Veteran's Day weekend

This past weekend ushered in some rain.  Unfortunately it cancelled our backpacking trip in the north Koolaus.  Friday night I told the group it would be miserable if we went, I felt bad because we had been planning it for weeks.  So instead we went chasing waterfalls.

Saturday morning it rained and rained.  We decided to sleep in a little and get a late start.  We met at Swanzy beach around 1 pm and hit up a 300+ ft waterfall I had seen almost a year ago.  It only forms when there is heavy rain.  Near the beginning of the trail head we were greeted by a fast flowing stream.  Amanda and Will's dog Tango, led the way.  We got to the first obstacle where the group had to carry Tango up a fast flowing waterfall that was two tiered.  Cory helped out with that because he's and expert climber.  We got to the waterfall shortly after.  It was just like I remember the last time I visited except it had a little more water coming down.  The wind generated from the waterfall was making it chilly so Katie and I posed for a few pictures but went downstream to wait for everyone else because it was too cold.  We came back out the way we came and went to a restraunt with some ramen to warm us up after.

Saturday night the rain didn't let up.  We planned to hit more waterfalls!  Our first stop was in Nuuanu.  Nuuanu is notorious for waterfalls.  But the waterfall we wanted to see is really rare and only a handful of people seen it's full effect up close.  There are stories of an upside down waterfall.  We went search and we definitely found it.  

Driving up the Pali highway on Sunday it was so cloudy and rainy but through the clouds we saw it and were super excited.  We met up with a few friends.  Emma, Jessie, Will and Amanda met up and headed to the obscure trail head.  We headed Mauka for about thirty minutes and hit the wall.  The rain was falling and water was misting everywhere.  The waterfall wasn't running against the wall but instead falling and getting blown up by the wind hence, "upside down waterfall". The name is Waipuhia and we hit two of the chutes on our initial approach.  We had to hug the wall and scramble a little to hit the third and final chute.  This one was flowing well!  Sometimes the water would fall and sometimes it would be blown by the wind.  It was extraordinary to see and just VERY different than any other waterfall I had ever seen.  When we were finished watching we headed back to our cars and went to our second hike.

Our second hike was Koolaupoko Chutes.  This time we only visited chute four and one.  It wasn't flowing as well like the last time we went because we went later in the day when the rain let up a little.  As we were hiking there we could see that all four chutes were going but not like the last time we were there.  Chute four was going good, we visited there first.  On the way there I got some nasty cats claw thorn stuck in my fingers, it hurt a lot!  Passing chute three and two we headed straight to one after that.  Because it wasn't flowing as well I could actually take my DSLR out and shoot a little.  The wind coming off the falls wasn't string either.  After hiking to all of these places we decided to finish there.  Tomorrow was going to be our grinder hike.  

Veterans Day we did the "Going against the flow" hike.  I was really looking forward to it because this time around the water levels were a bit higher which made for a more challenging and technical hike.  We had a larger group this day than the other days.  Our friend Garvin decided to join us on today's hike.    We hit over eighteen waterfalls.  Most of which you have to climb or have the aid of a rope to help you up.  We celebrated at the last falls with some beer and snacks.  

Veteran's Day weekend was great even though we didn't get to do what we originally planned.  Hopefully we get to do our North Koolau trek soon!

 Friday waterfall hike.

First hike on Sunday morning.  Upside down waterfall.

The second hikes 4th chute. 

Where the water falls into at the 4th chute.

The biggest falls we saw all weekend. 

Hard to imagine the last time I was here I was being blasted by mist.

Our Veteran's Day hike consisted of climbing series of waterfalls like the one pictured above. 

Veteran's Day weekend from Ryan Chang on Vimeo.

Trails and waves

I've always loved Maui.  It is probably my most favorite island just because it's so damn beautiful.  My girlfriend knew she had to fly to Maui for a meeting on the weekend of Labor Day.  I decided to spend the weekend there and take her and a few friends to go explore the island.  I had it all planned out.  Katie has never really gone in depth with exploring East Maui so I decided that we should go there.  Careful planning had to be done because we didn't want to waste anytime not knowing what to do.  We had a plan.  Our first day we'd just relax, do an easy hike go the beach and get our food for over the weekend. 

Our first stop after our early morning flight was to grab breakfast at The Tasty Crust.  It's a diner located in Wailuku and that place has some really good banana pancakes.  I had their breakfast special and shared a short stack banana pancake with Katie.  After breakfast I suggested going on a hike with "Dramatic Scenery" as the magazine described it.  The hike was a state trail up Waihe'e Ridge. 

Along with us for the first day was Jody.  We headed out and started a steady incline on the trail.  Immediately looking back the way we came we were pretty high up and had superb views of the ocean and part of Kahului.  We made our way up and on our left side we had the Waihe'e gorge and the right we could see Makamakaole.  Places I NEED to see on our next visit.  It took us a little over and hour to reach the summit.  Unfortunately we were socked in and was unable to see the West Maui Mountains.  There is a little picnic bench to rest on when you get to the top. 

After hiking we got to go relax on a beach.  While the women sunbathed and relaxed I went into the water to shoot some waves.  We headed down south for that.  3 years ago I visited Maui with some friends and remembered some mean shore break at Mckenna beach park, otherwise known as Big Beach.  When we got there I saw some good size sets rolling in.  I was all amping to get in the water, I quickly put sunscreen on with fins and my gopro hopped in the water and sat at an empty part of the beach with a sandbar.  The waves came and went and I hoped to get a few good ones.  Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to see what I got until I got to the car because the Gopro doesn't have an LCD screen.  After a good hour in the waves we decided to finally run our errands. 

Part of the planning was to buy food for our group flying in so that we didn't always have to eat out.  For the food we decided to cook home meals to cut down on cost for everyone.  We went to Costco in town to get the food.

Our first night would be spent camping instead of staying in a hotel room to cut some cost, lemme tell you that it was not worth it.  I barely slept.  It is a good camp but not if you don't like being hot and seeing gigantic bugs.  When we arrived it was already dark and we had to set up camp take a shower and go to sleep.  Boy was it a chore.  For some reason the wind wasn't blowing at all, which made for some hot muggy conditions in the tent.  For some reason I thought we were camping on the sand so I didn't bring a sleeping pad either and it was pretty darn uncomfortable.  By 4:45 am I had enough and told Katie let's pack up and head out to pick up our friends. 

Go around this fence to start the trail.

Hiking quickly through a lush forest to get to views.

Waihe'e Valley below us with Kahului in the back.  Oh and Haleakala! 

If it weren't cloudy you would be able to see the summits of the West Maui mountains.  

It's a good place to take a break and relax to soak in this view. 

Jody getting distracted while hiking. 



The trail keeps going for 2.5 miles to a picnic bench. 



Group pic!


First wave of the day. 


Some people say that it looks like Sandy Beach park but its not. 

Above Manoa Valley

The day before Katie and I took a short hike through the Old Pali road to a waterfall.  The next day we hiked again with Cory.  Dave suggested we do a short waterfall hike during the week, he was itching to get back on Hawaii trails for he had done the entire John Miur trail this past summer.  Aaron and Lynne also tagged along from waterfall to ridge trail. 

We started off around 9.  I had been having the hiking bug for weeks because of summer I didn't hike too much.  Plus surf was flat so there was nothing better to do than to go hike.  We blasted the valley trail to the waterfall where we chilled for a few minutes.  Then made our way ascending the waterfalls and eventually hopping onto a spur ridge to the summit. 

Slowly we made our way up the spur ridge chilling at every big Koa tree on the way to the summit.  From what I can remember it was a hot trade wind kind of day.  I was glad the trades were blowing because it wasn't overcast.  The sun was blazing down on us and we are trampling through the trail that hadn't been cut or cleared in a while.  When we reached the summit we had a quick bite and made our way left on the Ko'olau Ridge Trail. 

I was excited because right after the summit we had to make our way across some narrow rock sections.  I took out my Gopro and started shooting away.  It's not as bad as the Gopro portrays this part of the trail but it is still dangerous, one slip up could send you plummeting down the windward side of the mountain. 

After about 30 minutes on the ridge trail we found our ridge heading down.  We pretty much ran down this trail, or so it seemed like because we were talking about Dave's adventures on the John Miur trail.  One day I wouldn't mind doing that trail!  If only I had a month vacation!

We hit our cars around 2 ish.  The rest of the gang hit up a food spot while Katie and I had other plans that night.  We had to get ready for a Mysteries of Honolulu tour!  More on that in a late blog! 

Likeke Falls

Chillin under some Kalo

Adventurers!

Some Gopro action

Ridge walking.

Ko'olaupoko Chutes

On Saturday August 10 I was really jittery and wanted to see all kinds of waterfalls, I just didn't know which one.  Tropical storm Gil was going to pass by the island throwing bands of showers across all of the main Hawaiian islands. I was frothing for some waterfall action. 

Many waterfalls seem to appear out of no where on the windward side of the island when heavy rains hit so I decided to check it out.  When Katie and I were driving over the Pali we saw plenty waterfalls, town side had some that was flowing, and coming out of the tunnel looking towards the saddles there were some thin ribbons of water coming down. 

Baron texted us early in the morning.  He knew where there were going to be some waterfalls that rarely ever flow.  I knew the spot as well and wanted to see it as well.  A year ago I ventured to the same waterfall we were going to, solo, luckily I had some company this time and wouldn't have to face the Cat's Claw alone.  With us was Cory, Baron, Katie, Agnes, Dave, and myself.  I had been to two the last time I came but this time we went to four!

When we parked we saw all four chutes flowing and it was POURING!  We slowly got our rainy gear stuff ready.  I opted for a warm Rip Curl top and some board shorts for I knew we were going to be wet the entire duration of the hike.  I bagged up my DSLR in a waterproof bag with my snacks and just a little bit of water.  We started hiking around 8 that morning. 

Our journey to the first waterfall was the worse.  We had to battle Cat's Claw a few times to get to the first chute.  If you don't know what that is it's this nasty vine with RAZOR sharp thorns.  It'll go through your pants, your shorts, even your shirt if you aren't careful.  If you get caught and you tug on it for it to release you from it's grasp it'll leave you with some major cuts.  The best thing to do is keep your eyes open look for it and avoid it at all cost.  If its in your way grab another stick and move it out of the way.  Gloves help as well but it'll go through your glove and cut up your fingers if you aren't careful. 

When we arrived at the first waterfall my jaw dropped.  From the first time I saw it to this time, it completely changed.  It was massive raw power that I had never seen on this island ever!  I seen a few outer island but nothing like it that I saw on Oahu up close.  I cannot describe to you on how many hundreds of thousands of gallons was flowing off of this thing, it was INCREDIBLE to say the least.  A lot of my friends were having trouble with their camera's because they weren't waterproof and would fog up.  Luckily I had my gopro.  The spray from the waterfall would fog up everyone's lenses or leave water drops all over the lens.  The gopro was great and all my shots and videos turned out pretty good. 

The second falls was a two tiered one.  We stood back and shot away with our cameras.  The third was cool.  It reminded me of Hamama falls but a lot taller.  We stood under this one for it wasn't as powerful as the first one and took a bunch of pictures.  At this time the rain let up a little and the clouds were dissipating.

The third falls was going to round out our trip but I begged to see the fourth chute even though none of us have been to it.  We didn't know how long it was going to take or how badly overgrown it was.  We followed the fourth stream up, contoured a waterfall on the left side and five minutes later we were at the fourth one.  This one had a nice canopy before it and was very picturesque because it wasn't as windy and misty as the other ones.  This is the only falls we could all set up our tripods and shoot long shutter speeds. 

This was probably the most excited I've been all year for waterfalls besides the previous blog post.  I've never seen anything like it on Oahu and I'm definitely going back when there's another heavy rain. 

 

This was take one year ago.  

The day of the heavy rains.  

Massive amounts of water was being dropped that day! 

The fourth waterfall slow shutter speed.  

Left to right: Baron, Katie, and Cory

Summer 2013

It's been an amazing summer to say the least.  This summer has been one of the best for waves.  From beginning to end it seemed like there was non stop waves for the south shore.  I practiced this one right hand wave for the entire summer.  After work in the morning I would check the surf report and if there was waves I would go down to Ala moana and surf there everyday if I wasn't too busy or too tired from work.  Every so often I would take a trip to Sandy beach and shoot some shore break.  Enjoy a few pics and clips in the video below.

The hiking this summer has been spectacular, weather wise and just general hiking with people I usually don't hike with. I only took one trip at the beginning of summer to the island of Kauai to backpack the Na Pali coast.  In previous blog post found Kalalau Part 1, Kalalau Part 2, Kalalau Part 3 you can see the weather the waves and the great fun we had during this trip.  

Hiking on Oahu has been good too! I've been meaning to complete the KST in sections and have been intrigued with doing the Northern part of the KST.  One of the more enjoyable main hike this summer was up to the Waimalu.  The blog post on Waimalu can be found here.

The group that I hike with this summer was super interested in finding some of he upper falls in some of the valleys which are super hard to reach.  Some of the waterfalls we saw were some that not many people get to see so I'm thankful for them showing me such gems on Oahu.  

This summer has been great and still looking forward to hiking throughout the fall.  There's many more hikes I need to blog about so stay tuned for some mean waterfalls and some thin ridges I've been hiking these past few weeks!  Lastly thanks for all the people that follow this blog and watch all my videos on a regular basis... Couldn't do it without all of your support!

 This woman was by my side the whole time this summer! Thanks for sharing the good times with me.

Waves crashing on a secluded beach.

Seems like something out of another planet.

The famous rainbow kiss!

The only way to start out the summer... Trip to Kalalau beach.

Fluted mountains at sunset. 

Looking down into Kalalau Valley.  

Waimea Canyon.

Katie checking out another view from the side of the road.  

Short afternoon hike... will never forget this day! 

An empty summer day at Sandy Beach.

I didn't get good video footage of our cave diving but I got this shot of Mr. Turtle.

Sunset time.

Barrels at this place was fun!

Hanakoa Valley to Kalalau Beach

I'm finally getting down and finishing up videos and photos from SPRING BREAK!  If you haven't seen my Japan stuff I just finished all the blogging and videos on it.  Look for it on this site. 

Hanakoa Valley was a little wet and buggy; staying in a forested area for the night we woke up quite early after a night of talking story, drinking and a camp fire.  We slowly packed up and said our farewells to Keahi who was going to spend one more night in Hanakoa and hike back the next day. 

We shoved off in set for Kalalau Beach which was another 6-7 miles away from Hanakoa Valley.  Our first obstacle a mile into the hike was known as crawlers ledge.  We saw two guys coming out of  valley literally crawling which spooked all of us and made us think this place was nuts when in reality it wasn't too bad.  On the ocean side we saw boats stopped and taking pictures near this area as well.  I guess they frequent this area a lot so if anyone falls into the ocean they might be able to save them.  After crawlers ledge we finally saw Kalalau beach. 

We hit eight mile where we were going to camp the first night, with the stream so close and a super nice view of the ocean the next time we do it that's where I plan to camp.  We slowly marched our way to Kalalau hitting a few more streams and some mild uphill sections.  We got to the Kalalau sign around 11, took our pictures and made our way down red hill.  We hit a really grassy meadow and chilled there for a few minutes.  It was a great break spot.  Still a mile to go with a 30 lb pack we were pretty beat. 

We crossed one last stream and made our way to the camp site.  We finally reached Lei, Jason, Sheri, Dave, and Neal around 12.  It was time for lunch and time to set up camp and relax!  We talked story on how beautiful Hanakoa falls is and shared a few pictures at lunch.  I set up my hammock and chilled in it for about an hour. 

The group decided to go exploring and not waste afternoon time.  Jodi, Jenny, Katie, and I decided to walk down to the beach and go to the cave at the far end of Kalalau beach.  On the way there we saw the waterfall where everyone gets their water to cook bathe and drink with.  We reached the cave and saw how deep it went.  It was a really wet cave.  We explored inside and poked around a bit.  There were waves about a foot to two feet in size right outside the cave where we tried to look for shells and I shot some gopro pictures. 

Before dinner we all showered enjoyed our first sunset from Kalalau beach and got ready to cook our meals.  The sun went down fast or what I thought was fast because I was so tired.  We drank, ate, talked story, and played some games around a camp fire before we all decided to turn in for the night. 

Waves were breaking at the end of Kalalau beach coming into a wedge forming some small barrels.  

A clean one as Jenny, Jody, and Katie watch from shore.

The next frame from the last pic. 

The last clip from the 30 photo burst from the Gopro Hero 3

Katie and I kissing under a rainbow at Kalalau beach.  Photo by: Jenny Ersbak

Kalalau trail... only a few more miles.

Twins at Kalalau!

Looking at the cliffs along Kalalau Valley.

Nice blue ocean with mountains and a grassy meadow to rest at. 

Katie leading the way to our campsite.

Enjoying the sunset at Kalalau beach.

These guys took a dip before dinner.

Just before sunset.

Kalalau beach at 4 am