Hiking Likeke Falls
Dec. 24th, 2021 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOahu travelog #8
Kaneohe, HI - Fri, 24 Dec 2021, 3:30pm
Finding the trailhead for Likeke Falls feels like it's going to be the hardest part of the trip. There's a trail down from the top of the mountain near the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout, where we visited earlier in the day, but it's a) long and b) very steep with a big climb on the way back out. Instead we navigated around narrow, poorly marked roads below the mountain to park at a remote church event center that generously offered trail parking for only $10.
Finding the trailhead only seemed like the hardest part of the trip... until about 1/4 mile up the trail when we had to climb a hillside covered in deep mud.
Mud continued to be the main theme of the trail almost all the way up. Mud, mud, mud. We were so glad we wore our boots... and they were completely caked in mud by the time we reached Likeke Falls.
The last 30m or so to the base of the falls entailed walking directly in the creek. There was no trail... or if there was, it was flooded over. But hey, no problem. Boots again. And stomping through the running water meant we cleaned off the mud!
At the trailhead I questioned whether or not to carry my tripod. It's extra weight and bulk... and only sometimes does it really improve the kind of pictures I can take. I'd chosen not to carry it the previous hike, Manoa Falls, and regretted it a little... though at the same time I was happy not to have lugged all that weight nearly 1,000' up the mountain. This trek I opted to carry it, and I'm glad I did. I set it up right in the pool at the base of the falls to capture "silky water" style photos like the one above. And yes, the tripod's sitting in about 6" of water (and I"m standing in 2-3" of water) from this POV.
I'll also give a shout out to the weather for helping with this. The sky is gloomy. Normally I'd be like, "Boo! Bring back the sun," but overcast skies help with certain types of photography by making the light more even. It also helped in shots like the one above that I could take slow exposures without using a neutral density filter... because while I chose to lug the tripod along on this hike I forgot to grab my filter from the camera bag in the car.
Kaneohe, HI - Fri, 24 Dec 2021, 3:30pm
Finding the trailhead for Likeke Falls feels like it's going to be the hardest part of the trip. There's a trail down from the top of the mountain near the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout, where we visited earlier in the day, but it's a) long and b) very steep with a big climb on the way back out. Instead we navigated around narrow, poorly marked roads below the mountain to park at a remote church event center that generously offered trail parking for only $10.
Finding the trailhead only seemed like the hardest part of the trip... until about 1/4 mile up the trail when we had to climb a hillside covered in deep mud.
Mud continued to be the main theme of the trail almost all the way up. Mud, mud, mud. We were so glad we wore our boots... and they were completely caked in mud by the time we reached Likeke Falls.
The last 30m or so to the base of the falls entailed walking directly in the creek. There was no trail... or if there was, it was flooded over. But hey, no problem. Boots again. And stomping through the running water meant we cleaned off the mud!
At the trailhead I questioned whether or not to carry my tripod. It's extra weight and bulk... and only sometimes does it really improve the kind of pictures I can take. I'd chosen not to carry it the previous hike, Manoa Falls, and regretted it a little... though at the same time I was happy not to have lugged all that weight nearly 1,000' up the mountain. This trek I opted to carry it, and I'm glad I did. I set it up right in the pool at the base of the falls to capture "silky water" style photos like the one above. And yes, the tripod's sitting in about 6" of water (and I"m standing in 2-3" of water) from this POV.
I'll also give a shout out to the weather for helping with this. The sky is gloomy. Normally I'd be like, "Boo! Bring back the sun," but overcast skies help with certain types of photography by making the light more even. It also helped in shots like the one above that I could take slow exposures without using a neutral density filter... because while I chose to lug the tripod along on this hike I forgot to grab my filter from the camera bag in the car.
