Kulepeamoa - January 19, 2013

Completing this hike is routine enough, but it also means something else to me. By connecting Kulepeamoa to Hawaii Loa, I will have completed the Ko’olau Summit section known as K1-Makapu’u. The length from K1-Makapu’u is about 15 miles. Good hikers do this section in segments (which I did), determined hikers can do this section in about 15 hours, and beast mode hikers can complete this section in 10 hours.

Doing K1-Makapu’u never really crossed my mind, until Merv and I did Olympus to Hawaii Loa in June 2012 in which case got me thinking about the segments I’ve done on the section known as K1-Makapu’u.

To make a long story short, I’ve completed all the segments except this one. Joining me today, what seems like always was Merv. Merv came down with flu-like symptoms and I was way out of shape not hiking for a few weeks so we decided to take our time.

HTMC rates Kulepeamoa as advanced, to my knowledge it’s the only advanced hike in the Kahala-Hawaii Kai area that HTMC rates as advanced. There is some reasoning behind that – you’ll see why in a bit.

I picked up Merv at 8:30am and we took the short drive from his house to Anolani Street. At the end of the road is a driveway leading to a water station and someone’s house, please be respectful of them. Not only are they really nice people as Merv and I found out when we completed Olympus to Hawaii Loa, but we need to have better hiking etiquette nowadays.

The trail starts in Pia Valley; we passed a big ass rock and continued on until an obvious junction. However, there were no ribbons on this junction and it led to nowhere, so we headed back on the main trail and continued a little further. In a little bit, we encountered “the real junction” which headed up to Kulepeamoa Ridge. The climb is tiring. My legs tightened quickly. After about 30 minutes, we gained the ridge crest and continued towards Kulepeamoa summit. Near the summit, the trail gets narrow with a nice 25 foot climb aided by a plethora of rope. Getting up this section is not too hard, but does require some caution. It took us about 3 hours to reach the summit. From there we took a nice long break before making the left to Hawaii Loa. 

The summit connector was surprisingly short. The trail was also wide. It took us only 17 minutes to connect. At Hawaii Loa, we celebrated with Diet Pepsi. Now the section known as K1-Makapu’u has been completed and I can move on.

The hike down Hawaii Loa was fast. We vividly remembered all the landmarks and in no time found the junction heading down into Pia Valley.

I didn’t know where to eat, so we just went to Safeway to get a sandwich.