Oahu.

The contouring road meanders for some time (maybe 30-40 mins at our pace) before reaching the above “road narrows” sign, which loosely marks the trailhead junction that leads to the KST.

We soon reached a fork which either would either lead us to a scenic point, or to the KST.

Since we were on a mission, we quickly took off on the right fork. The trail was well kept, and I’ve been told that the Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC) and local boyscout troops help maintain the it.

That is, up until the lunch spot… characterized by the conventional “3 ribbons” marker.

From here on out, the trail was pretty awful… the strawberry guava was horrendous, followed by some moderate Uluhe fern tangles.

We cleared what we could, but there was just too much to do in little time…

and the primary objective was to reflag/ribbon the worst section of trail, the area between the lunch spot and junction with Malaekahana Trail.

We soon reached the Laie Trail junction, approximately 5 hours and 7.5 miles from the Pupukea Trail head…

And took a decent break from the wind in the foxhole…

We pushed on further along the KST to reach our lesser-goal,

to visit the Kawailoa Cabin campsite, which was only another ~ 0.5 mile away…

or at least, where it used to be. lol. Apparently, it had been moved a couple weeks earlier according to Chase. I kinda wanted to see what it looked like after Chase talked about it in his KST traverse documentation… Oh well, more reason to explore more of the northern summit that I haven’t seen.

However, the main reason why Chase wanted to take us here was because of the RIDICULOUS view. We could see from Ewa all the way to the North Shore, including the entire Waianae Mountain Range.

Just a short ways from the cabin remnants, was one of the earlier water sources Chase used along his KST adventure. Not the clearest of water, but I’m sure water clarity had little to no importance to him along the way.

A short while later, we headed back to the KST – Laie Trail junction…

and started heading down the 6 mile trail back to civilization.

We considered checking out Laie Falls, but I personally didn’t think it was worth it since the weather had been somewhat dry lately. Chase hadn’t been there before, but I would rather he see the awesomeness of Laie Stream in it’s entirety (i.e. the Laie 18 Hike).

Although the dip in any of the upper 4 or 5 falls/pools of Laie would have been awesome, we continued down the trail to the grove of Norfolk Pines (I can’t tell the difference between Cooke Pines and Norfolk, so forgive me if I misidentified them).

Not having been here in almost a year, I had forgotten how long it took to get out of here, haha. The trail back down to the baseball field where we park is hella long.

At least we were all still in good spirits and ready to feast on some Papa Ole’s in Laie!

Affordable broke da’ mout’ kine grindz, and a couple rounds of Boddingtons Pub Ale to wash it all down.

Mahalo nui loa to Chase Norton for showing us the first leg of his eight day journey along the Koolau Summit Trail. An epic adventure that will be surely remembered by many for years to come. AND ALSO for introducing us to Papa Ole’s, which may be almost comparable in epicness… I will always eat or pick up take out there when passing through Laie. Thanks again bro!!!

To read more about Chase’s Koolau Summit Traverse, check out David Chat’s excellent write-up on Unreal Hawaii, which also has a link to download the pdf of Chase’s personal journal during his 8 days (7 nights) on the trail. 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. Thanks for visiting and come back again soon!

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