Tom Tom to Pu'u O Kona
Tom-Tom to Pu’u O Kona – April 21, 2012
I never did the Tom-Tom trail before, hell I didn’t know where the trailhead was. After today, there was no doubt that I would find it and do it again.
Tom-Tom is a windward ridge in Waimanalo. The trail is the easiest out of all the southern end windward ridges on the Koolaus. In ancient Hawaiian times, kukini were able to use the Tom-Tom trail to hike from Waimanalo valley and deliver messages to Ali’i Chiefs in the many Hawaii Kai valleys.
Tom-Tom is a trail named after two Toms back in the early 1920s, HTMC named the trail “TomTom” to honor Tom McGuire (a forester) and Tom Cadle (HTMC president) who rediscovered the ancient Hawaiian route (Nate Yuen, HawaiianForest.com).
The plan today was for Ikaika and I to hike from Tom-Tom to the Kuliouou state trail. We staged one car at Kala’au place near the Kuliouou trailhead and then made the long drive to Waimanalo. (Long is relative) We would park on Maunawaialoa Street and start the Tom-Tom trail.
The Tom-Tom trail is initially overgrown, but opens up and is easily defined. It goes up and up. Ikaika led a good pace. I was out of breath pretty fast trying to keep up with him. Nevertheless, I controlled my breathing somewhat, and tried to keet up. Views of Waimanalo showed up and provided a great photo opt. After 30 minutes of huffing and puffing, we topped out at the windy summit and took a short break. My legs were tight, but I knew it would loosen up as we progressed. Ikaika did some stretching and some karate or tai chi moves.
We continued on the Ko’olau Summit Ridge Trail (KSRT) towards Mariner’s Ridge. We thought it would take a while, but in no time we reached the topping out point of the Mariner’s Ridge summit. There were at least 15 hikers that were resting at the summit. We passed them and continued towards the saddle. This section was steep, but was way easier than the last time I did it. It’s still crumbly. We took our time and garnered some curiosity from hiker's at the lookout.
Ikaika and I started talking about our crew – 7D (Aida, Christian, Ikaika, Marvin, me, Steve & Ted). We had a discussion on how we all first met each other and laughed because Ikaika never met Christian yet and I haven’t met Aida yet. Only Ted and Marvin hiked with everyone so far. In the future, most of these hiking stories will feature 7D. No doubt, our crew has done some of the most advanced hikes on the island – dangerous and endurance hikes alike.
We hit Hahaione quickly. I could identify the top out point because of the pyramid like shape of the rock formation. During last spring break, I went down the rock face of Hahaione. Going down the Hahaione top out point is fun. I would recommend it to any hiker that wants to climb down a good size rock face without risking death, though if you fell it would result in an injury.
After another 45 minutes of hiking, we past the Mauna O Ahi terminus, then made our way past the poles and towards the Kuliouou lookout. As we topped out, we saw two good looking girls at the summit. When they saw us, they fled and ran away down the hill. WTF? Ikaika and I laughed, we must have scared them. When Nate and I did Pu’u O Kona last summer, we were socked in and cold. By the time we hit Kuliouou , the lookout was empty. Nate blurted out, “Where are the chicks?”, feeling that the popular lookout would treat us to some eye candy. Of course I’m happily married, but what man wouldn’t want to see a bunch of beautiful girls at the summit of a mountain. Well those times are scarce, except today. But the girls ran away.
At the lookout was supposed to be the end of the hike and we were supposed to drop down the state trail to the car. However, it wasn’t 10 am yet, so we pushed on towards Pu’u O Kona. The dark clouds flew over the mountains providing some rain. The clouds were moving right through us. It’s so surreal when the clouds do this. The winds started to pick up. It’s a good experience while hiking on this part of the KSRT because although not death defying, your mind will get use to high winds on a narrow ridge. Feeling comfortable in high winds on a razor thin ridge will prepare you when doing the dangerous sections of the KSRT, it’s an experience you’ll need. The trail on this section is narrow and eroded. Since Ikaika and I have done this section before, we went at a fast pace. But if you’re new to hiking, it would be a good idea to go slow and be methodical.
After hitting Pu’u O Kona, we started Kuliouou West. This ridge is nice, not as nice as Niu Valley. In my opinion Niu Valley is the best ridge out of all the Hawaii Kai hikes. It’s the only Hawaii Kai hike that the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC) rates as advanced. Kuliouou West comes in a far second or third in my ratings of Hawaii Kai hikes, still not too shabby considering the many ridges in Hawaii Kai. Going down Kuliouou West was still enchanting. There are some steep sections and these sections are really brittle. Luckily there are ropes to assist.
About 1+ hours of hiking and we hit the junction going down towards the valley and the Board of Water Supply station. Ikaika and I made our way back to the car and I drove him to Waimanalo to pick up his car. Another great day of hiking, the more you hike the more you appreciate this island.
More 7D to come.
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