Kahana Valley

 Kahana Valley Hike a.k.a. Nakoa Trail - July 31, 2011

Summer is over. This will be considered my last hike of the summer, a summer filled with the best hiking of my life. On the HTMC schedule today was Kahana Valley. This hike is considered a favorite hike by many hiking enthusiast because of its variety of plants, interaction with the stream, musical forest, and its pleasant non-strenuous double loop. Even Stuart Ball mentions in his book that, "...the stream loop is perhaps the most beautiful valley walk on the island...There are few things better in life than spending a sunny afternoon by Kahana Stream" (Ball, p.214). So, I was off to Kahana Valley to see it for myself.

First, I met some HTMC members at Iolani Palace. I was curious to see where the meeting spot was for most of the hikes. But most hikers just meet at the trailhead. After a short meeting in back of Iolani Palace, we convoyed to Kahana Valley State Park. There were at least 50 hikers waiting in the parking lot for the Kahana Valley hike. The most I've seen so far. I also met up with Will. We were debriefed and all drove to the parking area before the private driveway. On the private driveway, we all walked towards the Nakoa trailhead. 

The Nakoa trailhead is a 6 mile double loop hike that meanders through Kahana Valley. The trail gets very complicated because there are many sub trails that lead to nowhere and other sub trails that lead elsewhere. The HTMC maintenance crew just did a clearing a few weeks before. In addition, the crew marked the trail with pink ribbons. The trail is literally marked with hundreds of pink ribbon. They did such a great job, that it was too much of a great job. Every 10-15 feet or so were marked with pink ribbons. 

trailhead sign

As much as I wanted to agree with the hiking community of how great this trail was, well, I didn't feel the same way. The trail is muddy, ankle high mud throughout. It is also mosquito infested, especially by the stream. This was the most mosquitos’ I've seen since hiking near the Manoa streams. About one hour into the hike, the trail gets narrow and starts to contour around the mountain. You can see the wide Kahana stream from above. There is also a 20 foot waterfall that cascades into the stream. I looked for a trail down the mountain to the base of the waterfall, so I could take a nice picture, however it was too steep. 

stream crossing

This waterfall prompted my high school memory bank. After school on short Wednesday's, my friend Jason and I would go to this Korean restaurant near Freedom gas station in Mililani. I think the gas station was Fastop at the time. We went there because it was cheap. I think $2.50 for a mini plate lunch. Anyway, we would go so frequently that I notice some of the art work on the wall. There was this beautiful waterfall painting printed on glossy paper. The waterfall was huge and it would cascade down the mountain into a deep pool. On the bottom of the print says Kahana falls. I asked Jason if he thought the waterfall was real. He said maybe, so the dream of going to Kahana falls and frolicking in the pool stuck in my brain throughout high school. During my early 20s, I bought an edition of Stuart Ball's hiking book and read the section about Kahana valley. The description had no mention of a waterfall. I ended up losing the book and so dreams die. 

Will at dam

Another 1/2 hour of hiking and you hit the valley floor. At this point, I was by myself. I crossed the stream many times. The fast hikers were way in front and the slow hikers were way in back. The stream is beautiful; I haven't seen a stream this nice before. The water is crystal clear and flows very smoothly. I paralleled the stream for a while and looked left. There it was! The waterfall! To get to the waterfall, I had to get off the trail and cross the stream. Of course, one major sin of hiking is to veer off the trail. Without hesitation, I veered off the trail and down to the stream bed. I crossed the stream. The water was knee high. I got to the bank of the stream and tried to take a picture, but there was too much vegetation blocking my view. I had to climb up 10 feet of solid rocks to get to a spot where I could take a nice picture. After taking a few pictures I went down the mountain and back across the stream. As I crossed the stream, I looked for a pink ribbon. It took about a minute. But like I said earlier, there were so much in the area and easy to find. 

I eventually caught up with the fast hikers while they were taking a break by the mosquito infested stream. I met up with Will; we talked a bit about hiking. He wanted to leave, so I left with him.

We crossed the stream a few times. This stream is not your rock hopping over a trickling amount of water. This stream needs to be forded. It’s not like a river or a deep stream; however, it needed to be forded. The stream went near ankle and sometimes waist high with a weak current. I was careful not to fall. After about the 3rd crossing, I figured out how to cross the stream properly. Near the end of the trail, you could tell that there was possibly a view, but there was so much vegetation blocking the area which created disappointment. The final stream crossing was over a concrete dam. It was easy, but I wondered how could people cross this dam if there was a flash flood?

We were the first ones to our car. Total hiking time was 2 hours and 40 minutes. I said bye to Will and other hikers and looked forward to seeing them in a couple of weeks for the 14 mile Halawa Ridge hike.