How Hard Is the Pīpīwai Trail?

How hard is the Pīpīwai Trail?

The park calls it moderately strenuous. AllTrails calls the same outing moderate. Both are fair for a 4 mile walk with 800 feet of gain, and neither tells you the two things that decide how your day goes.

The first is that the climbing is front loaded and mostly over inside twenty minutes. The second is that the surface, not the grade, is what sends people back to the car early. Someone who walks a few miles a week will finish this. So will most children who can manage four miles on their own legs. The people who struggle are the ones who pictured a flat stroll to a waterfall, arrived at one in the afternoon in smooth-soled shoes, and met the stone steps cold.

Where is the climbing?

In the first half mile. From roughly 0.3 miles to Makahiku Overlook at 0.5, the trail gains 400 feet, an average grade around 15 percent, on cut stone steps set into the hillside in uneven runs. Some of them are mossy, most of them are not the height your legs expect twice in a row, and it all happens before anyone is warmed up.

The grade eases at the banyan at 0.7 miles and stays easy. Then comes the part no trail listing mentions. Immediately across the bridge at 0.9 miles the trail pitches up a flight of steps that gains 90 feet in 0.05 miles. It lasts three or four minutes and it is the second and last time your legs have anything to say. Past the bamboo you climb only 120 feet across the final mile to the falls.

Why footing matters more than fitness here

Everything you step on is wet, and it has been wet for years. The stone steps hold a film of water and a skin of moss on the shaded side. Roots cross the tread at the exact angle that rolls an ankle. The boardwalk through the bamboo is where people actually go down: the planks are smooth, milled timber, they sit under a canopy that never lets sun through, and water stands on them in a thin sheet. A worn or smooth sole has nothing to bite into, so it rides on that sheet instead of gripping the wood, and the failure happens fast and sideways.

The two stream crossings at 1.8 miles are the other place to be careful. The water is normally ankle deep and the problem is never depth. You are stepping across rounded boulders that are slick above the waterline and slicker below it, and the sensible pace across is slow and flat footed with your weight over the front foot.

A shoe with intact lugs solves most of this. Nothing solves it if you are hurrying.

Is the descent easier?

Easier on your lungs, harder on your knees. You give back all 800 feet in the same 2 miles, and the last half mile down is the same uneven stone steps in reverse, on legs that have already done four miles.

The clock says how little you save. Going up takes about 70 minutes of walking. Coming down takes about 53. That is a saving of 17 minutes across two miles, because you cannot stride out on wet stone and nobody tries twice. If one part of the day is going to hurt tomorrow, it is this one, and trekking poles do more good here than anywhere else on the trail.

The humidity does more than the heat

Kīpahulu is warm rather than hot. What makes the climb feel harder than the numbers is the humidity, which sits high enough that sweat stops doing its job. You keep producing it and it keeps not evaporating, so your body loses its main way of shedding heat and your heart rate climbs to compensate on a grade that would not normally raise it.

The practical consequence is that you drink more than you planned. Two liters per person is the working number here, not a generous one, and there is no drinking water anywhere in the district. It is also why the first half mile at nine in the morning is a different experience from the same half mile at one in the afternoon.

How does it compare to a flat four mile walk?

Harder, and much longer. A flat four miles on pavement takes a fit adult about an hour and a quarter and asks nothing of your attention. This is a little over two hours of moving time, roughly 70 minutes up and 53 down, and most people are out for three once you count standing at the falls.

Every one of those steps also needs looking at. There is no stretch where you can let your feet go on autopilot and watch the canopy instead, which is its own kind of tiring. There are no benches anywhere on the trail either, so a rest means standing on the trail or sitting on a wet rock. Budget the energy you would spend on six flat miles at home, and none of the pace.

Questions

How hard is the Pipiwai Trail?

Moderate. 4 miles round trip and 800 feet of climbing, with 400 of that climb packed into the first 0.5 miles. Footing is the limiter, not fitness.

Is the Pipiwai Trail steep?

The first half mile is, at around a 15 percent average grade on stone steps. After the banyan it flattens out, apart from a 90 foot flight of stairs just above the bridge.

Is the Pipiwai Trail slippery?

Yes, in three specific places: the mossy stone steps in the first half mile, the boardwalk through the bamboo, which stays wet all day, and the rounded boulders at the two stream crossings.

Can a beginner hike the Pipiwai Trail?

Yes, with shoes that have real tread and a slow first twenty minutes. If the stone steps feel like too much, Makahiku Overlook at 0.5 miles is a good place to stop and it is a 1 mile round trip.

Is the Pipiwai Trail harder going up or coming down?

Up is harder on your lungs, down is harder on your knees. The descent only saves about 17 minutes because you cannot move fast on wet stone.