Getting to the Waimalu Meadow

Waimano-Meadow - February 4, 2017

This hike was going to be a grinder no matter what way you cut it up. The overall goal was to hike Waimano-Aiea with backup plan #1 Waimano-Meadow back to Waimano or backup plan #2 Waimano-Waimalu Middle. After doing Waimalu Ditch last week, I had a feeling that the Middle Ridge trail would be in bad condition to hike. This led me to the assumption that going down Waimalu Middle would be a bad idea and we would only  go down as a last resort. 

I predicted a 12-13 hour hike. Sarah wanted to invite her boyfriend Uhi and friend from Japan Jena. I said ok, but they probably wouldn't be her friend after the hike. Going on the hike today was the overnight crew; Darren, Erik, Aprille, Bernice, and Sarah. Also Darren's girlfriend Jana would be coming. 

I met Erik & Aprille in front of the Aiea gate at about 4:30am to stage a car. From there, I drove us to the Waimano trailhead. A lot of hunting trucks were in the area. We started the hike a little after 5am. 

Using our headlamps, we were able to navigate the Waimano trail easily. After 1 hour in we encountered the hunters. They turned us away giving every excuse as possible. They said we have to take an alternative route. They were really pushy. We granted their request and tried to take the alternative route, but after about 25 minutes of hiking, it was leading us towards the wrong ridge. We were heading towards Waiau ridge and a huge setback to our plan. We decided that the best thing to do was confront the hunters and continue on our originally planned hike. 

The best thing to do was to stay quiet. That is what we did. We encountered the hunters a little more than half way on the trail. They still did not want to let us through. I talked to one of the guys and told him, will be quiet, just let us get onto the ridge. He went over to his friends and they were not happy. We came to an agreement that they were onto a pig, so let them drop into the valley, we continue being super quiet while they try get their pig. We waited about 5 minutes to let them drop into the valley. We continued being super quiet. About 15 minutes later we heard the digs getting a squealing pig. They got their pig and we were on our way to the summit. Too bad we didn't negotiate earlier with them. 

The upper parts of Waimano was in good shape. It was beautiful! We hit the summit at a little over the 5 hour mark. We lost about 1 hour, but were on our way to our goal. Unfortunately it looked like we weren't going to make it to Aiea today. 

at the summit

The day was voggy, it was really bad vog. The summit view at Waimano looked like the fog engulfed the island of Oahu. We traversed the narrow Koolau ridge for about 2 hours until we hit the Meadow. Jena, Sarah's friend was scared at the serious drop offs. But Bernice told her she should focus on the trail and not the steep drop offs. 

section with steep drop offs

We got to the Meadow at about 12:30pm. It was how I imagined it to be. Last time visibility was minimal and we didn't get to the see anything. This time even with the vog, the visibility was 100%. Add to the fact that the meadow was dry which was a first for me. Usually the meadow is wet. 

Bernice claimed a little mound. I joined her to eat my lunch. It was so dry you could lay in the thick grass for days. I made a hot dog lunch and it tasted so good. Too bad the hot dog was a little cold. Everyone else was too tired to eat their lunch on a mound and just settled for the nearest spot. 

Waimalu Meadow

eating hot dog at Meadow

group photo at Meadow (pc Erik)

I wanted to stay there forever. It got a bit cold and chilly which made it somewhat unpleasant. And then, everyone got cold and wanted to leave. For me and Bernice we said that we wanted to stay forever. At about 2pm, we headed back towards Waimano. The hike back was short about 1.5 hours on the Ko'olau Summit. When we got back to Waimano we knew we had about 4 more hours left of hiking. It was near 4pm. We figured we'd be out by dark at about 8pm. 

It was a grind, my knees were sore. Everyone was feeling some aches and pains. We haven't done something like this in a long time and we all were paying the price. It got dark at about 7pm, we pulled out our headlamps and put them on until the hike was over. 

We stayed together and finished a little before 8pm. Bernice, Sarah, Uhi, and Jena couldn't stay for PHM. The plan was to eat at Shiro's. I still had to drop off Erik and Aprille at Aiea to retrieve their car. Shiro's was pleasant, but we were so tired and needed to recoup calories. After good stories at Shiro's, I went to Foodland to buy beer, and then to McDonald's to get a Mcflurry. When I got home I ate my Mcflurry, but didn't have any energy to drink beer. I fell asleep in a heartbeat. 

Shiro Saimen

Shiro Hamburger and fries