Kalauao Falls Traditional Geocache
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(regular)
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Steep and slippery hike off of the Aiea Loop Trail to a waterfall.
**Cache was archived for well over a year. I have recently returned back to Oahu and couldn’t wait to unarchive this cache; this is a great adventure and I love hearing other cacher’s version of this hike.
Through the help of purplerodriguez I was able to recover the original cache today, 4/3/2015 wow is it rough looking! (beat-up and rusty) Replaced with a new ammo can and swag; I will fix the original can up and use it on another hide.
Notes from doing this hike several times and reading other’s logs: 1. the trail head down is hard to spot, use the coordinates given and look back the way you came to spot. 2. Mark your spot once you hit the bottom (stream), when you are heading back it is easy to miss. **
This is a traditional cache located off of the Aiea Loop Trail. This trail is described in Stuart M. Ball, Jr’s “The Hiker’s Guide to Oahu” starting on page number 103 in the revised edition and is approximately four miles in length with an elevation change of 700ft according to the book. The cache is an ammo can.
Parking and the main trail head are at: N21` 23.929 W157`53.995
Trail head down into the valley is at: N21`24.018 W157`54.204
Waterfall is at: N21`24.305 W157`53.718
The trail head off of the Aiea Loop Trail is near Cache Across America GC10RJA and just past the electrical tower. It is the first major turn off from the trail and leads down and to the left. You’ll know your going the correct way when you pass another electrical tower shortly afterwards.
The tricky part is finding the trail head down to the valley floor; it is obscure and not marked very well and is is yet another sub trail of the one you are currently on. See photo.
The trip down to the stream can be steep, treacherous and slippery; come prepared. Gloves are greatly recommended especially for the return trip. Be careful.
Once at the stream take a right heading upstream and almost immediately cross the stream. You will cross the stream seven more times before you get to the falls. This portion of the trail is well marked with ribbons but make sure you make a note of where you need to start climbing on the way out.
The coordinates for the waterfall is an approximation for the falls and not the actual cache. My GPS was not getting the greatest signal down in the valley. The cache is located to the left of the falls approximately 100ft uphill from the large mossy boulder.
Please note that this hike can be very different depending on the weather and the amount of rain that has been falling. I’ve done this hike twice and there was a huge difference in the water level of the stream which greatly affected not only the difficulty of the hike but the amount of time needed. I placed the cache on Feb 18, 2007 and the water level was fairly low. It took me an hour to make it to the falls from the trail head and maybe an hour and a half to make it back. Of course if you go when it’s to dry there will not be a waterfall to see.
Also note that according to “The Hiker’s Guide to Oahu” that if you keep going past the falls there is an obscure junction after crossing the stream five more times that will loop back and connect again with the Aiea Loop Trail. I haven’t attempted this yet and would love to hear from someone that has. **See Crider's log which is the first log for this cache if you want to try this**
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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