Laie-Papali - June 18, 2014 

Initially this was supposed to be Laie to Kawailoa. The goal was to hike the Kawailoa trail to the spot where E and I turned around in April 2014. By doing this, we could connect the blue lines on our gpx file. However since E had the whole day off and I'm in summer mode, we decided to tackle Laie-Papali. If I remember correctly, I did this route with DGC and hiking crew and it took us 16 hours to complete, albeit we did get lost multiple times. E asked me during the week if we could do it faster. I hesitated, but threw out a number of 12 hours. What made this more crazy was that we started late at 8am and we were going to go down Kawailoa to the spot. 

To do this hike within 12 hours, I told E we have to be efficient which means minimal breaks and quickly solve the difficult twists and turns of the KST. We staged a car at Sensei's house. He has always been helpful when we plan these hikes and should very well be appreciated for his generosity. E drove his truck to the Laie Community Field where we started at exactly 8am. We booked it up Laie in under 3 hours, took a short break, and continued onto Kawailoa. It took us 30 minutes to the dirt mound, a massive pig wallow in the Kawailoa area. E had a good idea of leaving our packs right below the Kawailoa summit and going down Kawailoa to the spot where we turned around. It took us 30 minutes to get down there in some heavy overgrowth. Once we connected the blue line, we turned back and found a trail to the top of Kawailoa. This may be one of the best views of the northern KST. The view is primarily of the Waianae Range with the Kawailoa windmills to the right. We took a while there as E wanted to soak it up. Also at the summit is the helipad. As we exited down the summit a military helicopter landed on the helipad. We decided to wait to see what it would do. The pilot started doing some amazing flying. He went back and forth hovering only 100s of feet above us and almost clipping trees in the process. 

We left Kawailoa near 12pm and worked our way on the KST towards the fence and Koloa Cabin. The mud was bad on the windward side and slowed progress. When the KST contoured Leeward the overgrowth was bad and it was hot, slowing progress some more. We reached the Koloa Cabin at 2pm and ate lunch. E brought word class pork chops and it gave us a boost. We wrote in Ali's journal which appears to have a cult following as a series of all-star hikers have written in the book. 

We left the cabin at 2:15pm and continued on the KST following the fence, up a steep incline. The mud was bad and I couldn't find any grip with my shoes and kept on slipping. With only one spike on, I appeared only as a novice hiker slipping and sliding on every step. Immediately after the incline, the fence line ended at Pu'u Kainapua'a where a notch was cut a long time ago to make way for the KST. This valley which could be called Kaipapa'u Valley could hold riches of waterfalls and native plants. We continued further for another 2+ hours until we hit the Castle Summit marked by a pole with a can on it. If I remember correctly, that was Ted's chili can when he was still part of the 7D crew. Maybe ask Merv since he was on that hike with Ted and balut.

It was 4:37pm already and we only took a 5 minute break before heading down the Castle Extension trail. Some people call it the Kainapua'a trail which doesn't make too much sense to me. The extension trail was muddy and overgrown. It took a long time. Prodding along, we finally made it to the HTMC junction where a short trail goes to the Castle Lookout. I told E we should go since he hasn't been there before. He appeared tired already, I just headed up the trail and he followed suit. I spent a lot of energy trying to keep the hype of the Castle Lookout on the down low. But now it was time to hype it up, so I told him, "you're going to see something special". He seemed to not listen to my comment. I sat down while E was preoccupied with something, when he looked up, he was like "damn, that's amazing". After some clouds moved away, we got a pristine view of Upper Sacred Falls. 

Now it was the dreaded hike down towards the Papali-Uka/Castle Junction, what a bitch! After 45 minutes, we started at Papali Uka Ridge which we both assumed was going to take us about 3 hours. After about 1.5 hours the sun started setting and we got to see an amazing view of the sunset. The place got dark and we put our headlamps on. I was so tired already and felt weak. I tried to go at a good pace going down the trail, but kept slipping. I actually got frustrated which is a rarity, but I had to move on and handle the situation. I must have fallen 20+ times going down Papali Uka Ridge, just ridiculous and an embarrassment. E took the lead when the Papali Uka trail veered left. He became preoccupied with the narrow ridge and spider webs. It was hot going down. Sweat was streaking down my face, I usually wipe the sweat, but with my headlamp secure, I had to keep on readjusting it. 

Finally a little after 10pm, we got to Sensei's house. We immediately went to Laie park to see if E's car was there. It was okay, we picked it up, and we went back to Sensei's house. There, we changed out of our dirty clothes. Sensei bought Panda Express for us earlier and we devoured that food like dogs. We talked for about an hour bantering about anything we could think of. E must have been preoccupied about working the next morning. 

I was so tired driving home that I wasn’t sure how I was able to drive home. I wanted to pull over to the side of the road and go to sleep, but kept awake and got home. I was so dirty, so I had to take a quick shower and fell asleep once I hit the pillow.