After completing Moanalua Valley, I asked for a recommendation
for another hike from the guide, Mike. He gave me a couple, but the one that
stuck with me was Olomana or “3 Peaks” over in Kailua. He said that if I could
handle Moanalua, then I would definitely be able to handle Olomana. I hadn’t
heard of it, but easily found it on my hiking app, AllTrails.
I rented a car for the day, and ended up getting a later
start that I originally planned. I had some gnarly blisters after hiking with
wet tennis shoes in Moanalua, so had to stop and get bandaids.
The trailhead is about a half to ¾ of a mile from up private
property in a golf course. Google Maps takes you to the trail head, but you’re
not actually allowed to drive or park there. I pulled up to the security guard
station, and the woman came out and told me I had to “park off the road.” Well,
the road was a fairly narrow strip of asphault, with some grass next to it. I
turned around, and went to the grass and parked the car there, and went back to
the security station to make sure that’s what she meant. She seemed to be
irritated with me, and told me again, that I had to “park off the road.” I
asked her if that was good enough, to ‘park on the grass,’ but she told me
again that it was private property that my vehicle would be towed. I told her
that I didn’t want to break the rules, and I just needed to know where to park
and I would park there, and she told me, again, to “park off the road.” She
said that it was private property, and that I wasn’t allowed to park there. I
asked her where I could park, and she informed me that I had to go back. I
asked her if I had to go back and park in the neighborhood. And she said to “go
out.” I asked, “back past the sign for the golf course.” “Your vehicle will be
towed, the whole road is private property.” I called it quits, and drove slowly
back to look for places that other vehicles were parked. I drove around for a
little bit. A little bit too long, and saw some vehicles parked on some dirt, there
were both “off the road” and beyond the sign to the golf course, so hoped that
it was a legal place to park and my rental wouldn’t be towed.
Then I walked in. I asked the guard if there was a sign and
she nodded and gestured me up the road. I didn’t know if there was a sign, or
if she was just tired of talking to another hiker who didn’t get the private
property parking protocol, but I walked on.
Fortunately, there was a sign.
The trail was pretty root-y at the beginning, and fairly quickly, you’re up on a ridge. The views quickly get better, and the trail gets
steeper.
Mike told me there were a few rock scrambles and there were,
but the first that actually surprised me was a 10-15 foot rock wall (on a
ridge) with a 3 different ropes to help you get up. As I was examining the best
route up, two other hikers came up behind me. One expressed gratitude that they
weren’t the first one’s going up, and could watch someone else go up.
The ledge continues, and eventually you get to another rock
scramble, and there’s about a 6-9 inch ledge that your feet can scoot across,
while your hands grab rocks, and it is straight down behind you. There are
trees and shrubs to catch you if you lose your balance, but you need to catch
them as you fall to save yourself.
Everything was dry, and I had spoken to a half a dozen
hikers who had already completed the hike for the day, so I kept going. Then I
got to the top.
In case you can't tell, that is a ridge, and it drops down on either side. The trail is the little bit off to the left where you have to go down.
It was a beautiful warm sunny day, until I ate lunch. Then
it started to rain.
This wasn’t a light-misty Seattle rain, or a
sideways-sting-your-face Dutch Harbor rain, or a moderate Juneau rain. This was
a stand-under-a-hose-downpour-tropical-rainforest rain. That morning, I looked
at the forecast, and thought, I won’t need my rain jacket. I’ll just shove it
to the bottom of my backpack, BECAUSE IT’S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE, but I won’t
need it today. And, I always have my backpack rain-fly. And I couldn't have been more thankful that I was prepared and didn't take any shortcuts.
That is one of the things that I have learned from hiking
and backpacking, is being prepared. Bringing along the things you don’t think
you need, you don’t think you’ll use, but you’ll regret not having if you do
need them. There have been so many times that I’ve needed something, and haven’t
had it. I would rather bring a little extra weight and be prepared than skimp
and suffer.
Anyway, this is where the hike went from a fun and exhilarating
hike to, “oh shit… am I going to slide off the side of this mountain?” Once again,
I had the thought, It’s a good thing that
no one knows how bad of a situation I’m in, because they would probably be
pissed at me.
So, in reverse order, the first bit of rocks that I need to
go down is where I’m essentially hanging off the cliff. The shoes that I’m
wearing are supposed to have good traction. They don’t. With every step, I
would test whether I had sound footing, and I didn’t always have that. I put a
lot more emphasis on ensuring that my hands at strong holds. (Sidenote: I
purchased gardening gloves when I purchased bandaids that morning.) I got
through it, but the trail was muddy, and the rain was coming down. My feet slid
several times, so I was moving slow. Every step, whether on a cliff, a ridge,
or the trail, I was moving slowly and trying not to slip.
Then there was the 10-15 ft rock wall. Now, I have to go
down. I didn’t have anyone to help coach me on where to put my feet, so I was
going down blind. I would try to look, but it’s not always that easy. The short
story is that I did it. As I was going down, I wrapped one of the three ropes
around my left arm, and that was my primary stabilizer.
I kept going down, and kept going slow. There were several
muddy scrambles where I just sat down in the muddy water streams and scooted my
butt down, grabbing roots, using my poles to shift weight, and not slip off the
side of the mountain.
On one of the muddy scrambles, I did lose my footing and
started to slide, unable to stop. But, I had wrapped the rope around my left
arm, and thank the moon for strong left arms, because that’s what kept me from
sliding any more than a foot. I was able to stop myself, and grab a root and
reposition myself to get my feet under me, shift my weight and move to a safe
position.
Going down was much harder than going up.
The rain stopped, and the sun came out, and when I got
towards the bottom of the mountain, I actually touched the dirt because it
looked dry. It felt dry too. I kind of wondered if I had been in the twilight
zone of rain.
I got down, and took off my wet gloves and Velcro-ed them to
my pack, but still managed to lose one.
After that entire experience, I decided to write off the hike
that I was planning on doing later. I looked for the closest target to buy a
pair of sandals, because my shoes were soaked, and I needed my feet to dry out.
As I left, the woman who greeted me was driving back and
forth on her golf cart, making sure that everyone, “parked off the road.”
