Kenji's Last Hike to Complete the KST
Kulana'ahane to Red Hill - May 10, 2014
This hike was dedicated to Kenji who author’s a popular Oahu hiking blog called Trying Not to Fall Off the Edge (http://kenjisaito.com/). Kenji has completed almost all sections of the Koolau Summit. He only needed the section known as Moanalua Saddle to Red Hill to finish up.
Today was his final crossover to complete the entire Koolau Summit. It’s a short crossover about 1 ½ hours or so. The plan was to hike on Kamananui road, take the junction to Kulana'ahane up to the Moanalua Saddle, make the left toward Red Hill, go down Red Hill and take a side ridge known as Godek soon to rejoin the road. I hoped the entire hike wouldn't take more than 9 hours, but packed my bivy, lighter, and extra food just in case. Forgot my steripen though.
Meet up time was 8am to a hot, humid day. I met Bob at the parking lot as he mentioned to me that it was his birthday and asked if I would have a drink with him after, I said sure. Though a lot of people came on time, we all needed to get to know each other so the start time was pushed back. I had a chance to meet new people on the hike like Chris, Donald, Nani, Ryan, John, and a few more. The people who I already knew were an awesome group of hikers. This list includes Bob, LyZel, Jose, Ahnate, Marvin, Kenji, Art, Randy, and Kelly.
We started around 8:30am. It was hotter than a mutha. I drank almost ½ a liter just hiking on the road. We made quick time and got to the base of the spur ridge to the Moanalua Saddle in under 2 hours. The spur ridge was a bitch. I drank so much water and had to take so much rest breaks on my way to the top.
The view atop the saddle was world class. It’s a very beautiful view! We took a very long break, and then proceeded on the crossover. This section is narrow. It kinda startled me for a few minutes, then my abilities took over and I was fine the rest of the way. We all followed Randy up the mountain. He is a pretty good leader and has a good understanding of what to do on these sections of the Ko'olau summit.
As we waited on top of a pu’u, Marvin lagged behind. We waited for what seemed like an hour. Some hikers went down to help him. But he didn’t have it on this day and bailed with Randy and Nani back to the saddle. We then proceeded to the top of Red Hill and got somewhat confused mainly because Red Hill was not on a peak, rather it appeared to be part of the Koolau Ridge. There was however a distinct trail heading downhill. Ryan and Donald said it was Red Hill. I looked at my Backcountry app. and it was indeed Red Hill as it was marked ‘trail’ with the only neighboring trail ‘Halawa’ nearby. Kenji was the last to arrive and we all congratulated him on his amazing feat.
Red Hill is not the greatest ridge as it is overgrown, uneven, and boring. HTMC or another club may have cleared the area because it was way more open since the last time I did it in 2011. We were all quiet going down. I had only one sip of water left and decided to ration it until I got to the road. After near 2 hours on Red Hill, we bailed down Godek and in no time were on Kamananui. We ended the hike at 5:30pm. Bob took out his 12 pk Carona and gave one each to the drinkers of the crew ~ It tasted so good, everyone was salivating at the mouth. I’ve never seen beers chugged so fast by men in my life.
The post hike meal was at the Old Spaghetti Factory. OMG, everyone pounded that food like no tomorrow. I felt so bad for the young waiter who had to endure ravenous hikers. In the end, I’ve never seen so many people drink so much soda and pound so much food in such a short amount of time. Talk about thirst and starvation.
Congrats to Kenji on his accomplishment, he is a good person to be around and a very interesting character, his love for hiking some of Oahu’s most dangerous trails inspires a community thirsty for adventure.
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