Palehua-Kaaikukai Loop

Palehua-Kaaikukai Loop

Posted to OHE on 28 March 2003 by Dayle Turner

John Hall will coordinate this Sunday’s HTMC outing in the Waiʻanae Range. Today, I joined a group of folks—including the esteemed Professor Hall—who hiked and worked on the route.

After assembling in a couple of places earlier, we all came together at the top of the Makakilo residential area (Umena Street) for the three-vehicle shuttle to the mauka-most point of Palehua Road. There were three wahine whom I had not met before, but everyone else was familiar: (veteran) Bill Gorst, Scott Villiger, Jay Feldman, Peter Kempf, Gordon & Connie Muschek, Deetsie Chave (with Samting), Eleanor Koes, and Bart Mathias.

We were allowed into the area with the good graces of The Nature Conservancy, of which John Hall is a trusted and revered volunteer. That trust included the use of an NC 4WD vehicle and keys that allowed us access through two locked gates.

After the winding drive up Palehua Road—plenty of impatiens in bloom along the roadside—we parked about 50 meters from the terminal point of the road. Instead of hiking up the Palikea Trail, we hopped over a fence next to what appeared to be an outhouse and commenced a very steep descent on a rough “trail” scouted and marked by John, Jay, Peter, and company a few months back.

What we were actually doing was descending a spur ridge that eventually leveled out some, allowing us to move forward without having to grab tree branches to prevent falling.

A definite highlight of this descent was a rugged rocky section that necessitated a right-side bypass for less perilous passage. This was quite unexpected, as the descent prior to it followed a well-treed ridge devoid of rocky dikes and the like. While everyone else went right, Scott and I went around the rocky section to the left. We made it okay, but the right side is definitely the way to go.

We eventually reached the Honouliuli Contour Trail, which is actually a firebreak road. We headed left on it (toward Kolekole Pass), though we would come nowhere near Kolekole today. This section of the HCT is overgrown with California grass—also known as Buffalo Grass, molasses grass, or whatever you want to call it.

I call it hell, because we spent a helluva lot of time hacking and stomping that stuff to create a swath through it for easier passage for Sunday’s club hikers.

But a swath was created. By noon, we had hacked and stomped our way to the junction with the trail we would use to climb back up to the crest of the Waiʻanae Range. Lunchtime was fun, with plenty of playful banter among the gathered troops. The three wahine I had not met before—members of the Over the Hill Gang—were very nice and seemed to take a great interest in Scott and me, not having hiked with us before.

After lunch, we headed up what I later learned was the Kaʻaikukai Trail. It is a graded route (vintage CCC?) that gains about 1,000 feet of elevation via a series of switchbacks crossing minor gulches and passing some impressively massive boulders. This was a great trail and my first time on it—probably the same for many who will be doing the club hike on Sunday. Enjoy!

Kaʻaikukai passes the collapsed remnants of an old cabin just before reaching the crest of the Waiʻanae Range, about midway along the Palikea summit trail. From our topping-out point, we had about a twenty-minute hike to return to the cars.

All told, this is a true loop hike—with no tail, says Bill Gorst—of about five miles. Very interesting and fun. I’m glad to have had the chance to check it out today with a fine group of folks.

— dkt