Pohakea Pass – September 16, 2012

Believe me this was Merv’s idea. The hike itself is not too bad; the only problem was a massive 80 foot rock face/cliff at the Palikea end of the Pohakea Pass. That one obstacle scared the shit out of me. While preparing for the hike, Merv felt that Laredo could solo that cliff without rope. I didn't think the climb was possible, but Merv’s friend Ahnate solo’d the cliff last week and did the entire hike by himself. The plan today was to go up Kaua, make a left on the Waianae summit, problem solve the cliff at the Pohakea Pass, make our way to Palikea, finally go down the Palehua-Palikea road.

We met at the golf course on Kunia road. From there, we drove on a dirt road through some farmlands in Kunia. This paranoid me like hell because I thought we would get turned back, but we didn’t. We took the road till its end and parked in some dirt. From there we encountered some construction workers doing some work, they said hi to us. I even heard one of the guys say, “they are just hikers”. If we encountered the owner of the land or a supervisor, then we would have problems.

We weren’t sure what the Kaua trail looked like, but Merv had a gps file of it. We took a trail, but knew we were way off the track. We tried to get to the line on Merv’s track, but decided to follow a fence to the top of the ridge. At the top point, we found ourselves about 20 minutes away from Kaua, oh well, no sense.

After a short break, we got down to business and made the trek to the Pohakea Pass. We followed a fence line until it ended. We encountered some rock faces, some tricky, some basic. We laid down webbing on the tricky faces. After a little over an hour we got to the “gap”. The “gap” is the Pohakea Pass. We had some trouble finding a trail heading down the steep mountain. After about 15 minutes, we found it and had to encounter some major rock faces. We laid down webbing to aid our climb. Laredo said there was a contour trail near these rock faces, but I didn’t see a trail that led to the contour section.

We continued on until we hit the 80 foot vertical cliff. After some observation, we decided that the best route was straight towards the middle, then veer towards the right. However, there was one section in the middle route that appeared more than 90 degrees. Holy shit, I thought to myself. Laredo led the charge, he climbed, but was heading right too early. I started to worry as going right was precarious. Even Laredo did not like what he was seeing. I told Laredo to go back and head towards the middle. After some struggle he did and figured it out. Laredo was now on the section that appeared more than 90 degrees. He wedged himself between two rocks and slithered his way up the mountain. In no time, he climbed to a safe spot and waited for us. It was a sight of beauty! We told Laredo to throw down the webbing. However, the webbing got tangled before the section that appeared more than 90 degrees. I was like shit. Merv started to charge the route, but got stuck on the section that appeared more than 90 degrees. After some waiting, I decided to charge it. It was fucking scary! The section was exactly 90 degrees, straight vertical. It was like I was clinging onto the mountain. A fall would be tragic. Merv and I were stuck on the mountain pondering if we should turn around, we tried to solve the problem, but all ideas came up empty. I asked Merv to get the rope out of his bag, so we could head back down. But Merv was clinging to the side of the mountain and couldn’t get the rope. I got scared. Merv decided to go for the gusto and figure the problem out, he did. I followed suit with his help. We got to the webbing and made our way up the massive vertical rock face. Laredo was still waiting for us at a safe area and decided to tackle the rest of the mountain dropping rope for us. The final climb was hair raising. I do not even know how Laredo was able to get up the mountain without falling. The dirt was so soft and the drops were deadly. Even with the rope, I had problems tackling this section. It was fricken’ ridiculous! At the top, I mentioned to Laredo that he was my hero. He joked, “I wasn’t your hero already”. We laughed and continued on towards Palikea and the Palehua-Palikea trail.

It looked so close, but it took us 2 ½ hours to get to the summit and down the Palehua-Palikea trail. I was dehydrated and my body was sore already. It was also 6:30 pm and the sun was setting. This meant that the walk down Palehua road would be in the dark. I assumed that we wouldn’t use our headlamps because it would gain attention on the Private Road where residents of Palehua frown upon hikers who go on their road without permission.

So there we went, down the Palehua road in the pitch dark. I got separated from Laredo and Merv and went down the road by myself. I was somewhat paranoid, but could handle walking in the dark by myself. It was actually serene. 

After 5 miles, we finally exited and met my wife on Makakilo Drive. She took us to Kunia to retrieve the cars, but the gate was locked. The next day, my wife and I went to retrieve the car, just like the Aiea to Red Hill hike.