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The Lanipo Trail

Posted: November 14, 2008

I joined the trail maintenance crew of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC) to clear the Lanipo Trail on Mauumae Ridge to the summit of the Koolau Mountains.

When we started our hike just before 8 AM from the top of Maunalani Heights (Wilhelmina Rise), it was hot, humid, and there was barely a breeze. As a result, the climb after the initial dip was a sweaty work-out first thing in the morning. After climbing a series of hills covered with strawberry guava, we came upon a charming grove of endemic sandalwood trees (Santalum freycinetianum) or iliahi in Hawaiian.

The iliahi were covered with pink buds and white flowers. The heart wood of the sandalwood tree is known for its sweet fragrance. When the Hawaiian Islands were discovered by the West, sandalwood forests once covered the mountains and became Hawaii’s first commodity to be traded. So important was the sandalwood trade between Hawaii and China in the late 18th and early 19th century that the Chinese called Hawaii “Tahn Heung Sahn”, or “Sandalwood Mountains”.

Once we passed a hill with several cook island pines we took out our machetes to hack away at uluhe ferns and other vegetation that choked the trail. As we climbed further upward we had a commanding view of Palolo Valley, Kaimuki, and Waikiki. One of the special things about the Lanipo Trail is that it overlooks Kaau Crater which is nestled right up against the Koolau Mountains in the very back of Palolo Valley. Ka’au Crater is one of several volcanic craters that were created the same time along a rift zone that includes Manana (Rabbit Island), the cinder cone at Kaimuki, and Mauna Leahi (Diamond Head).

According to Hawaiian lore, Ka’au Crater was created when Maui, the Hawaiian superhero demigod, attempted to pull the Hawaiian Islands closer together. Maui used his magical hook “Mana’ia-ka-lani” to hook the foundations of Kauai to pull it closer to Oahu when a part of Kauai suddenly broke-off catapulting the giant boulder of “Pohahu O Kauai” to Kaena Point and swinging the magic hook backwards with such force that it struck the Ko’olau Mountains creating Ka’au Crater.

Kaau Crater is a round bowl containing a freshwater marsh. Rainwater collects at the bottom where reeds, grasses and other plants that can tolerate standing water thrive. Once of the amazing things about Kaau Crater is that there is a crack on the eastern rim of the crater through which a waterfall cascades and drains the crater.

The vegetation becomes increasingly native the higher one climbs. As we continued to climb up Mau’umae Ridge, native trees such as manono, ahakea, and ohia ha become more frequently covered in mosses and ferns. We could also see Koko Head way off in the distance on the Ka Iwi Coast of O’ahu.

Bright orange-pink flowers of ‘ie’ie (Freycinetia arborea) were in full bloom along the trail to the summit. Ieie is indigenous to Hawaii and is one of only a handful of native plants that have male and female flowers. It is also sacred to Laka and is used in the practice of hula.

When we reached the summit I was thrilled to see that the air was particularly clear — there was no vog to obscure our view of the windward coast of Oahu. I was also pleased that the vegetation was almost entirely native with ‘ohi’a, ‘ie’ie, hapu’u dominating the landscape. In the photo above, the twin peaks of Konahuanui — the highest point on the Koolau Mountains – provide a backdrop to the native plants at the summit.

Clusters of kapana flowers were in bloom all along the summit ridge. This native mint (Phyllostegia grandiflora) is endemic to Hawaii and has lost its ability to produce menthol as it evolved in the Hawaiian Islands. As a result, it is known as the “mintless mint”.

The view of Kaneohe Bay, Makapu Peninsula, and Kaneohe Marine Air Corp Station was stunning as usual. I never tire of seeing how the blue shades of the ocean change to aqua and azure within the shallows of the bay. After having lunch and enjoying the cool breezes at the summit, we turned around at headed back down from the summit.

Many thanks to Thomas Yoza and Kenji Suzuki for concentrating their efforts and weed-whacking the most overgrown portions of the trail overgrown with uluhe. I am happy to report that the Lanipo Trail is now wide open to the summit.

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SOURCES

Native Hawaiian Plants, University of Hawaii, Department of Botany

Sites of Oahu, by Elspeth Sterling and Catherine Summers, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1978, p. 277

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