More ridge walking

The day after we did our "Above Manoa Valley" hike I wasn't sure what to do the next day.  The hiking bug was still on me and I was still itching to be on a trail.  Baron invited Katie and I on a trail I did over two years ago.  From what I remember it was a good work out with extremely nice views and very dangerous.

We met at Swanzy beach park just across the street from 7-11.  I grabbed a cold monster energy drink while the group gathered and geared up for the hike.  Around 8 am we pushed off and headed to the mountains.  We quickly made it to the ridge line in probably record time.  I was drenched in sweat but once at the top we took a well deserved break.  With us that day was Jen, Darren,  Jack, Paige, Laura, and Gary.  

After the break there were some minor scrambling and some contouring to a waterfall.  We took another break here.  There was some nice flow to the water but no giant waterfall.  There was a nice pool to swim in but no one really wanted to get wet.  Since there was service there we all decided to update our instagram accounts or Facebook.  After what seemed like five minutes we started the most challenging part for me.  We had to climb some time before we hit a junction that connected to another ridge. 

On the climb up Laura charged her way through uluhe and cleared a swath.  I took a lot of breaks talking to everyone, and trying to keep spirits high.  The sucky thing about this climb was there weren't too many views except for uluhe.  We finally hit the junction and we took some funny pictures and shared some snacks.  

The next section working our way down the ridge line didn't have too many views but had some moments where we would be able to see Kahana bay through some trees.  It was a really nice day with some moderate trades.  I took the sweeper position and trailed behind for a bit... Snapping shots and goproing the action.  

The real fun was just ahead where we would be climbing a few rock faces and walking a thin ridge line.  On the way there we bumped into some people we recognized going the counter clockwise the way we came from.  We said our hi's and made our way around them.  When we got to the ridge line with the nice steep drop offs on both sides that's when everyone started to snap tons of pictures.  It was so much fun but I always had in the back of my head that anyone could fall off this mountain and get seriously hurt or die.  Carefully we all made our way down the ridge and came to the famous rock formation Crouching lion.  There we made our way down and walked along the road back to our cars! 

Making our way up the first ridge.

The view looking into Ka'awa Valley.

Paige walking above blocking the sunlight.

Jen looking how far we've come and Jack negotiating a rocky section.

On top a tall waterfall looking into the valley.



Views like this pop through the trees once in a while. 



The ridge is thin.  Carefully walking is a must!




The rest of the hike is like this.  Not a bad way to end the hike.


Happy we got to hike together again.