Sam on the ridge connecting the Maunawili Dem Trail to the Maunawili Falls Trail.

This trail is so great – you contour along the Ko’olau spines for 3 miles (if starting at the Pali) and connect to this ridge hike down to Maunawili Falls. We did the whole thing straight through because Richard was kind enough to come pick us up at the other end despite being covered in mud (us) and chased by mosquitoes (him). We had a great time, met some super nice guys jumping off the cliffs surrounding the falls, and slogged our way through a ridiculous amount of mud to get back to the car. For some reason, if you ask anyone on either of the Maunawili trails how far it is to some landmark, they will be 50% off in time or distance estimate. And the well-worn falls trail is surprisingly easy to screw up! We passed a group that had already circled once, doing a second lap of mud slog on their way to the falls. We almost crossed the stream at the wrong place until I asked a group of girls which way and found they were following ME! We got ourselves set straight (thankfully we were going opposite directions so we actually knew the right answer) and continued on. Sam loved stabbing his hiking pole into the suction of the mud, then tried to pry it loose, only to get launched onto his butt. He loved it. Loved jumping off roots into a 4″ deep puddle, spraying all of us around him. And when a girl walked by who’d obviously taken a skid into the mud (legs totally covered in muck) he looked at her, wide-eyed, and went “whoooooah” such that all the guys with her cracked up! Another girl was standing, still, just talking to us (the group which had done a loop already) and all of a sudden she was DOWN! Smack! Everyone cracked up. It is nuts here. Someone wrote on the web this trail is suitable for small children. HA! I almost split Ben’s head on a rock, and careened down a hill with him in my arms despite having hiking poles and trail runners on (not slippahs as most wear). Not for small kids. On one level I really hate this trail, but on another level I totally appreciate the attraction and the insanity of how filthy you get. All in all everyone had a great time. The Maunawili Demonstration Trail and the connecting ridge are gorgeous. Absolutely. It’s 3 miles on the nose to the connector, then another 0.7 to the falls, almost all downhill. Today we through-hiked it 5.7 miles from Pali parking lot (Richard says there were signs near my truck saying “no parking” but I didn’t see those?!) to the trailhead for Maunawili Falls. Had a good time tonight telling Dave all our stories. Sam promised to teach me how to jump like the guys leaping from the cliffs. He says we’ll start small, off the deck, about 4 ft up. Those guys were really fun – young 20s, jumping 35+ ft off a cliff into the pool below. They were under water about 4 seconds. They went deep and still didn’t touch. Amazing. I think starting small is just fine. Apparently boys start jumping off cliffs around age 13. That’s what the guys said. I have some time to ramp up here ;0