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Vancouver, BC
Canada
217 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2011 : 11:15 PM
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October 21-23, 2011: Waialeale - Kawaikini (Kauai) (5243feet)
This is our first vacation to the Tropics. Our destination is Kauai, the Garden Island, and its famous Na Pali Coast Trail is our prime objective. But we have more time available and so Silke researches other trails of which there are many on Kauai especially in Kokee State Park around Waimea Canyon (the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific"). She comes across the warning: "There is no trail to Wai'ale'ale - don't even consider it - experienced hikers have disappeared into the swamp never to be seen again". This advice, of course, peeks her curiosity and soon she finds online resources dedicated to the adventure of reaching the highest point on Kauai and what has the dubious reputation of being the wettest spot on earth.
Thanks to Bob Burd (Waialeale.org) and Don Nelson (COHP) there is good beta available and a chronology of recent sorties. Six years ago a 'Gang of Four' from the County High Pointers (COHP - http://www.cohp.org) took five days to reach Kawaikini, the actual summit of the Wai'ale'ale massif, and return. It took them 8 hours alone to forge and tag a mile-long section they ended up calling "Purgatory" (http://www.cohp.org/hi/hawaii.xml). Armed with this information, Bob Burd succeeded on his second attempt to reach the summit in a single day, hiking about as much in the dark as during daylight. We also learn from a forum post that all has likely changed in late 2011 with the completion of a fence by the Kauai Watershed Alliance. Pink ribbons had been sited in preparation for a new fence that is going to run the entire distance across the drainage boundary. Were such a fence to be constructed, it would certainly reduce the hardest portions of the route-finding to a triviality. The fence is meant to keep feral pigs out of the most fragile areas of the remote Alakai Swamp. We have to see for ourselves!
We aren't totally committed to this plan since Silke isn't very fond of bushwhacks. Just in case we rent a good 4x4. When a kayak in the off-season is unavailable to paddle down the Na Pali Coast, our plans for the remaining vacation default.
The Mohihi-Waialae loop-trail affords access to the far reaches of the Alakai. Going in via Waialae Camp is much longer than coming in from the end of the Camp 10 road but the last 4-6 miles of this dirt road can be muddy and deeply rutted. It's a serious undertaking during heavy rain and there are two places where streams flow over the road. The Kowaikoi stream crossing can be particularly sketchy. From the end of the Camp 10 road it is approximately 11 miles to Kawaikini with a net elevation gain of 1650 feet.
We start the trip in the early afternoon and not without some trepidation. But only minutes into our hike we stop and feast on delicious strawberry guava. The trail follows the abandoned Mohihi ditch before it drops down and crosses Mohihi stream. It is well maintained here with wide strips of vegetation mowed down to the ground on both sides of the worn path. We are led eastward parallelling Koaie gorge. We find short, metal mileage markers in this section, each one 1/4 mile apart and pass an overlook bench with views of Waimea Canyon with its ever-eroding, multi-hued, serrated cliffs. Where once a rain gauge was mounted - only two vertical pipes remain - the trail goes from well maintained to unmaintained. We find the unmaintained section quite good as it ridge roller-coasts before broadening and flattening out. At this point, mud holes become a factor and we very briefly lose the way trying to avoid them. The forest comes in multiple tones of green and we stop often to admire giant tree-ferns.
We are in a mysterious world of ferns and ohia lehua trees, and although the vegetation is so much different from what we know, we feel instantly athome here. Four miles in, the trail veers right and descends steeply down to Koaie Stream, the largest tributary of the Waimea (an account of a kayak descent is at http://www.wetdawg.com/pages/hawaii.html). We have no trouble fording the stream, its water reddish with tannin from the ferns, and arrive at the aluminium shelter, Kaoie Camp, probably built by and for hunters. Some old rubbish and musty blankets are lying in a heap at one end. A small table is in the other corner. No doubt there are mice but it is surprisingly dry inside. A good place for cooking meals but camp we will outside in our own tent. There are almost no insects at all in the Alakai, nary a mosquito or biting fly, so no need for bug spray. Sun sets fast in the Tropics and not so far from the equator there is a max 13 hrs of good daylight. I quickly reconnaissance next morning's continuation and find some white fabric ribbon and other flagging to the east of the shelter. It doesn't look convincing but since others have gone that way before I think this is probably the route. However, Silke finds other less faded ribbons heading off at right angle from our entry clearing. I follow those now and confirm that she has found a better course. In the early morning droplets begin to fall from branches on our tent. We had read that there is no appreciable change in creek levels during average precipitation, although it has been suggested to bring a rope for stream crossings. Kauai streams can rise within a few minutes from being benign and fordable to raging torrents. We didn't bring a rope.
  
At first the trail continues due south for a short distance and through some swampy spots that you wouldn't ordinarily think would be the trail. We are wading through shoulder-high uluhe ferns. This must be the fern grotto the online reports mention and we feel confident we are on the right track.
The trail then heads steeply uphill with the occasional thorny blackberry vines lashing our legs and forearms. Key to manhandling the bushwhack section are long pants and a long-sleeve shirt. I am using a bamboo rod as my low-tech, lightweight walking stick. We have no maps, only printouts from Waialeale.org. The climb-out of Koaie Stream canyon has one sketchy traverse where the trail has slid completely away. We use roots and branches for belay. Our venerable MEC rad-pants are getting soaked from brushing against the wet vegetation but our upper bodies are only damp and mostly comfortable. Our short gaiters are getting soaked too and before long the wetness enters our Meindl leather boots. We'll just have to accept that our feet will be wet all day. We are on a poorer trail than yesterday evening, but one that is far more flagged, and we are quick on our way to the 'Arrow' (22.09094-159.55096). The Arrow is an old landmark with the image carved in a fallen log. We are BC bush savvy and immediately recognize the turn-off even without the arrow and GPS. I continue just to confirm that our present trail makes the expected abrupt turn west and drops to a stream crossing. We eventually find the arrow behind a pile of wood debris. Oddly though, it is pointing the way we came. We leave it exposed for the next adventurer to see.
Immediately behind the marked log and turnoff are no flags, only a faint trail. One basically needs to transition from one indistinct ridge line to another roughly heading SSE to SE. We soon follow ribbons of various colours and ages. Some are blue but they too seem to go in the right direction. Blindly following flags in the Alakai can be folly and blue ones usually mark bird transects which we now also find in regular intervals crossing our path at right angles. These are line transects used in one type of bird census survey technique; a path along which one records and counts occurrences of birds. Just as the mud holes are getting more extensive, we suddenly arrive at a faded, orange cone situated at the edge of Sincocks bog.
 
These badlands are alien and yet the scene looks familiar. We've seen this cone before in photos on the Internet. What is new is that there is now a brand new KWA (Kauai Watershed Alliance) galvanized steel fence-line extending to the horizonin both directions. The bog is a wide open area with short little plants and spongy ground. The low-laying vegetation is mostly lehua-maka-noe (a small shrub restricted to the high bogs of Kauai with leaves and flowers like those of lehua, in turn a tropical tree of the myrtle family with clusters of bright-red flowers and hard, durable wood). Beyond the new fence is an older lower fence with a red gate. We have seen that picture before too. Now, the final undertaking is to just follow this spanking new fence to Wai'ale'ale. We walk on top of a fence mesh laid flat presumably to keep pigs from digging under the barrier. That mesh also prevents us from sinking deep into the squishy ground. What a bonus! Twice we come across round circular enclosures evidently constructed to bait the pigs inside, with one-way gravity-held swinging gates on opposite sides. The pigs can leave but not reenter. The fence is sited in a semicircular traverse around Kapoki, the severely eroded crater rim of this dormant volcano, around the largest caldera ever formed in all the Hawaiian Islands. We have completely avoided the main obstacle of previous parties, the "Trail of Destruction", the one-mile bushwhack between Bogette and Kapoki. Away from the fence everything is a jumble and there are no recognizable landmarks. The hiking would be up, over, and around all manner of downed logs and other organic obstacles.
All the wetness is keeping us from sweating and being thirsty. Just as well because we brought nothing more than a litre of water each. In spite of this being the land of deluges, there are only a few spots with good water on the entire route. A slight drizzle had been falling intermittently since early morning, but typically in the Alakai, the drizzle has turned to a steady rain. The convenient fence mesh on the ground has come to an end. Soaked and with no effort to avoid the wetness whatsoever, we splash through wet and muddy sections, water sloshing around inside our boots. We arrive at several nearly vertical slopes where we must grasp the fence posts for dear life or else we'd slip right back.
  
We are careful not to stress the new construction too much. Sometimes we sink into mud holes up to our calves creating enough suction to almost yank our boots right off. As we forge on, the trees are becoming more stunted from the wet, cool climate until it is treeless. We have arrived on the open range of the high plateau, an other-worldy place not even the ubiquitous ferns are genetically programmed to deal with so much water and cloud cover.
The fence faithfully follows a divide running west from the summit ridge a few hundred meters south of the Wai'ale'ale rain gage. It splits the Waimea and the Wainiha watersheds and is the district boundary between Hanalei and Waimea districts. Off the north side of the ridge is a magnificent shallow valley with a stream meandering across a broad grassy meadow. And then, 4.5 hours since we'd left camp, we are sensing a demarcation. From the east, the wind is blowing up and over the lip of the rim making it quite obvious that we have reached the edge of an abyss. A combination of fog, driving rain and the strong wind obscure what would be a spectacular drop nearly straight down. The new fence keeps going, plunging into the crater, and only ends barely within view. We are getting a bit chilled and add a Gore-Tex shell.
The helicopter tourist industry has taken to referring to the semicircle of cliffs along the summit rim as "The Blue Hole" or "Waialeale Crater" but it is an erosion feature. It is the box canyon at the headwaters of the west branch of the North Fork of the Wailua River. The rim is guarded by cliffs more than 3000 feet high consisting of wet, slippery and loose volcanic rock. The combination of chemical weathering and rain leads to the formation of the characteristic knife-edged ridges and near vertical Pali's or cliffs of Hawaii. It is misleading to call the exposed crud in Hawaii rock because it is more of a stiff clay.
We turn north searching for the summit pond, Wai'ale'ale ("rippling waters") and explore for the Hawaiian stone heiau (place of worship) called Kaawako. The tiny lake appears like a mirage as we plunder over uneven surface in a complete whiteout. Rain keeps the summit shrouded most of the time so we are not disappointed. We spot the shallow, grass overgrown ditch that the ancients Hawaiians had cut, diverting some of the overflow east into the Wailua (Blue Hole) drainage. But we fail to conclusively locate the pagan heiau. We find a stone encircled mound with somewhat different vegetation and a recent skid mark from a helicopter landing nearby so we declare this feature to be the remains of the altar reverted back to nature.
 
In ancient Kauai, Mount Wai'ale'ale was a most sacred place. Each year, Hawaiian chiefs and priests would climb Wai'ale'ale's steep eastern face. Conventional wisdom says the ancients were able to reach the rim by climbing steeply up a ridge and over the prominent false summit Pohakupele (Pele's Rock) to the upper plateau of Wai'ale'ale, where they would make offerings of flowers and wreaths to their god Kane, the god of creation and fertility. The rest of the modern story is that this path was last climbed in 1874, once even by a haole (white person), but a rock slide has since made the treacherous route impassible.
We return and climb the small hillock on which the famous rain-gauge is located. This point is designated Wai'ale'ale (5148 feet) and marks the eastern edge of the Olokele Plateau. There are various generations of rain gauges to be found, but only one appears to be in operation, a white cylindrical container with an open top several inches wide. In some years this is the wettest place on earth: 450-465 inches/year. The online real time data
(http://waterdata.usgs.gov/hi/nwis/uv/?site_no=220523159341201&PARAmeter_cd=00045)
shows that rainfall sometimes reaches a brutal 4 inches/hour. We take the obligatory photos and hurry back to the new fence.
The true summit of Mount Wai'ale'ale is 5243feet in elevation and located at Kawaikini ("waters-in-multitudes"), a separate peak connected by a narrow neck to the plateau. With the Mountaineer in mind and knowing that our report would be incomplete without actually reaching this highest point we press on. Unlike the area around the rain gauge and pond, the ridge south to Kawaikini is narrower and we are forced to keep near the ridge to avoid the ever deepening ravines to the west draining toward Olokele. With visibility limited to about 200ft, we can't tell just where the summit might be so we follow the undulating rim up and over various smaller bumps along the way. A dark, almost black feature appears in a ravine. Upon closer examination the mirage takes on the form of a large boar. The animal is looking at me and appears unfazed. It seems to me as if I am having a stare-down with a black bear. Is that how feral pigs on Hawaii behave when confronted with a human? They are hunted so is this beast brave or dumbfounded? Suddenly it hightails and sprints out of sight. The evidence of their rooting is abundant as we continue in search of the summit. In the end, the summit is little more than a bunch of grass and small bushes. The GPS comes out for the fist time and confirms that we are indeed on the summit - Kawaikini 22.05775 - 159.49699.
The whole day had been a twilight of cloud cover. Momentarily forced away from the rim by the topography, with all the views looking similar, it is very easy to get disoriented. And I do - my foggy brain starts messing with me! A shallow ravine into Olokele looks for a moment as if it is the big cliff itself and I begin to walk in the wrong direction. Even the wind is of no help as it seems to shift direction. I had failed to take a GPS way-point where we had arrived at the fence. I just didn't think I could possibly miss following the rim. Fortunately, Silke keeps cool and quickly points me in the right direction again. Back at the fence we are rewarded with a fleeting glimpse of the Blue Hole and a cascading waterfall.
It has been two hours since we arrived at the rim and it is time to go back. The return slog is uneventful. Only the puddles seem larger than before. The weather improves a little and near Sincocks bog a lone helicopter is seen flying low across Alakai Swamp. How did he get here flying VFR (visual flight rules)? The plateau is still mostly shrouded in mist and there are billowing clouds all around us. He seems to be on his way to the Na Pali Coast. We are glad now for the incremental weather and the sense of adventure all day. This is a cut above swarms of tourist helicopters buzzing overhead. We arrive back at camp after another 4.5 hours making it an 11 hour return trip.
 
Day 3 dawns clear and we have an enjoyable hike back to the car. For a second time we admire a stand of Sugi Pines near Mohihi stream. This aromatic evergreen is a member of the redwood family and grows in Hawaii to around 80 feet in height and 1 1/2 feet in diameter. Nearing the end of our foray into Alakai Swamp it dawns on us that we hadn't seen very many of the beautiful endemic birds that can be found nowhere else. Close to the trail head we meet an Hawaiian dressed in camouflage pants and a bright orange t-shirt with a heavy caliber hunting rifle in hand. He relays our arrival to his friends with his walkie-talkie. On the Sunday drive out there is more traffic and many rental Jeep Wrangles on the road. We change and wrap our filthy smelly clothes into plastic bags, odor tight as best we can, before they go inside our luggage. The wash won't happen until we are back in Canada, and who knows, the famous, red Kauai mud stains may never be liberated.
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Edited by - gum on 12/14/2011 1:27 PM
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 Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5369 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2011 : 11:43 PM
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What a great read gum. 
Don't liberate the mud, I think it complements the RAD pants. |
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Peak scrambling, camera dodgin', knife toting gal who hikes with panties on pack & hangs clothes in trees
Port Coquitlam, BC
Canada
412 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2011 : 4:27 PM
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Good read Gum! Having just been over there, I was wondering if you might be able to guess what the hiking season would be like mid-December? eg. If going alone, chances of hooking up and hiking along side with other hikers on the Na Pali Coast Trail and other trails?
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Abbotsford, BC
Canada
1005 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2011 : 8:35 PM
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| Certainly an unusual and seldom done trip. We started our hike in early morning and within several hours the torrents came and the muck came higher, you guys look pretty clean, mind you we were on well used tourist trails deviod of vegetation! I'm interested to hear you didn't see alot of birds up there, ditto for us. I've been on Kauai twice and did some casual birding there. I believe there are 22 endemics in Kauai, of which 5 are extinct or have questionable status. Thanks for the report Peter. |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
217 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2011 : 10:36 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Del Sol
Good read Gum! Having just been over there, I was wondering if you might be able to guess what the hiking season would be like mid-December? eg. If going alone, chances of hooking up and hiking along side with other hikers on the Na Pali Coast Trail and other trails?
Kauai does not have seasons the way we have here and there is no such thing as a hiking season. That said, you can get wet any day of the year on the Na Pali Coast, or not. There are 5-10 or more parties every day hiking in and chances are you'll meet them as most have the same schedule - start hiking as soon as it is light and go the full distance (11 miles). We met a girl who talked a couple of new friends who she had just met at a Hostel into hiking the trail with her. That's one way of hooking up with somebody. Mind you, there is red tape in that you must apply for a permit to camp and hike the distant portion of the trail well in advance of your trip. Then again, we met nobody who checked our permit. Really great scenery - a life's bucket-list trail, for sure! |
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Peak scrambling, camera dodgin', knife toting gal who hikes with panties on pack & hangs clothes in trees
Port Coquitlam, BC
Canada
412 Posts |
Posted - 11/30/2011 : 10:58 PM
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Thank gum.
Looks like the idea of Kauai will be postponed until yet another time when there are no book ends on my time --- That way it's easier to "wing it", wait out the rain, find hiking partners, and just go where the wind takes you ---
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surrey
Canada
646 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2011 : 10:11 PM
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So cool
I think I read almost all the sites you researched. I went to Kauai about 5 years but never got to hike it.
Not next year but the year after I plan to go for about a month. This is one of the hikes on the list.
The fence does seem to have made the trip easier (from my research). It is hard to compair what we bushwack vs what they do. In the end it is wet and muddy in a way we don't get. Nice job on being to the wettest place on earth |
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Waialeale - Kawaikini (Kauai) (5243feet)
