Chasing Waterfalls: Returning to Waimano Falls

This week has been super rainy!  It was the last week of school for my older son, and then it was rainy all over the island almost everyday.  So instead of being stuck inside moping about, we decided to go chase a waterfall that we had gone to once before, but was almost bone dry the first time around.  The main characteristic of this trail is what most hikers have affectionately nicknamed, "Cardiac Hill", and when the falls isn't flowing, it makes it hard to justify putting oneself through such torture.  However, with all the rain during the week, I knew it should be flowing well, especially since the night before there was an hour of considerably heavy rain.

Lower pool last time we hiked, when it was pretty dried up

 We got up fairly early, as the forecast was calling for afternoon rain, and started to get ready.  Since starting to hike with Buddha, I've noticed a considerable difference in the way that I hike.  Getting used to the added weight in the pack, adjusting for center of gravity, etc. has been crucial to my hiking success and safety with the added weight.  I decided to weigh Buddha today, and he weighs 10.8 pounds, so a significant difference from my pack before.  My older son asked me if he could carry some of the water on our hike so that my pack wouldn't be so heavy.  He has never hiked with a pack, so I got his school bag out, and gave him a Gatorade, juice, and a small bottle of water.  He was very excited about it, and very happy that he could help carry the load.  My youngest son also wanted in on the helping Mommy shoulder the weight of the pack, so he used a small backpack to carry our sandwiches and a small bottle of water as well.  Such helpful boys!

Waimano Falls is accessed through the Manana Trail system, which is at the end of Komo Mai in Pearl City.  Parking is on the street, so make sure that you are courteous to the residents and don't block driveways or mailboxes.  We ended up parking a couple blocks down because of how busy the trail was that day.

The connector trail starts out as an access road for a water tank, so it is paved, and not very rough for the first little bit.  Once you reach the water tank though, the trail turns into just a regular Hawaii trail of packed earth and tree roots.  This trail in particular has a TON of tree roots.  Having hiked this before with my boys, they knew the way and we headed up the trail with no sidetracking.  The only spot where people tend to get confused is where the trail splits from Manana Trail.  There is a brown sign that is in the beginning of the forested area of the trail, go left for Manana Ridge Trail, go right, and downhill for Waimano Falls. 

Anyway, after "Cardiac Hill" the trail narrows, follow the markers over a bunch of rocks and you will eventually get to the dead end of the trail, go left!  It'll seem like you chose the wrong path, but I promise that is the way you want to go.  There are three pools to Waimano Falls.  When you first get there, you can repel down a rock wall a little bit to the first pool, or if you are feeling more adventurous, you can swing into it on the rope that is installed above.  Last time we hiked down, we repelled down this section and ate our snacks here.  This time however, we decided to turn to the left and followed that trail all the way up to the top of the waterfall.  We sat a bit upstream and ate our sandwiches, took some pictures from the top of the impressive waterfall, and then we took the path back about halfway, turned left again, and repelled down a section to the top pool.

The top pool is fairly shallow, only reaching halfway up my thighs, I didn't wade all the way over to the falls, so it could get slightly deeper, but it doesn't seem that deep.  The middle pool is a bit deeper, but is very small, the bottom pool is deep enough to jump into and swim about.  It was naturally the most busy of the three pools while we were there, so we stuck to the top pool with the waterfall and played around, took pictures with Buddha, and rested for a little while.

 When it was time to leave, I helped push the boys up the rock wall we had descended, luckily there is a rope that was very stable and a few decent foot holds.  Then we headed back up the trail.  Just like the old Tom Jones' song says, "What goes up, must come down," or in this case, what goes down, must go up! ( I often have this song stuck in my head on repeat while hiking)  Having done this trail once before, I knew what to expect.  Also, having taken Buddha on a few longer trails than this I knew the length of the trail wasn't going to be an issue with fatigue for the weight of my pack.  But I was seriously dreading going back up "Cardiac Hill"

Last time we hiked it, I had to stop on the way up more times than I am proud of to make it up "Cardiac Hill" just the ascent to the base of that section of trail had been super strenuous for me and took me a few minutes to recover from while prepping to continue up the trail.  So, this time I set out with my children in the lead to keep a slower pace, and made sure that I took water breaks as needed, and got out of the way to let people pass in both directions, because we were definitely the slowest party on the trail that day.  To my surprise, I wasn't nearly as tired when we reached the bottom of "Cardiac Hill" as I had been the last time.  We took a brief pause to drink some water, and then we set up the hill.  We didn't take a single break on the way up the hill, and finished it much faster than I remembered it being last time.  In my mind "Cardiac Hill" was this gargantuan beast that needed to be treated with respect to survive, because last time it kicked my butt!  And this time, while slightly winded at the top, I was not nearly as exhausted as I had been the previous time.  We paused again at the top to drink some more water and catch our breath, and then continued up the trail, which from this point is pretty easy.

 

I will say that it was nice to go back and complete a trail that had seemed to be more work than reward the first time we went.  It's all about picking the right trail at the right time, and this rain definitely made this the right trail.  While I didn't get to spend time in solitude to meditate on this hike, since there were so many other hikers on the trail, I did learn a valuable lesson on this hike.  Things that were hard for you once, or seemed nearly impossible to accomplish get easier with time and practice.  Since I hiked Waimano the first time, I have completed much more difficult hikes, but Waimano still stood out in my mind as one of the hardest hikes on the island.  The first time I went it was just trying to check hikes off a list, and thought I should tackle this one, even though I was early on into hiking, and still fairly out of shape.  This time it was much more manageable and a better overall experience because I was prepared, mentally and physically for the trail.

I know I will pick trails in the future that are probably beyond my reach at that point in time, but it is always worth going back to a trail that kicked your butt the first time when you've gained more experience, and conquer it like a boss!  Same thing in life, just because something knocked you down once, doesn't mean it can't be conquered in the future.  Make sure you prepare yourself the best that you can, make sure you are ready mentally, physically, and spiritually!  Surround yourself with people who will help carry the load.  My children were those people for me on this hike, taking some of the weight of water and other drinks and snacks out of my pack.  While it definitely wasn't a huge amount of weight, it was enough to lighten the load and make the distance more manageable.  Prepare yourself appropriately for your challenges, and keep company with those who will support and enable you to complete your tasks.

Until the next hike...