The Kailua area in the Koolau Mountains is home to Maunawili Falls, a 30 foot waterfall contaminated with bacteria so you’re not supposed to swim in it (yet people do). Yesterday we decided to do the hike because we were bored and it was only about 75 degrees, and hiking is much pleasanter to do when it’s not 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. Especially if you can’t swim at the end.
The trail was at the end of a long and narrow– very narrow– road. So narrow cars can’t pass each other, and there’s a mountain on one side and a drop off on the other. We passed a truck, but luckily it was a truck so it went sot of up on the mountainside a bit. That’s what trucks are for. The driver seemed unwilling to subject his precious truck to such dirt, but he finally acquiesced.
Also back here are huge homes, whose owners, when visible, look perturbed at the sight of all these cars coming to the trail. Yet the roads are public, so there’s not much they can do.
The waterfall trail itself was a 1.5 mile hike, extremely muddy, wet stinky and sticky mud (we saw several shoes that had been eaten by the mud, it was sort of like the swamp scene in THE PRINCESS BRIDE), with obstacles like CROSSING A RIVER 5 TIMES. It was more like a stream. It was highly exciting, especially with muddy feet. And there were tons of stairs. My left knee, busted a couple of weeks ago, did not like the stairs. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it, but the popping noise while I stand around cannot be good.
Ethan and Kaiya complained the entire time. It is difficult to get Ethan to do anything, in fact, because he is a homebody. Once he’s out, he usually has a good time. Not on the trail. “I feel sick, I want to be at home watching TV,” Ethan moaned over and over. To which I told him, “Hey, stop whining, most people save up their money to get to come here and you’re telling me you want to watch TV?” Finally I told him if he said one more thing he would not be allowed to watch any television, which seemed to shut him up.
Kaiya, I think, mostly enjoyed chiming in with her brother whenever she could and was scared because the mud was slippery. But Cadillac CARRIED her most of the way, what did she have to worry about?
Elyse had no problems and ran ahead of everyone in her high-top highly impractical-for-hiking basketball shoes.
At the end, there were a bunch of people swimming in the aforementioned bacteria-laden waters, waters which looked gray in the streams, so we just watched a woman jump up from high up.
What else? Lots of graffiti, litter, pot smoke wafting strongly through the jungle at several times, but it was still pretty cool to be inside a jungle that looked straight out of LOST.
MARGARET DILLOWAY 