Hiking Lulumahu Falls

Oahu travelog #13
Nu'uanu Pali, HI - Sun, 26 Dec 2021, 11:30am

This morning we hiked to Lulumahu Falls. I wasn't sure if we'd make it. While it was one of the falls that came up right away in our searches for trails to hike, it came with the caution that it's on private land and thus permission must be sought from the owners first.

Here's the thing that's actually not well documented: the private landowner is The State of Hawaii. Yes, it's like it's a park... except it's not a park. It's state land the state doesn't want people on... though it does a terrible job of keeping them off. There's a parking lot and a trail, and no visible enforcement. We spotted that when we passed by it en route to the Ko'olau Cliffs on Friday.  Still, we wanted to visit legally. The state has a website for getting a permit that looks like it was designed in 2001. Like, it still has a space for your fax number when you create an account— which you have to do.

Armed with our permit we left Waikiki this morning and drove up the pass through the Ko'olau Mountains. We parked between mud puddles and wild chickens, and set off on the trail.

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The first leg of the trail leads through a bamboo forest. It's fascinating because the forest is so dense. At times the trail is so narrow I was brushing against bamboo shoots with both shoulders simultaneously. It felt like that scene in Shang Chi where the magic forest closes up behind the group as they travel through it.

The mysterious bamboo forest and the primitive government permit process weren't the only obstacles between us and the falls. There was also the weather and the mud.

Weather-wise, it rains a lot in this area. As we arrived a steady drizzle turned into a downpour. We'd brought boots and rain jackets— as with our hikes two days earlier at Manoa Falls and Likeke Falls— but we still didn't fancy hiking in heavy rain. Besides, with the weather in this area we knew it would taper off. I ate a breakfast of char siu bao-type things Hawaiians have a different name for (edit: I learned that night they are called manapua) from 7-Eleven while waiting in the car. The rain tapered off, then we hiked through the bamboo forest.

All that rain meant a lot of mud. The area in the bamboo forest wasn't too bad... mostly because the dense shoots held things together. After a few minutes we crossed out of bamboo into a regular rain forest, and... ooh, boy, it was muddy. Our boots got completely caked.

The trail presented various additional challenges along the way. Muddy parts, slick parts, steep parts, and a few water crossings— including one with no rocks to hop across. Then the final 100 meters or so of trail the trail basically disappeared. It was all rock-hopping up to the falls.



The falls had a beauty that made all the trials and tribulations worthwhile. And the rainy weather meant that we only had to share this oasis with 6-7 complete strangers at a time. Some posts at AllTrails say the vibe here gets ruined by overcrowding on nice days.

And yes, I lugged along my tripod again, as at Likeke Falls.



The weight of the tripod was worth it for pictures like this.

Day 3: Lulumahu Falls, the Beach, and the Hot Tub

Oahu travelog #14
Waikiki, HI - Sun, 26 Dec 2021, 6:30pm

Ahh,, it's been a tiring day. We were up early to get ready to start the day with a hike. ...Actually, we were up early because jet lag, and try as we might we couldn't get back to sleep after 5am. Around 8 we headed out to get the car to drive to Lulumahu Falls.

The car's trunk was still wet from a cooler leak two days ago. A cheap, $1.25 styrofoam cooler let melting ice soak through its bottom, and letting it sit in the trunk in the parking garage for almost 2 days (we didn't use our stupid-expensive rental car yesterday) didn't make things any better.

Also in the category of things not working out quite right was my breakfast plan. "All the ABC Stores, of which there are, like, literally three on every block in Waikiki, sell prepackaged sushi," I noticed yesterday. "I can grab that for breakfast in the morning." Except I grabbed some for dinner last night and was disappointed to find it's mostly rice. And the dish of poke I had from the supermarket from Wednesday night was too spicy. I threw it out.

Breakfast today wound up being at a 7-Eleven. But that's not as grim as it sounds. Where 7-Elevens elsewhere in the country have warming cases of cheap pizza and disgusting chicken tacos, the stores here have a variety of bao, including char siu bao, but they call it something else. I had 3 steamed pork buns and Big Gulp for breakfast at the trailhead.

Speaking of trailhead, our hike for today was Lulumahu Falls. The trail starts from a pullout on highway 61 driving up over Nu'uanu Pali. I'll post more details about it later when I have time to touch up the pictures. For now the super-condensed version is: Mud, more mud, OMG there is so much mud, wow those are nice falls. Update: blog with pictures from Lulumahu Falls added.

We were pretty wiped after hiking the trail. There was about 1,000' of ascent on the trail, plus the constant effort of not slipping and falling in the mud. We headed back to the hotel and discussed where to get lunch. We wound up dumping our stuff at the hotel first— which was a good thing because it also allowed us a chance to wipe off some of the mud with a washrag. We didn't fall in the mud, but our legs were covered in it from our muddy boots brushing against them on the narrow trail.

After lunch we relaxed in the room for a bit. The gloomy weather sapped my interest in going out to the beach, which had been our plan. The weather forecast told us, though, that gloom is basically all we're going to get from here on out, so we chose to make the best of it. We were out on the beach for 90 minutes or so.

After the beach we headed up to the hotel's pool deck. I was afraid it would be super crowded but surprisingly it was not. Perhaps lots of other people were turned off by the gloom? Anyway, Hawk and I soaked in the hot tub for a while to loosen our stiff muscles. Just before 6pm we toweled off and headed upstairs to our room.

Now we're deciding what to do about dinner later tonight. It's still a bit early for dinner, as we had late lunch around 2pm. But now's a good time to make a plan. The challenge is, though, that we're tired. We don't feel like going much of anywhere. And we don't want to go anywhere we have to eat indoors, anyway, because of the Covid surge in Honolulu. Maybe we'll try room service. But ugh, it's so expensive for what you get.

Shutdowns Are Here, Planned Or Not

"It's not like March 2020" talking heads assured us just 6 days ago, even though the data show it's worse. President Biden used that line, too, in a speech on Covid that day. Biden's point was that we won't have stay-home measures like we did then. But here's the thing: things are shutting down whether planned or not.

It's visible in the 1000s of flight cancellations the past few days. At a peak travel time airlines are finding themselves short-staffed— not because they laid off too many employees months ago but because huge percentages of their staff are staying home, sick, either with Covid or quarantining after exposure to Covid. The same thing is happening with restaurants, stores, and other businesses. They simply don't make the news the way widespread flight cancellations do.

Even one of my family members, "Tessa", has been impacted by a workplace exposure. ...No, not the one that infected her just over a year ago, but a new exposure at a different workplace. Now employees are scrambling to find tests and figure out what to do next. It appears the small firm has no sensible Coronavirus policy in place, so likely employees will continue coming to work sick, untested, and unmasked, until widespread sickness forces the company to shutdown temporarily.

Update: Two weeks later the unplanned shutdowns are spreading. I can't even get in to see my doctor because the whole practice is shut!