The Haiku Stairs - "The Stairway to Heaven" - January 16th, 2011

Looking down on H-3

One word, AMAZING! We have been wanting to do this hike for awhile, actually since I've heard about it probably around last July, since we had just gotten to the island in May. This is an absolutely amazing hike, there are no words to explain the 3,922 stair hike to the top of the Ko'olau mountains, upon further studying of how these stairs and the naval radio tour were formed is absolutely amazing, two men and a handful of volunteers, who were called "high scalers of haiku", literally climbed up this mountain using stakes and ropes, falling multiple times to which should of led to their death, but after 20+ days, they had finally reached the top. The stairs which were originally built for maintaining radio communications with other countries, after communications were no longer needed from this radio tour, the stairs became unmaintained and terribly dangerous, and were closed to the public in 1987, when vandals dismantled a large section of the stairs, and in 2002 the stairs were completely repaired, costing the city an estimated $875,000. Although they were repaired, they still remain closed to public access, not that this stops hikers from doing this hike, especially today with the 30+ people who were on this trail, which is way more than is normally seen on a Sunday, they started but by the time we reached the first stop most had turned back.

View of Kaneohe at night

Me and Matthew at the top

To start, we woke up today at 3:30 A.M., Matt's brother is still in town and I wanted to take him on this hike, to show him the best of what Oahu has to offer, our other hiking pals of course included Zach and Jenna, they met us here at our place around 4:20 A.M., we then packed up the truck and headed on out to Haiku Valley, I drove, of course, haha, we found a parking spot which happens to be in a residential area, so if you do this hike, just try to be respectful, it wasn't hard to find the beginning of the trail since there were SO many other people there! We walked down a old road, which I'm going to guess had something to do with the Old Pali Highway, but I'm not sure, so it was about 5:10 A.M., (you have to beat the gate guard who gets there around 6 A.M. if you want to attempt this hike), so anyway we actually started our climb on the stairs, it was still pitch dark out, so I didn't really notice the incline we made on the first section of these stairs, it was rough, I'm not even going to candy coat that one, I did stop a few times, met some SUPER awesome people on the way, after I made it to the first platform, I was told it got better, which it did, there were still some steep inclines but NOTHING like the first section.

Second platform was reached, it was a old building that housed a crank that was used as a sort of ski lift to lift the military personnel up to the top, how these people built these stairs or lift is beyond me, just reading how they made it up to the top using what they did, makes my stomach drop into my bum! We sat around for a couple, took some pictures and continued up, I still was behind everyone, again not bothering me, as I made some friends on the way up and we joked, after the third platform it was only about 15 minutes to the top, and that included waiting for people to come down, which was annoying, as the stairs are only wide enough to house 1 person at a time, and pushing people faster than they are willing to go, is stressful, so I waited, finally made it to the top, where the view wasn't what I was hoping for, but still gorgeous, the clouds separated for a while we got some good pictures of the H-3, and the city of Kaneohe, along with the Ko'olau mountains, this was a big feat for me, my endurance compared to most isn't the best, so finishing and getting to the top was awesome, but that didn't compare to the scary situation of going BACK DOWN!

Ko'olau mountains and H-3

So going down went pretty fast, BUT if you try to go to fast, which I tried to do, to keep up with the guys, proved to not work, I slipped and THANK GOD, I caught myself on the railing, it hurt my arm, but better than hurting god knows what! It was starting to mist out on the way back to which made everything slippery, and the stairs that turned into a ladder didn't help with making things easier in the rain, Jenna kicked me in the head on accident,which caused me to roar in laughter, thinking this is not the best time to be laughing, I tried to compose myself!!! We were having problem catching our grip, Matt nearly took himself out on a stair, and over all it was just sucky, but we made it down, it only took us a total of 3 hours hiking time and about 1 hour of sight seeing and chilling out on top, the guards were cool, which made it awesome, they asked us if were the last ones, and we said no, there were at least 20 more people up there, which definitely seemed to shock them, as they also didn't expect to see that many people out that day either, they then said "hmm, maybe we should turn on the escalator!" HAHAHA

Totally exhausted, and legs weak, we drove back home, and got back around 10 A.M. overall an awesome day, and and awesome hike, I love Hawaii!!!

A few pointers!
-Always have extra water
-Bring a flash light
-Never trust any of the stairs or railings
-VERY slippery with even the smallest amount of moisture
-Do NOT draw attention to yourself!



Elevation: 2,120 Feet
Distance: 4 Miles in and out
Difficulty: Experienced
Calorie Burn: 1800-2000 (I was rushed out of the truck and forgot part of my heart rate monitor! so I'm going off of Jenna's total)

Directions: Makena St and Kuneki Street through the gate where the two roads intersect!

Likeke Falls - January 13th, 2011

Likeke Falls

Lets say it all together! HALLELUJAH! We finally got to get out and do a hike! It has been since December 4th, that I was able to get out and do one. Matt went a week later for a work training day, but it seems that since I started my job, and this crappy weather Hawaii has been experiencing, things have been hard to plan, and it seemed regardless something got in the way from any hiking happening!

So, Matt's brother came in to town, at the best time ever! The two days we got CRAZY rain! Even with the rain though, come hell or high water (literally) we were going to go hiking today, so we didn't feel like his brother was missing out on experiencing Hawaii. Whatever, not a big deal since I wanted to hike so bad anyway, I looked up some waterfall hikes that were doable even in the rain, and Likeke came up, sounded fun and so I decided on that, found some directions from a few write ups that people had done on this particular hike, a bit confusing, but I tend to confuse easily and get lost even easier. This day turned out no different!

Maunawili Trail view of the Ko'olau Mountains

Well, I had to work at 4:30 A.M., which was a pain in the ass, but who wants to be up at 3:30 A.M. on their own will anyway, unless you have yet to go to sleep, and in that case, well I don't know, it just sucks! I started by going to the gas station on base, and realizing I didn't have my Military I.D., which is more important and needed more than my drivers license it seems! THANK THE LORD, the guy working was kind enough to sell me my sugar-free redbull and cigarettes, for if I didn't have them, I very well might hurt someone! No lie...Okay, on with things, I got done with work, headed home, where Matt met me at the gate with my  I.D. card, thank god, anyway I ate got dressed, and watched Teen Mom 2, while Matt and his brother went to the commissary, they got back we suited up and left.

We reached Pali Lookout at around 12:50 P.M., where of course it was windy and overcast, but it wasn't terrible, I again read directions to the trail, but of course we went the wrong way, the CORRECT way was to go through the gate to the right of the Pali Lookout viewing area, past the signs that say "falling rocks" and "do not enter", we entered of course!

As for the trail, here we go, the first .75 miles of the hike were on the Old Pali Highway,  here is a brief history of the Old Pali Highway, of which I found on Wikipedia, of course!

Waterfall that appears on the Old Pali Rd
 from heavy rains

"The current Pali Highway is actually the third roadway to be built here. The original Pali "highway" went along much of the same route and portions of the old road still exist, although closed to vehicular traffic. When the current Pali Highway and its tunnels opened, the original roadway was closed and is now used by hikers. The "Old Pali Highway", as it is now called, is noted in the popular culture of Hawaii for being a place with strong spiritual connections. Many ghost stories have settings along this old highway. A large portion of the old highway was built over the ancient Hawaiian foot paths that traversed the famous Pali pass, which was the most easily accessible route to take from the Windward to Honolulu side. This was because much of the Koʻolau range on the Windward side has steep cliffs that make it nearly impossible to traverse over safely."


I found also that if it rains heavy there is a pretty awesome waterfall that you can see while you are walking on your way to either Likeke Falls or the Maunawili trail, it was amazingly beautiful, along with all the waterfalls you can see on H-3 when it rains heavily!

Me and the husband :)

Well of course from the directions I was reading we missed the "hairpin" turn to the left which would lead us to the Likeke falls trail, so instead we continued on the Maunawili Trail, which we went down for about 2 miles, until I realized, Hmm, I don't think think this is the Maunawili Falls hike, knowing there are two different hikes, it just wasn't adding up in my head at the time! We saw a few neat little waterfalls and streams though, thank gosh, I thought about it, and decided to look it up on the handy www.hawaiitrails.org site,and found out it was a 10 mile hike each way! We then turned around, and did find the Likeke falls trail.

Wally climbing up the side of the falls

To start down the trail you will have to go UNDER the Pali Highway, there is a ladder there for assistance otherwise you would definitely be hurting if ya jumped, maybe, no I know I'd be hurting! LOL! You then follow down the trail and for a little while you will be walking underneath Pali, it then turns into a road again, pretty easy, but it was slippery. We came to a road junction where we found the trail, which was off to the left. During the first part, there were like at least 5 switchbacks, which were nice otherwise it would of been straight up, it was pretty slippery, mostly just the rocks, we all nearly took a digger a few times, but none of us did, which was surprising, so then we came to a four way junction, you head straight from here, after going a while down there, through more thick canopy, you reach a rock looking road where you will turn left, you will arrive at the falls in a little less than 10 minutes. I'd suggest going after a rainfall, the pictures from when they were gushing and in the summer are nothing to compare, it was gorgeous. 

We climbed up some slippery rocks to get closer to the actually water fall, the water was well, FREEZING COLD! Matt decided he was going in, so then I did, which we both kind of regretted after, since the walk back sucked, and our clothes were dripping wet, along with our boots, it was super uncomfortable! I had shoes and gym clothes to change into at least, not going to the gym when I was suppose to paid off! :) Maybe not...


We drove home, and then feasted on jack in the box :) it was delicious!!! Also cost us $40 about, pretty much ridiculous!! Well worth it, my not so hot shower after the guys were done showering, not so great, but better than the temperature of that waterfall!!!










Elevation - 600 ft

Pretty flower :)

Distance - 4 miles total from the Pali Lookout parking lot
Difficulty-Easy


Directions from Wahiawa to Pali Lookout!
Wahiawa to Pali Lookout




I also got a new heart rate monitor from Matthew for Christmas, which is a total awesome piece of equipment, with all our getting lost and total hiking time being 4 1/2 hours, i managed to burn a total of about 1800 calories, I can't remember than exact amount.