Mariner's Ridge Hike in Hawaii Kai

-

Mariner’s Ridge – March 28, 2011 (*as of January 2013, Mariner's Ridge access has been closed to the public.)

Mariner’s Ridge is the second easiest hike to one of the summits of the Koolau’s (#1 being Kamehame ridge). The hike starts in Hawaii Kai and ascends most of the way, but even kids and dogs can do this hike. To get there, you have to drive nearly to the end of  Hawaii Kai .GPS Kaluanui Road in Hawaii Kai. At the bottom of the street you’ll see the Mariner’s Ridge sign.  After the sign, is a 5 minute drive up the mountain. Park just before the trailhead. You can see the trailhead from the road. The sign at the trailhead says private property, KEEP OUT! Even in Stuart Ball’s book, it says that Mariner’s Ridge is a forbidden hike.  Not sure who owns this land, but the trail is maintain pretty well, defined, and there are lots of people who hike this trail. There are no major subtrails and it would be nearly impossible to get lost. On the way there you can see Kokohead. Like all summit hikes, it gets pretty windy. On this sunny day, I say the wind was blowing about 25 miles per hour. You go uphill most of the way, and its not steep at all. A little huffing and puffing, but you’ll reach the summit in no time. I took 35 minutes. At the top, just like Hawaii Loa Ridge, you see the windward side and the eastern side of the island. Just a beautiful sight. At the top, there is a moderately steep saddle and another peak that appears manageable.  Maybe one day I’ll venture to this peak. The picture on the right shows that although moderately steep, it should only take about 10-15 minutes to get to that peak. From that peak, I can only imagine a 360 panoramic view of Hawaii Kai and the Windward side. My journey of reaching  mountainous summits in the Hawaii Kai area continues. Wiliwilinui next?

view of Hawaii Kai

view of Waimanalo at summit

KST



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring a hike in Mililani

-
Image
Waikakalaua Stream – November 23, 2012 We didn’t find the tunnels today, but that’s okay. A few months back, I scouted possible access points to get down towards Waikakalaua Stream. Today, along with Erik, we would find what we were looking for. Erik has lived in Wahiawa his whole life and I have lived in Mililani most of my life. This hike, albeit an exploration hike would make a lot of sense. Waikakalaua stream separates Wahiawa from Mililani. The hike is described in Stuart Ball’s original book, though I don’t have that book, it wouldn’t matter today as we were going to explore a different route.        Our goal was to find the pool and tunnels. We would allot ourselves 2 hours in and 2 hours out, for a total of 4 hours. Erik and I met at the Park & Ride, and immediately we drove up the road. We took a left on the road across Mililani Ike and followed it till its end. After getting out of our vehicles, we immediately tried to find a trail going ...
Read more

Kipapa Trail to Schofield-Waikane

-
Image
  Kipapa to Schofield-Waikane – June 14,15 2013 First of all, the initial plan was to get to Papali-Uka, but that didn’t happen. It is apparent that this route was for the grinders. Knowing what we know now, starting from Manana and getting to Papali would have been a three day thing or a two full day excursion. What we experienced was two 10+ hour hiking days and it was a hard 10+ hours for both days.  The plan today was to start on Manana drop into the valley towards Iliahi ridge, then drop into the valley towards Waiawa, and drop into the valley again towards Kipapa. From Kipapa, we would make the long hike up to the Ko’olau Summit, then to Waiahole Uka, crossover to Waikane, and then all the way to the Poamoho Cabin where we would set up camp. In the morning, we would make the long traverse to Papali Uka. The plan seemed ambitious, it was. But with ambition comes character building and gained experience which makes us into better hikers. To be a good hiker, you have to pus...
Read more

Getting to the Waimalu Meadow

-
Image
Waimano-Meadow - February 4, 2017 This hike was going to be a grinder no matter what way you cut it up. The overall goal was to hike Waimano-Aiea with backup plan #1 Waimano-Meadow back to Waimano or backup plan #2 Waimano-Waimalu Middle. After doing Waimalu Ditch last week, I had a feeling that the Middle Ridge trail would be in bad condition to hike. This led me to the assumption that going down Waimalu Middle would be a bad idea and we would only  go down as a last resort.  I predicted a 12-13 hour hike. Sarah wanted to invite her boyfriend Uhi and friend from Japan Jena. I said ok, but they probably wouldn't be her friend after the hike. Going on the hike today was the overnight crew; Darren, Erik, Aprille, Bernice, and Sarah. Also Darren's girlfriend Jana would be coming.  I met Erik & Aprille in front of the Aiea gate at about 4:30am to stage a car. From there, I drove us to the Waimano trailhead. A lot of hunting trucks were in the area. We started the hike a l...
Read more