Piliwale Hike
Piliwale – February 17, 2012
This hike had it all – a dangerous ridge, summit crossing, trail connecting, all ending in a waterfall. It all starts with Silver Piliwale. He was a long time hiker for the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC). If you recall, the goal of the HTMC is to find and maintain old Hawaiian trails. In ancient times, message runners called kukini delivered messages to Ali’i chiefs of ruling valleys. Any important message needed to be delivered as quickly as possible so communication would be at a premium. The kukini would have to find a quick route over the mountains to neighboring valleys. The best kukini would keep their routes a secret for life and only pass it on to their children. I digress; Silver Piliwale was a fearless hiker who would re-discover these routes created by the kukini.
Silver Piliwale also pioneered many other routes. One route Silver Piliwale pioneered was a ridge on the windward side that goes straight up to Konahuanui (The Ko’olau’s largest peak). This ridge today is called Piliwale ridge, named after the HTMC legend.
Unfortunately, Piliwale ridge has become infamous over the years. Hikers have had to been rescued by helicopters. Hikers have been attacked by swarming bees. Hikers have been badly injured on the narrow ridge. All these events have scared people from going on this ridge. In light of all these events, great hikers in the hiking community have tried to make this ridge as safe as possible. They have laid rope on the perilous spots on the trail. Hikers have dug footholds on the steep sections. So overall, Piliwale has become a manageable trail for good experience hikers.
Christian invited me on this hike a week earlier. I was supposed to meet him and Marvin at the Manoa Safeway at 7am, which meant an early start, especially coming from Kapolei. We would stage one car near the Manoa falls trailhead and one car at the Pali Lookout. From the Pali lookout, we would start our hike. The weather was awesome, cool, slight wind, and no rain, although rain was in the forecast.
After putting the initial plan to execution, we started hiking on the Old Pali Road to a sub trail that lead to the Maunawili Demo. After hiking on the Maunawili Demo for 45 minutes we hit the Piliwale trailhead. It’s marked very well. The start of Piliwale was a huffer and puffer, we gained elevation rapidly. We took a break and could see the ridge heading up to Konahuanui. It did look intimidating. The first major obstacle was 'the notch' a simple 10 foot rock section. But the climb was at an awkward angle; nevertheless, it was done by all of us without problem. Then there were all these ropes going up the mountain. The trail became steep and the ridge narrowed. The exposure can be compared to Ahiki backside. There were a few more rock sections, and we only had problems on one of them. After the rock sections, the ridge narrowed considerably again. It became scrambling up the steep mountain, which guaranteed a cardio workout. The rain passed over Konahuanui, which it usually does at least once a day. The mountain was socked in with clouds. At about the 4 hour mark, we hit Konahuanui’s first peak with no view because vegetation covers the area. We celebrated by giving each other daps. For some reason, summiting got me excited. If you read my pages, Konahuanui was a peak that always enamored me. Although I did summit Konahuanui once before, getting to the top is always special. After a break, we started traversing to Konahuanui's 2nd peak. After 30 minutes of hiking, the wind rolled the clouds over the mountain and the views started to open up. It was awe inspiring. The vertical ridges from Olympus and Palikea (Ka'au Crater) were outstanding.
Just then Christian said he lost one of his microspikes. So we went to look for it. After 20 minutes, we couldn’t find it and had to move on. It was sucked in by the Konahuanui mud monster. The mud on this section of the KST is shin deep. The mud also reeks of a stagnant smell. That smell can stay in your car and hiking clothes for months, yuck.
At about the 5 hour mark, we hit Konahuanui’s 2nd peak and took the 1 1/2 hour hike on the contour trail back to Pauoa flats and the Nuuanu Overlook. My body was tired. But we pressed on. In order to get to Manoa falls, we needed to take the Aihualama trail which is the bridge trail that connects Nuuanu valley and Manoa valley.
As we hit Manoa falls, we were nearing the 7 hour mark. There were as always, a multitude of tourist admiring the falls. However, the falls on this day was a trickle and looked sad. We blazed the muddy Manoa falls trail passing and dodging tourist along the way.
As we approached my Kia, it finally hit all of us that this was a great day of hiking. We connected 7 trails on our entire trek, probably the most trails I've ever connected in one shot. We had a fascinating discussion about Piliwale and Konahuanui. This hike will hold wonderful memories for years to come.
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