Finding the Castle-Olympus Trail

Castle-Olympus (try) - December 28, 2014

With the year coming to a close, I got invited to do a hike with the legendary Red Baron. Earlier in the week he assembled a crew to try and find the famous Old Historic Castle-Olympus trail. This hike peaked my curiosity as its the kind of thing I'm into. I have a shitload of old trails that I want to do, but with the OAG crew doing the money hikes, lots of my projects are put on the back burner. But its all good, because sooner or later, the OAG's will be ready to join me and tackle these old trails that are in disuse. 

One source of information for Castle-Olympus is found on page 38 of Stuart Ball's Native Paths to Volunteer Trails book. According to the book in 1910 William Castle wanted to build a trail from the top of Tantalus to Konahuanui. Today this is known as the Konahuanui route. William Castle paid HTMC founder Alexander Ford to build the trail while he and his wife left the islands to do a world tour. Ford and William Rowell (designer of the Castle trail in Punalu'u) built a trail that was twice as long as Castle expected. The route not only went from Tantalus to Konahuanui, but continued on a contour trail towards Olympus, and ended on some switchbacks going to Ka'au Crater, ending the hike in Palolo Valley. Castle seemed not to mind the extension though he had to pay for it all. Another interesting note at the time is two additional trails were created to connect to the Castle-Olympus trail. The Cooper Trail a.k.a. Woodlawn trail known today Pu'u Pia/Kolowalu and the Cooke trail known today as Judd/Nuuanu. 

We had 7 strong today ~ Baron, Cory, Chris, OAG ~ Bernice & Darren, & Juri. The plan was to go up Waiakeakua Ridge to Manoa Middle, find the Castle-Olympus trail there, take the contour to K2 and loop it back to Manoa Falls. We got valuable information from a great hiker that the trail was open from Manoa Middle to K3. But we weren't sure what was in store after K3. To be prepared we had a few bailout routes planned and most of us brought night gear just in case. 

Meeting time was a 7:00am, but we started near 7:30am. Why Baron chose Waiakeakua Ridge was obvious? Logically, if you wanted to do Castle-Olympus, you start at Olympus. However, Waiakeakua Ridge is Baron's baby and we were going to give it traffic today so the trail can continue to stay open. The Waiakeakua trail starts on Haukulu Road. The trail looked way different from two years ago. There were lots of blow downs. We reached 50 foot Waiakeakua Falls in about 45 minutes. Bernice had anxiety about climbing the 50 foot waterfall. It is a hair raising experience. Darren guided her up with little problem. As Bernice topped out, she was screaming joy, only to Baron because he was the only one at the top. I was next. I've done the climb twice, and this time was the same. It takes good upper body to get up this thing and mentally you have to be right. If you fall its like jumping out of the 5th floor of an apartment building. The chance of survival is slim. We all made it to the top with no problems and tackled Waiakeakua Ridge to the summit.

Bernice 50 ft. climb

The traverse to Manoa Middle is on a narrow KST Ridge. We went over moderately difficult obstacle known as 'sedan rock'. I would rather of contoured this section, but since everyone was staying true, I guess I was game. Bernice seemed to love the experience. It was a near cloudless today with some haze, so the views were amazing. Once we got to the pines before the Manoa Middle Summit, Cory seemed to find the Olympus-Castle trail with little problem. I shit you not, the trail is wide open. I would think people would get confused seeing two trails 1) KST 2) Castle-Olympus, they do look the same. 

Sedan rock KST traverse

We continued on the Castle-Olympus trail for about 1+ hours seeing the most majestic views of East Honolulu. It was a sight to behold and only a few have claimed to see. I can only explain it as hiking on the northern section of the KST seeing beautiful valleys right in front of you, no vegetation obstructing vantage points. Your literally standing on the side of the mountain. After an hour, we pass K3 and hit a massive wall of uluhe. Bushwhacking took place. Cory led a furious charge, it actually seemed like we could do it. We could visually see someone coming down the K2 trail, so optimism reigned in our crew. We bushwhacked for about 2 hours going in and out of gullies. It was fucked up. After a much needed break, we continued on and lost the trail. We were bushwhacking on a slippery slope pushing through uluhe. I think we all had enough already, but Cory persisted. After about another hour, we were like fuck it, we bailing. It was about 3pm and a good call to bail. The bailout plan was to bushwhack up to the K3 ridge and crossover on the KST. Darren led the charge up the side of a steep mountain, bushwhacking up to the K3 trail. Thank god some great person cleared the K3 trail. It was steep, but at least we didn't have to bushwhack to the top. After topping out on K3, we were so relieved. The views, although hazy today were world class. We continued on the KST Ridge towards Konahuanui. The money view beckoned at K2. Cory had no water left, so he went ahead. I was exhausted when I topped out, but got a cloudless K2. 

Castle-Olympus

K3 ridge

K2 $$$ view

We took a quick break and bailed down the K2 trail. My feet were sore, but not as sore as Manana-Waimano last Friday. It took us less than 2 hours to hit the Nuuanu Overlook, we were so happy. It was about 5pm when we got to the Aihualama trail, it took us 1 hour to get to Manoa Falls and about 30 minutes out to the road. Darkness had already fallen and we used our flashlights to get out. I was amazed at how well paved the Manoa Falls trail looked, they really manicured it for the tourist. I was also perplexed at the tourist who continue to visit the falls even at night with no backpack, flashlight, or water. No wonder why they get rescued all the time. Cory was waiting for us at the Manoa Falls trailhead saving us the 15 minute walk back to our cars on Waaloa Place.

Manoa falls at night

Post hike meal was at Honolulu Burger Company. We had such great discussion, but we were so loud. Haha, I think everyone in the joint was like WTF these hikers. I had good fun though especially with these die hard outdoor enthusiast. 

I don't know if I would like to finish Castle-Olympus especially with other projects as priority looming in the near future. To complete Castle-Olympus I still would have to do the Olympus-Ka'au Crater portion and would have to work on the K2 connector where bushwhacking will be inevitable. It was a good hike nonetheless. It does take a certain mindset to do a hike like this. I'm frickin' exhausted and gonna be in a world of hurt tomorrow morning. 

more pics, Haha