More photos on Flickr: Mount Olomana, 4/18/10

I started out at the end of Komo Mai Drive and briefly followed the Mānana access road up to the second utility tower. From there, an obscure side trail led me under the tower and down the ridge into Mānana Valley. At the bottom I crossed a dry Mānana stream and began working my way up Iliahi Ridge through a grove of strawberry guava.

After scrambling over a few rocks and eroded sections, I reached a broad plateau completely covered with tall grass and ferns. I took a short break to catch my breath (too much ice cream during the week) and marvel at the spectacular views of the Wai‘anae Mountain Range and Mānana Valley.

Continuing along the path, I eventually reached the ridgeline proper and followed it mauka through scattered forests and uluhe ferns. Along the way were Klu, Philippine Ground Orchid and Lilikoi flowers in full bloom.

Eventually the trail ended directly across from a covered bench on Mānana ridge. Turning backwards, I immediately began descending a wide, well defined path down an uluhe-covered side ridge.

At the bottom I walked a short distance through Mānana Valley before crossing Mānana Stream a second time, then began climbing back up Mānana Ridge. Topping out on a scenic overlook above a burnt and eroded section, I took a short break before following the wide Mānana trail back to my car. Good thing I took a chance with the weather that day – this was a really great hike!

More photos on Flickr: Iliahi Ridge, 4/17/10

Bonus: Philippine Ground Orchid in black and white

Last Sunday I had to help run camera during my church’s morning service, so I wasn’t able to join the hiking club on their members-only hike up Godek-Jaskulski Ridge. However, I really wanted to go hiking that day, so Elden and I decided to spend the afternoon exploring a little-known trail above Pearlridge called Waimalu Ditch.

I’d read about this trail before on Kaleo Lancaster’s blog, and used his excellent trail description to help us successfully navigate the barely discernible junctions and prevent a repeat of what happened to John Parsons in 1998.

The trail started off innocuously enough as a dirt path on the side of the entrance to Nahalekeha gated community. True to its nickname (Dogshit trail), there were piles of golden turds all over the place – I guess some things never change.

Fifteen minutes after starting the hike, we entered an area overgrown with tall grass. Near the entrance to the tall grass section there was a hole in the ground that had cool air blowing out of it, probably fed by the large mouth of a nearby cave. Once we pushed through the annoying tall grass, the trail opened up again.

Along the trail we passed a large tree on the side of the path that had fallen over. We also passed another tree exactly like this one about a mile further down the trail, which made me wonder what could have possibly caused an entire tree to be uprooted so cleanly.

As we approached Waimalu Middle Ridge we began to descend rapidly, eventually reaching its base and a slowly trickling stream. After crossing the stream and working our way around the side of the ridge, the vegetation changed dramatically from large trees and aerial roots to ferns, hala trees and Chinese Ground Orchids. It was quite beautiful along this section of the trail.

After a while the plant cover finally opened up enough for us to get our first good view of Waimalu Valley. The forming clouds near the Ko‘olau summit loomed ominous, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. At this moment the batteries in my GPS ran out, leaving us in the proverbial “fog” – I need to remember to bring extra batteries next time.

Past this point a thick bamboo forest seemingly appeared out of nowhere, signaling another abrupt change in scenery – here I found several interesting mushrooms growing along the path which I didn’t see anywhere else.

After exiting the bamboo forest, we reached a wide grassy clearing marking the important junction where we would begin our climb up Waimalu Middle Ridge (it appears after the first sighting of uluhe ferns). I had wanted to continue further down to explore the stream and pools, but we were running short on time. After marking the junction at the base of the ridge with some additional ribbons, we began our ascent.

We handn’t climbed fifty feet up the ridge before the rain began to come down in sheets. Fortunately I secured a nice branch to use as a makeshift hiking pole, which I used to safely make my way up the ridge (never mind that I had an actual hiking pole in my backpack – the branch was more fun).

After fully soaking us in its deluge, the rain ceased when we reached the top of the ridge. Here we stopped to eat lunch and enjoy the great vantage point from which we surveyed the surrounding valleys and ridges. By this time my camera was completely waterlogged, so there are no more pictures from after this point; however, I do have a video of the ridge on my Facebook page.

After the break we continued making our way makai along the ridgeline, trudging through an angry sea of uluhe ferns. This is where I fully began to appreciate the awkwardly high length of my gaiters. After hacking our way through the ferns, we eventually ran across two ribbons marking a junction with a path leading down the ridge. That was probably the proper way to finish the loop, but Elden and I just continued heading straight until we reached a point where the ridgeline seemed to drop off suddenly; we then hopped down to the left side of the ridge and continued walking until we reached the trail, and from there retraced our steps back to the trailhead.

Back in the neighborhood we ran into an elderly gentleman walking his two dogs, who stopped to ask us if we were hunters. He told us that people rarely find pigs on the trail, but his neighbor easily hunts them with a bow when they wander into his back yard (haha). After a nice conversation we packed up our mud-soaked gear, got in the car and drove back to church, satisfied with our adventure for the day.

Visit Flickr for more photos of the Waimalu Ditch trail. For a video of the ridgeline, visit my Facebook page.