Last Saturday,  a group of friends from Chaminade and I went on a nearly impromptu hiking trip. Originally, it was just going to be my buddy Jon and I but we gained three more persons in our party during the Saturday brunch in the Silversword Cafe.  Everyone dispersed after brunch to their residence hall rooms to put on their hiking attire, and gather the appropriate supplies for our trek. We met up at a bus stop about a 3 minute walk from campus and took the bus to the start of the trail.

The start of the Wa’ahila Ridge trail is in a park/recreation area that is literally on the top of the mountain that Chaminade’s campus rests at the foot of.  The recreation area sports 3 or 4 pavilions that people can have barbeques or picnics at. A few of the residence halls here at Chaminade put on a barbeque for residents in one of the pavilions last year. At the start of the hike they have brush-like device to wipe the bottom of your shoes off in order to remove any seeds of non-native plant species that could be invasive. Oh, did I mention that this trail has many types of native plant species that are endemic to Hawaii (in other words, only found in Hawaii) as well as some species that are invasive? Some of the endemic species on the trail are uncommon and maybe even endangered.

We started the hike off going up one of the ridges on the trail and then started to descend, then again to ascend. We repeated this process about three more times during the next two and a half hours. One of the invasive species along the trail is strawberry guava. Although it provided a seemingly limitless snack supply for us, it also has killed off many native plants along the trail. While hiking we came across several koa trees on and off to the side of the trail. The trail offered challenges in the form of steep rock paths which required climbing but our reward was breathtaking views of the valleys bellow as well as of the city in the distance.

After stopping for a snack break we continued along the hiking trail until we had ascend the fourth or fifth ridge where we decided to turn around and head back to the starting/finishing point. Ridge hikes like this required you to go back the way you came, so every ridge we ascended and descended on the way in, we did so in reverse. We filled up a plastic container with strawberry guavas (which we shared with other Chaminade students in the cafe that night) and took spectacular photos of the scenery (below).