Poamoho: Always leaving an unforgettable impression

Poamoho - April 3, 2016

Poamoho has always been in the Storied Category, why? Because it always which leaves the hiker wanting more. What a selfish bunch of hikers we are! When people ask me what the best hike on the island is, only one hike comes to mind ~ That's Poamoho. You ask any true hiker out there and the answer will be unanimous ~ Poamoho tops the list. If you ask someone who thinks they are a hiker and they say Makapu'u Lighthouse, they need to be schooled on hiking Oahu 101. This hike has it all, for one its short about 1 1/2 hours to the summit 2) the native plants all along the area 3) the view, considered one of the best on the island 4) landmarks Cline Memorial, one of the greatest hiking landmarks on this island 5) Poamoho cabin...there is more. 

We had a big group today which needed 2 4WD trucks. Erik had one, but who had the other? Erik has a co-worker Amber if she wanted to go. She was game, so we had 80% of the crew going, me, Darren, Erik, Allison, Aprille, Daniel, DJ, and Bernice. Also Amber and her friend Blake came along. We met at Erik's house at 7pm. I was surpise Allison came before me as she was suffering from a hangover from her birthday party last night. It was about 7:10 am when we saw this big ass SUV roll up. It was Amber's huge SUV, the thing was like a tank. 

We packed 5 in a car and drove to the Poamoho trailhead. This time we went to the right gate, not like last times debacle where we were at the wrong gate for like 10 minutes. We drove through the 3 gates and the 6 miles taking us at least 30 minutes to get to the trailhead. The dirt road for the most part was very dry. 

trail

We started hiking on 8:30 am. The trail was in impeccable condition. We made slow time, but got to the summit in 2 hours. There was a view this time! It was world class. The summit was windy, but we still enjoyed it. In about 30 minutes we started towards the cabin. On the way there, it was sad to see all these weeds near the fence. These weeds were from the workers installing the fence, no doubt. 

Cline Memorial

meadow

everyone eating Erik's spam musubi

Pano view

The cabin looked close, but it did take us 10 minutes to get there. Inside the cabin was bare. We dropped our bags there and headed to the resting spot right above the cabin. We ate lunch there. After some time, we continued on the KST towards the notch. This place must have made a big impression on Erik, because he remembers a lot about it. I couldn't remember how far the notch was from the cabin, apparently it was close. 

on the way to the cabin

out house

before the ledge

While we walked on the KST, Bernice was in awe at the view in front of us. We got to the ledge. We just stopped and we just sat on our asses enjoying the view. We talked story and sat. In about 10 minutes we got our lazy asses up and continued towards the notch. It was cold up there, we took a group picture and left. 

Erik them on the ledge

Alli on the ledge

group photo  on ledge

Going back was more of the same views. I went to the cabin to pick up my backpack and went over the plan for the rest of the day with the OAG's. We wanted to see the snail enclosure to find some rare snails. 

Darren & Bernice walking to the snail enclosure

photo at cabin

From the cabin, we went to the summit and found the KST again to the snail enclosure. We looked and looked, but only found snot snails, not the rare ones. 

I headed back to the summit. Daniel was taking a nap while David was shooting more pictures. We kept on enjoying the moment and I thought, shit I gotta go work tomorrow. We left at about 2:40 pm. On the way we stopped and looked for some snails, but to no avail. We exited about 4:30 pm and finished the dirt road after 5:00 pm. 

Post hike meal was at Don Yang. Service was slow, but the food was as always excellent. Korean BBQ at its finish. The kalbi and meat jun is out of this world. 

PHM

Kalbi & Meat Jun mix