Hapapa-WST - June 11, 2017 

There was no question that this hike was on my to do list this summer. It has been on the to-do list every summer for about 4 years now. Today I was going to make a strong attempt to get to Kanehoa. Over the past 5 years or so, the Hapapa trail has been closed due to live firing drills by the military. Getting to Hapapa now is hard because the trail is closed most weekends. However, on a hike Josh this year, he told me to check the facebook site called Army Garrison. The page has a bunch of details of when Hapapa would be open. With Michelle working at Tripler she has access to the military base without hassle. These two things put together equal something great. 

With rain in the forecast, we were supposed to go tubing. However, it didn't rain in the morning, so we reverted back to  Hapapa-Kanehoa. The bad thing was that we had a late start time, about 9am. I set a turn around time at 1pm, so we wouldn't be out there all day because they close the gate at 6:30pm. 

Hapapa was fun. I was worried about Shell, but she handled it fine. Hapapa was really overgrown and so the narrow part of the trail appears more narrow.  

The views were exceptional today and it only got better once we topped out at Hapapa and the Honouliuli Preserve. At the two hour mark, we continued onto Kanehoa. The trail got really bad and overgrown. We followed the fence line. The native plants in the area were abundant. We even found a cyanea. 

Shell was over it at the 12:30pm mark. We still had 1/2 hour to go before the turn around time. E, Burs and I forged ahead, we wanted to get to the peak that looked like a pimple. Proo stayed back with Shell. Getting up was the pimple was steep and somewhat dangerous. The fence line was there to hold onto. Once we topped out at the pimple. I was like "fuck" we have so much more to go. Also there was a huge drop from the pimple and a massive 100 foot rock face in front of us, but it looked like it could be contoured. After that rock face appeared another 4 or 5 peaks to get to Kanehoa beckoned. By my estimation, it would take us another 1 1/2 to get to Kanehoa which would mean that it would be a full 3 1/2 hours from Hapapa to Kanehoa, 'damn' that is a long time. 

My conquest would have to wait for another day. We headed back at a pace much faster than when we came. We got to Hapapa in like 1 hour and went down Hapapa in 1 1/2 hours. I was like, "shit we could have travelled more on the WST", but I was joking because it is always a good idea to stick with the turn around time. If you don't, that's how people get stuck on the mountain overnight. 

It was a really good hike. I can't wait to go back again to finish Kanehoa. That would be amazing. The post hike meal was at Don Yang's, like always it does not disappoint. This is a storied hike now as there will be no stopping me from getting to Kanehoa.