The West Maui mountains are some of the wettest places on earth, receiving over 400 inches of rain each year. Throughout our trip, we had looked at the rugged peaks maintain an almost constant cloud cover that typically obscured the tops of all but the lowest ridges. Another hike we had wanted to do from early in our planning phase was Waihee (Vye-hay-ay) Ridge, a 4-mile roundtrip trail that gains about 1,600′ to reach Lanilili Peak, elevation 2,563′, located not far from Kahului and a couple of drainages north of Iao Valley. We had checked out this area twice earlier in the week, both times finding low clouds covering the peak – this day, we decided to check it out again, planning to opt for better weather up in Makawao if Waihee Ridge again looked bad. Well, we were in luck – the mountains were cloudy as usual, but the ceiling was quite a bit higher than in past days, and we could see all of our ridge and Lanilili Peak in clear profile as we drove north through Wailuku. We found the trailhead without much trouble, and the generous parking area was nearly full with cars – apparently, this is a popular trail on a Saturday morning. It was nearly 10am by the time we started out, and there were already others coming down. The trail first follows a concrete service road that runs straight up the fall line of the initial slope to a water tank, where the footpath splits off and heads west through a wooded area to the main ridgeline. Just prior to gaining the ridge, we came to an overlook from which we could see the peak to the west as well as two small waterfalls to the north. That view was pretty enough, so we were blown away as we soon came to a second overlook facing south – we could see southwest directly up the Waihee Valley, the lower part of which lay hundreds of feet below us at the base of a near-vertical slope (the Waihee Valley is the site of another trail we had wanted to hike, complete with swinging bridges over the river, that is currently closed to the public). To the southeast, we had a grand vista over Kahului, its bay to the north, and the slopes of Haleakala beyond – on an island full of sublime views, this has to be one of the best. We rested here longer than we should have, for we realized that the cloud cover was dropping as fresh mists were blowing in off the water, several hundred feet below the existing ceiling – off we went, continuing west up the ridge, gently climbing for a stretch before steepening significantly as the trail began to switchback. The ridge also narrows as it steepens, and we passed through several segments of permanent decking installed as stairs – if not for the thick ground cover that acts as bannisters, one might feel the steep exposure here. We could see the ridge tapering to its apex above us, after which we would cross a shallow saddle between the ridge and the Lanilili Peak structure – beyond the saddle, the trail continues another half mile up the peak’s east slope to reach the summit. That last half mile passed by very quickly as we raced the incoming clouds to the summit, not unlike a past experience we had on Valencia Peak in Montana de Oro (we lost that race) – this time, we won, and it was a little strange to look out over this magnificent terrain while being so close to the clouds, perhaps like feeling the need to continually duck your head in a room with a low ceiling. We spent quite a bit of time on the summit – a young couple was leaving as we arrived, and two guys showed up after us and left before us. We had passed numerous hikers on the way up, so there were plenty of people about, and we passed several again on our way down. As we returned to the eucalyptus groves near the trailhead, we realized some may be the same “painted” variety seen along the celebrated Road to Hana – Chris tried to get fancy with his photography here, with uncertain results. There were still people arriving at the parking lot when we got back to the car, although the lot was indeed emptier. We were so jazzed to have gotten to hike this trail – it was by far one of the best of the trip, with great conditions, great views, and great weather.