The Very Dangerous Pu'u Manamana Hike with a Thunder Storm Rolling In

Pu'u Manamana - May 28, 2016

We did a variation of this hike 5 years ago called Kahekili-Manamana, we eventually got to the 1900' Lookout. The hike we did today is in Stuart Ball's book called Pu'u Manamana. For this hike, you don't get to Pu'u Manamana, rather you get to Turnover and have the option to get to True Manamana, but that wouldn't happen today. 

It was only Erik and I, we decided to do Pu'u Kaua, but when we got there a security truck was waiting at the entry gate. Discourage and not wanting to take a risk, we left. We had to choose a hike to go on since Plan A was off. Two options we considered was Pu'u Manamana and Kaena Point to Pu'u Pueo. 

We chose Pu'u Manamana. We wanted to go up Cemetery Ridge get to Turnover and go down Manamana Ridge. We thought it would take 4 hours but...

We parked on Trout Farm Road and had some trouble finding the trailhead. Erik texted Baron for trailhead directions, he said the trail starts behind the small cemetery, thus the name cemetery ridge, duh. The hike up cemetery ridge was fun in the beginning. Erik felt it was similar to the Pu'u Piei hike. Views opened up quickly only about 30 minutes into the hike. Who said this was a crappy hike? We took a money shot on a rock. The trail lead uphill for a while, it was relentless. 

small cemetery

trailhead behind cemetery

Kahana Valley

Erik starting cramping pretty early in the hike, which slowed his progress. After about 1 hour, I got to a rest area which I thought was the summit. It wasn't. Instead I could see Manamana ridge in the background and it appeared far away. The trail went right and paralleled Manamana. Shit, this was going to take a while. Added to the misery is the ups and downs and the uluhe, my god the uluhe! After about 3 hours we reached the Manamana Junction and turnover. All I could think about was Papa Ole's beef stew. I texted Daniel to see if he wanted to eat with us after the hike, he was game. 

uphill through lauhala trees

Kahana Bay

I waited for Erik and we took a long break at turnover. We saw a group of guys making their way from Manamana. Coincidentally, they started the same time we did. They wanted to know how to make a loop out of it. We told them, they'd have to go down cemetery. 

view at turnover

The weather looked like it was turning for the worst. I checked my doppler and saw the moisture cells were coming this way. I got preoccupied as I thought to myself, how are we going to do the climbs in bad weather. It was past 1pm already and as we started down Manamana ridge. The uluhe was protruding the trail scratching our arms. My arms seemed to handle the scratchy uluhe. 

Erik was struggling at this point, already 4 hours into the hike. He could barely lift his feet off the ground. The rain seemed to be in the valley, but didn't make its way up on the ridge. I was still preoccupied as it was coming. The anticipating was excruciating. 

We passed the Kahekili Junction and got to the climbs. The exposure was real. Surprisingly, the weather held up as we easily made the climbs, even Erik and his cramping seemed to handle it well. We took our time and got out at 4pm (6 hour mark), not bad considering we left Manamana ridge a little after one. The walk back to the car on Kamehameha hwy. was quick and we got to my car in no time. I text Daniel that we were done and that we would pick him up to go to Papa Ole's.

Kahana Bay

climbing section (p.c. Erik)

skinny ridge of Manamana (p.c. Erik)

heading toward narrow dike (p.c. Erik)

(p.c. Erik)

We drove to Hau'ula to pick Daniel up and got to Papa Ole's. I thought the beef stew would be sold out, but it wasn't, plenty left over. I ate almost all of it. We probably won't do cemetery ridge again, unless we do True Manamana. The hike takes a lot out of you even though I'm in pretty good shape. Hope Erik recovers with his cramping. 

Papa Ole's beef stew