Alewa-Kamanaiki - June 7, 2015
This hike was on the radar for years already, but was left undone, not even tried. Last person who tried and succeeded was probably Dave in 2011. Kamanaiki is a weird hike, not only does it start by going up a staircase, but it ends on a hill, not a summit. Pass the hill is actually more ridge eventually hitting the Alewa Trail, but its overgrown with guava & uluhe. Kamanaiki intersects the Alewa trail at only 2/3 the way up to Lanihuli, resulting in probably another 1 - 1 1/2 hours of hiking just to summit Lanihuli. Being that Mo'ole is the most sexiest way up to Lanihuli, people tend to do that trail instead.
Last time in 2011, I did Kamanaiki solo and didn't think I got to the hill marked by the big Ohia tree. This left me with a feeling of emptiness. I wanted to do Kamanaiki again, but decided to wait and do the entire trail, it was pretty much a carbon copy of Dave's route in 2011.
Today was the day. I invited Kenji, Khym, and Marvin. Kenji invited Gen and Glenn. I can't remember who invited Jose, but he is always invited. These hikers have done a lot of difficult hikes, its actually an impressive list, one that can rival any crew on the island. We are all humble hikers, so there was no alpha, macho attitudes going on. Many hiker's on the hike today are also part of Kenji's crew, they all have the personality of what I call the "Kikaida Way". This type of attitude on a hike is what I aspire to become. Kenji has a way of attacking hikes with a mixture of reckless abandon and control. The crew is objective and fun loving, but focused. The hiking pace is swift, but relaxed. The overall theme of the hike is to enjoy yourself and not take it too seriously. My opinion is that its an interesting hiking dynamic one that should be studied in the hiking community.
The plan today was to park at Kam. Shopping Center, jump in Glenn's big truck to Na Pueo and do Alewa only to the Kamanaiki junction. We would then bushwhack Kamanaiki down to the HTMC break spot and exit. I chose to do this hike because HTMC was clearing Kamanaiki and I thought we would need to have an open trail at the end of the hike in case bushwhacking Kamanaiki took a major toll on the group.
Glenn drove to Na Pueo and we started the bypass trail at about 7:30am. About 1 minute in, there was this chair with an amazing view of downtown. It looks spectacular in the day, but may even look more spectacular at night. The Alewa trail has many ups and downs. Everyone was strong and we didn't have any problems. Gen and Khym led a strong pace and in a little over 2 hours we hit the Kamanaiki junction.
Initially we couldn't find a trail, so Jose made his own. Jose's push gave us momentum to bushwhack. In the beginning, we hit a super narrow ridge with a big drop to the right. We had to take it slow, but Jose did a great job. After about 15 minutes, I took over. But only for 5 minutes as I lost the trail. Jose found the trail and continued to bushwhack. He did so for about 25 more minutes. The trail miraculously opened up and our pace sped up for about a quarter mile. Uluhe protruded over the trail, but there was a small swath. Khym and Kenji pushed forward and were solid. We made good time. After a break, we encountered strawberry guava, but the ridge was open. We hit the HTMC junction and the Ohia tree probably after 1pm. For some reason the tree wasn't marked. We seen a trail going left and right. Going right was Kamanaiki, going left was ???. We later found out that going left was down a spur ridge to loop back up with Kamanaiki.
Kamanaiki junction, Kalihi Saddle straight ahead
bushwhacking through uluhe
We saw a lot of the trail clearers while going back. I saw Ralph and talked story with him. We were surprised at how open the trail was and the amount of work the clearing crew did. Kamanaiki is actually a beautiful trail if cleared. The views are of Kalihi Valley to Sand Island and beyond. As we exited Kamanaiki, we walked down the road and made a left towards Kam. Shopping Center. The walk was about 1.3 miles, it was good because we could talk story with one another. This was also Khym's normal walk in the hot sun, he walks to work every day.
walking back to Kam. Shopping Center
Eventually we got to Kenny's. We changed clothes and went inside the restaurant. I never been nor have eating at Kenny's. Glenn told me that you have a nostalgic experience there, but apparently they did some renovating with new tables, booths, and walls. So the feeling of nostalgia didn't happen. A lot of us ordered the Hawaiian Plate which was good and felt healthy. They gave a huge portion of poi, which wasn't fresh, but was huge. It was good fun socializing with these hikers and a great experience.
Kenji at Kenny's, not Denny's
Big bowl of poi
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