Similar in topography to Sacred Falls, Maakua Gulch is a narrow, canyon-like gulch in Hauula. Though the beginning of the channel is fairly wide, the upper reaches of the stream are considerably incised and endangers hikers with flash-flooding and falling rocks. There are several waterfalls further back in the valley where ascending old weathered ropes may be used to proceed… however, should not be trusted by any means if one’s safety is valued. Watching videos and reading others’ descriptions of their accounts in Hauula the Lost Trailblazers (Seth, Jenelyn and I) were determined to investigate the deeply incised valley.

Lower in the valley, the trail was surprisingly well kept, but by the time we hit the first stream bed crossing it became more faint and overgrown. I’ve read several accounts by other people who have gone into the valley and ended up rock-hopping much longer than they intended to… only seeing the contours on the stream banks on their way out. We stuck to these contours as much as possible, in attempt to avoid wasting energy rock-hopping or injuring ourselves on potentially shifting rocks.

For the first half of the hike, we were treated to several handfuls of mountain apples or ‘Ōhi’a ‘ai (Hawaiian name)… which were surprisingly still abundant so late in the season.

Surprisingly, we didn’t encounter flowing water for some time, which was probably a good thing since this is last place I’d want to be when the notoriously large volumes of water pass through here.

Hiking further back into the valley, the stream channel began to narrow as the walls began to steepen.

When looking up at the sky, I could easily capture both walls in my frame… even with the camera on my phone.

At the first geographic obstacle, a small pool and cascade, we stuck to the walls to prolong getting our clothes/gear wet. These types of hikes tend to get pretty chilly when wading through numerous pools that don’t receive much direct sunlight…

Similarly for the next geographic obstacle, Seth tries to stick to the shallower water near the walls.

Jenelyn puts less weight on the weathered rope and more on her “cleated, felt tabis.” Which was probably much safer under the circumstances. We are all wearing this type of footwear for the entire “wet” portion of the hike.

A few pools and riffles later, we approached one of the more sizable obstacles that I’ve seen in other accounts…

A steep, slippery wall of moss and ferns… supplemented with what looked like an aging synthetic rope. As with this and many other ropes found on such hikes, there was no way to verify how well anchored the line was, how much weight it could bear, nor how long it had been there…

And therefore, we put as little weight on the rope as we could to ascend.

Fortunately there were several hand/foot-holds to supplement having one hand on the rope… Particularly, when navigating the shredded, short, fibrous rope near the top.

The third waterfall (or what I’m guessing is the 3rd), was the most dangerous to ascend. The slick wall was ~ 40 feet, with very little holds and a shredded woven rope… or lack there of.

A fall from this would be the least forgiving, as the pool below it was littered with uneven sized rocks/boulders and was only inches deep.

However, trusting my felt-bottomed footwear and climbing abilities, I was able to advance above the falls without putting little if any weight on the rope.

Happy to not have won a Darwin Award, I rock-hopped upstream for a short ways, only to find a fork in the stream bed. One fork led to a dry 50 ft waterfall chute, while the other led to small 20-25 foot waterfall (again with an “lack there of” rope). Trying not to pull on the rope, I ended up climbing the 4th waterfall to see if there was, or how far away the fifth falls was… as indicated by the shredded pieces of synthetic rope I encountered while rock hopping above the falls. However, I ran out of time and Jen and Seth were waiting for me at the bottom of the 3rd falls, so I decided to head back downstream.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have gone in as far as I did… making it past the 4th falls, looking for the 5th. The existing ropes on the 3rd and 4th falls were EXTREMELY weathered, and again, there was no way to determine how secure the anchors for either were. If my feet cut out at any point, there’s a good chance the rope would have broke and I would have become debilitated… or have met my maker. Much props to the adventure(s) who put up the original ropes years ago. Not sure if they hiked the adjacent ridges and descended into the gulch from above to secure the anchors, or if they free climbed and anchored the ropes while they ascended. I do not encourage doing this hike by any means, but unlike me, please stay safe if you decide to adventure here.

Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting and come back again soon!

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