OHE June 30, 1997

My favorite hike is the Kalauao stream descent. You can make this hike a quick little trip by just descending down to the valley, walking down to the falls, and retracing your steps. Or you can make it a bit more of a challenge by taking the alternate route back up the top near the junction of the aiea ridge trail. Mosquitos are nasty the entire distance so bring repellant!

Anyways, I last did Kalauao this past Thursday. It was pretty rainy, creating mud everywhere you looked. I could hear the roar of the stream before I even started descending down the valley. Nonetheless, I kept going down cautiously, ready to make my way back up if I started seeing water rise :) Finally got to the bottom after taking a little longer than normal, since the mud/slippery rocks slowed me down. One thing I like though, is that the descent, although steep, is very safe since there's lots of rocks, trees, tree roots, to slow and assist you. Anyhow, the stream was flowing pretty strong, but I didn't notice it being up too high or anything. Still yet, I didn't take the chance of walking on the stream bank to the falls. Instead, I turned around and headed back up.

I'm curious if anyone has actually walked down Kalauao till where it "ends"? It looks like the stream goes down that narrow valley for quite some distance. I imagine it shouldn't be too difficult during the dry season, since you could just walk on the dry stream bed itself. Unless there's some other cliffs/waterfalls higher up? Anyone know?