Lanikai Pillbox (Ka'iwa Ridge)

Ka'au Crater Loop

This past sunday I decided to go back up and finish the Ka'au crater loop trail. A few months back we got rained out and decided to turn around at the crater. With my cousin in-laws here visiting from Europe it was a perfect opportunity to take them explore what Hawaii has to offer. Overall this trail is short but has a lot of variety. Total time 5 hours.

Pali Notches - Piliwale Ridge

PALI LOOKOUT - PALI NOTCHES - KONAHUANUI - PILIWALE - MAUNAWILI - OLD PALI HIGHWAY - PALI LOOKOUT - BACK TO THE THE 2nd NOTCH to GRAB MY ROPE - PALI LOOKOUT.

I've been wanting to do Pali Notches to Konahuanui for a long time now! I decided to wait for perfect weather and wait for the hype of this ridge to cool off. Being that I work a full time and a part time job when I do hike I try to make it count! I've also been wanting to descend Piliwale. With both ridges meeting up at the same junction it was ideal for me to slam both of them out! I also wanted to re rope some sections on Piliwale in the areas I thought needed rope. Since Piliwale is now a highway!!!! I decided to make it a-little more "safe" for people who use this route..

A fun fact: SINCE I DO USE ROPE I laid OUT 200 feet of it on Piliwale! I have nothing to prove and I could lose everything doing these dangerous hikes!!!! So I will use rope when I feel that it is needed!

With weather forecast in my favor I called up good friend Kale Tulang to come join me on this adventure. The ridge from the Pali is very beautiful. But getting to the ridge is a different story! Its a quick climb up a near vertical rock face to the "chimney". After the climb we were greeted with a sketchy contour around a inverted boulder. Once passing all the climbing parts the ridge was beautiful and fun! Overall Pali Notches to Konahuanui is very fun but a very very dangerous route.

Being my third time on Piliwale I prefer climbing it!!!! Descending Piliwale was not much fun at all . ALOT ALOT ALOT of butt scooting which led to my thighs getting a fucking work out of a lifetime! We made it down really quick since there is no need to bushwhack anymore.

Once at the bottom I was dreading the walk back to my car at the Pali lookout via old Pali highway. And then also dreading going all the way back to the second notch to grab my rope and then back down!!

all in all I got buns of steel!

WE START THE DESCENT DOWN PILIWALE