Connecting Kawailoa

Laie-Papali - June 18, 2014

Initially this was suppose to be Laie to Kawailoa. The goal was to hike the Kawailoa trail to the spot where Erik and I turned around in April 2014. By doing this, we could connect the blue lines on our gpx file. However since Erik had the whole day off and I'm in summer mode, we decided to tackle Laie-Papali. If I remembered correctly, I did this route with DGC and hiking crew and it took us 16 hours to complete, albeit we did get lost multiple times. Erik asked me during the week if we could do it faster. I hesitated, but threw out a number of 12 hours. What made this more crazy was that we started late 8am and we were going to go down Kawailoa to the spot. 

To do this hike within 12 hours, I told Erik we have to be efficient which means minimal breaks and quickly problem solve the difficult twist and turns of the KST. We staged a car at Daniel's house. He has always been helpful when we plan these hikes and should very well be appreciated for his generosity. Erik drove his truck to the Laie Community Field where we started at exactly 8am. We booked it up Laie in under 3 hours, took a short break, and continued onto Kawailoa. It took us 30 minutes to the dirt mound, a massive pig wallow in the Kawailoa area. Erik had a good idea of leaving our packs right below the Kawailoa summit and go down Kawailoa to the spot where we turned around. It took us 30 minutes to get down there in some heavy overgrowth. Once we connected the blue line, we turned back and found a trail to the top of Kawailoa. This maybe one of the best views of the northern KST. The view is primarily of the Waianae Range with the Kawailoa windmills to the right. We took a while there as Erik wanted to soak it up. Also at the summit is the helipad. As we exited down the summit a military helicopter landed on the helipad. We decided to wait to see what it would do. The pilot started doing some amazing flying. He went back and forth hovering only 100s of feet above us and almost clipping trees in the process. 

Kawailoa Helipad

military helicopter flying over us

We left Kawailoa near 12pm and worked our way on the KST towards the fence and Koloa Cabin. The mud was bad on the windward side and slowed progress. When the KST contoured Leeward the overgrowth was bad and it was hot, slowing progress some more. We reached the Koloa Cabin at 2pm and ate lunch. Erik brought word class pork chops and it gave us a boost. We wrote in Allison's journal which appears to have a cult following as a series of all-star hikers have wrote in the book. 

Koloa Cabin

We left the cabin at 2:15pm and continued on the KST following the fence, up a steep incline. The mud was bad and I couldn't find grip. With only one spike on, I appeared only a novice hiker slipping and sliding on every step. Immediately after the incline, the fence line ended at Pu'u Kainapua'a where a notch was cut a long time ago to make way for the KST. This valley which could be called Kaipapa'u Valley could hold riches of waterfalls and native plants. We continued further for another 2+ hours until we hit Castle Summit marked by a pole with a can on it. If I remember correctly, that was Ted's chili can when he was still part of the 7D crew. Maybe ask Marvin since he was on that hike with Ted and balut.

It was 4:37pm already and we only took a 5 minute break before heading down the Castle Extension trail, some people call it the Kainapua'a trail which doesn't make too much sense to me. The extension trail was muddy and overgrown. It took a long time. Prodding along, we finally made it to the HTMC junction where a short trail goes to the Castle Lookout. I told Erik we go since he hasn't been there. He appeared tired already, I just headed up the trail and he followed suit. I spent a lot of energy trying to keep the hype of the Castle Lookout on the down low. But now it was time to hype it up, so I told him, "your going to see something special". He seemed to not listen to my comment. I sat down while Erik was preoccupied with something, when he looked up, he was like "damn, that's amazing". After some clouds moved away, we got a pristine view of Upper Sacred Falls. 

Upper Castle Falls

Now it was the dreaded hike down towards the Papali-Uka/Castle Junction, what a bitch! After 45 minutes, we started Papali Uka Ridge which we both assume was going to take us about 3 hours. After about 1.5 hours the sun started setting and we got to see an amazing view of the sunset. The place got dark and we put our headlamps on. I was so tired already and felt weak. I tried to make good pace going down, but kept slipping. I actually got frustrated which is a rarity, but I had to move on and handle the situation. I must have fell 20+ times going down Papali Uka Ridge, just ridiculous and an embarrassment. Erik took the lead when the Papali Uka trail veered left. He became preoccupied with the narrow ridge and spider webs. It was hot going down. Sweat was streaking down my face, I usually wipe the sweat, but with my headlamp secure, I had to keep on readjusting it. 

Finally a little after 10pm, we got to Daniel's house. We immediately went to Laie park to see if Erik's car was there. It was okay, we picked it up, and we went back to Daniel's house. There, we changed out of our dirty clothes. Daniel bought Panda Express for us earlier and we devoured that food like dogs. We talked for about an hour bantering about anything we could think of. Erik must have been preoccupied about working the next morning. 

Driving home I was so tired, not sure how I was able to drive home. I wanted to pull over the side of the road and go to sleep, but kept awake and got home. I was so dirty, so I had to take a quick shower and fell asleep once I hit the pillow.