Heleakala to Palikea – February 26, 2012

This hike was not only an adventure, but felt like a journey. There are some hiking routes on Oahu that take all day and Heleakala to Palikea is one of those hikes. My goal for this hike was to start in Nanakuli and hike to my house in Kapolei. That didn’t happen today; nevertheless, we achieved a different goal – a great experience that no one can take away.

This hike is categorized in the super hike category not because of its length. I think being mentally prepared to do a long hike in one day has to be thought about before doing this hike.

Merv and I invited anyone and everyone we knew, however anybody and everybody had something going on. It was just Marvin and I. Since Merv doesn’t have a car, we had to solve the problem of staging the cars. Since the end of the hike is in Makakilo, I figured my wife could pick us up at the hike's end which meant that I would drive to the trailhead.

The last time I did Heleakala was with the HTMC in the fall of 2011. During that time, we started in a residential neighborhood in Nanakuli. However another trail to Heleakala is on Lualualei Naval Road. That trail is a little steeper, but shorter than the HTMC route. I parked on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Marvin and I got ready and started going up the mountain. A lot of scrambling seemed inevitable. There were a few false peaks; the climb became exhausting. We hit the Heleakala summit in a little over an hour. We could see Palikea socked in with clouds. The weather was also cool today, which is a great sign when hiking on this ridge because there are absolutely no trees.   

After a short break at the top, we started hiking down despair dip. It is called despair dip because of the great amount of elevation lost. At Pu’u Heleakala, we were at 1900’; however, despair dip drops you down to about 150’. What a motivator buster! Near the lowest point of despair dip, it was more scrambling up to Pyramid Peak (still part of Palikea ridge). Pyramid Peak offered a narrow rocky dike with some overgrowth. The overgrowth got progressively worse as the hike went on. We had to transverse over a few false peaks before getting to a few small rock climbing sections.

We thought we could contour around the rock climbing sections, but climbing up seemed like the only way. We must have climbed at least 4 or 5 small rock sections. By this point of the hike, the trail was overgrown with vegetation that slowed our progress considerably. We were nearing the 4 hour mark already. Usually Oahu trails offer a summit or waterfall after 4 hours of hiking, but this trail doesn’t. At the 5 hour mark, we finally hit the base of Palikea. The climb up the mountain was steep, although not too dangerous. It offered one hell of a workout. There was a mixture of small rock climbing sections and scrambling. As we neared the summit, a wild boar came running up the mountain in front of us. I fucking froze. I didn’t know what to do and I felt sort of scared. It didn’t bother Marvin for some reason. The wild boar was huge, although Merv didn’t think so. The boar turned around and saw us, then probably caught our scent, and got the hell out of there. We continued on. Finally at around the 6 hour mark we hit a section on the Waianae Summit (Palikea summit is actually to the left). Merv immediately started looking for happy face spiders and the Hawaiian land snail. Unfortunately, there were none in the area. After summiting we climbed over a fence and started walking down the Palehua-Palikea trail. This trail is beautifully maintained and offers a rich variety of native plants. I was in awe at how nice the trail was. One of the best trails I’ve been on this island. Palikea was socked in, but I managed to get a nice shot of Nanakuli valley. After hiking on the Palehua-Palikea trail, we got to the radio communication towers on a peak called Mauna Kapu (2,776 ft) and the Palehua road started.

The walk on Palehua road is a long one – around 5 miles. As Merv and I started walking, we talked about many hiking adventures and ideas. We talked about future hikes and places to explore. Just then, it started to rain heavily. We were soaked. At about 3 miles walking on the paved road, a resident in the area stopped and told us to get in the back of his truck. He gave us a ride down to the gate. He was sort of amazed at the hike we just did, but knew of people who’ve done it before. He warned us not to go on the road ever again. Fair enough. He was cool enough to give us a ride.

We jumped over the gate and made our way towards Makakilo drive. I called my wife to pick us up. By now I was shivering because my adrenaline wore off. While walking on Makakilo Drive, I saw my wife and waved her down. She drove us to Nanakuli where I would pick up our car. We then went back to our house to eat my famous pulled pork. It was so good, even Merv ate that food like he was starving. I took Merv home and we talked about more hiking. It is amazing that we both have an unbelievable passion for hiking right now. We also gained a lot of confidence from this hike. We solved a lot of obstacles on the hike today, although none were too major, it did give some sense of accomplishment. The total time for this hike was 8 ½ hours. Long, but well within Marvin and I’s ability. Time for a beer, I only got Steinlager Pure, not my favorite but $9.99 for a 12 pk., can’t go wrong with that.

***Doing Heleakala to Palikea is okay, but going on Palehua-Palikea and Palehua road is not okay. It is on private land. Doing so puts yourself at risk of being fined***