Hiking to Mount Olympus in Manoa

Olympus - June 10, 2016

After much consideration, Sarah wanted to do a ridge, so we decided on doing Olympus-Manoa Middle. 

Start time was at 8am at Alani Drive near the Chinese cemetery. Joining the hike today was Darren, Bernice, and Sarah. I carpooled Darren as Bernice was parked. We joked that Sarah would get there at 8:30am, but she arrived early. 

We started up Alani towards Kolowalu at 8:11am. For some reason, it took us forever to get up Kolowalu to the junction, like two hours or so. Apparently, we had a lot to talk about. It was good discussion, really good. 

We headed up the Olympus trail at a somewhat faster pace. However, at each helipad, we talked story. I mean a lot of story. Not seeing each other for a while, yielded many things to talk about. We finally summited Olympus past 12pm. It took us over 3 hours to summit. Darren and I waited like 15 minutes for Bernice and Sarah to make their way. They took so long, so we went to look for them. They were talking women conversations.  

We spent what seemed like forever there at the top of Olympus. I think we needed each others company. Low and behold, the summit cleared because of the strong winds and the view was dominating, the wall to the left, Olomana in front, and the KST to the right. It was kinda late already, so we bailed on our crossover and went the same way we came up. 

After more stories, we left and headed down. Going back was fast, maybe two hours or so. Post hike meal was at a place called the Golden Pork, but Sarah said to check. I did, it was closed. 

Backup plan was Goma Tei at Ward. Darren and I found prime parking and met up with Bernice and Sarah. The Tan Tan was the bomb. We talked more stories. It was such an awesome day of hiking. The only stressful part was to figure out the bill, which we did. The pictures says it all. 

Kolowalu Trail

Almost at Olympus

Tan Tan Ramen at Goma Tei