Piliwale Ridge to Konahuanui to Lulumahu Ridge

Probably not the best day for a ridge hike or summiting the Koolaus, we (Baron Yamamoto, Joshua Serrano [808 Goonies], Jenelyn Castillo, Katie Ersbak and I) disregarded the high-wind advisory by weather forecasters and ascended Piliwale Ridge to reach Konahuanui (K1). We successfully descended via Lulumahu ridge, where we had staged a vehicle earlier in the morning near the hunter check-in at the end of the Old Pali Road.

The 5 hiker crew started bright and early in the residential area of Maunawili Valley, at the base of Piliwale Ridge (left). We quickly crossed the Maunawili Demonstration trail, as we gained elevation (right). I’ve heard others opt to jump on the demo-trail section just off the U-turn of Pali Highway instead of starting in Maunawili, since it’s at a higher elevation at this point… but today, we decided to hike the ridge in it’s entirety.

The trail stuck to the ridgeline and began to steepen quickly. It was still was easy to follow since it was less overgrown than I’ve read others’ past accounts, though orange flagging tape was common along the trail in areas with thicker vegetation.

As we got higher, the ridge became more exposed and opened up to breathtaking views of Kaneohe, Maunawili and Kailua.

Katie and Baron take a moment to size-up the upper, exposed ridgeline, before descending into a large notch below…

…which was strung up with several old ropes to help hikers traverse.

The scrambles became much more challenging as we got higher, and several of the sections were eroded and were lacked “good” hand/footholds. Webbing was present at several points, but didn’t want to trust them with our full body weight since we couldn’t always verify how secure the anchor was, let alone the strength of the aging ropes.

Though I don’t always agree with using such devices, most of us had to put on micro-spike / cramp-ons to help gain traction on the loose parts of the ridge.

Though this section was virtually bare of vegetation, the views were best at this point. We were now able to see all the way from Kualoa to Waimanalo.

Jenelyn takes a moment to look back and appreciate the view.

The winds started picking up later in the day, which made hiking up the narrow ridgeline much more difficult.

Not to mention several vertical drops on each side, inches from our feet.

Along the way, we encountered several native snail friends… several Philonesia sp. and Succinaedae scattered all over the thicker vegetated areas towards Konahuanui.

As we got closer to the summit, the winds became much more intense and we were enveloped by thick cloud cover.

But at least they parted for a few minutes so that we could get a good view from the summit. The ridge we just ascended is on the left.

After a short lunch break, we were off through the foggy, wet forest, to find and descend Lulumahu Ridge… which at first was not visible by any means.

But was much easier to confirm when we got lower in elevation, since our visibility increased exponentially as we got out of the clouds.

We did see several other swaths that lead to into the valley and upper Lulumahu Falls (which could easily disorient oneself in socked-in conditions like we were),

…but since we staged our cars at the end of the Old Pali Rd, we continued to follow the ridgeline down to the reservoir to complete another epic adventure.

NOTE: If descending the same route as we did, please be courteous to our native friends along the trail. Not only is there a large native snail population, endangered lobeliads are also found here as well. Exercise extreme caution so that they do not get trampled (Josh marked this particular one, since it was located in the middle of the ridge). Please make sure to clean your boots before hiking to the upper reaches of the Koolaus to prevent the spread of invasive alien plants as well. Mahalo!

Piliwale Ridge is definitely an advanced route, and can be very dangerous. The ridge can be extremely narrow, and drops on either side can be 100s of feet. Weather forecasts on the day we went predicted 50 mph wind gusts, which can turn any ridge hike into an extremely dangerous situation. There were also several sections where ropes and webbing were installed to help us traverse geographic obstacles, but this may not be the case for future hikers since they are constantly being weathered… therefore, make sure to have the proper gear if attempting. Please make the safe decision and be prepared to turn back in the case of uncooperative weather or if any of the obstacles are out of your physical abilities.

Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting… Come back again soon!

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