sade005

In the summer of '99, a handful of us tried to gain the summit of the Koolaus from Waiahole Valley (see the OHE posts for June '99 for write-ups). We climbed up a ridge christened Kipapa Windward. I was so confident we'd reach the crest, I made a bold prediction success would be ours. Well, success wasn't to be had and it was humble pie eating time. I mention this because today I, along with the TM crew from the club, returned to Waiahole, not for a summit attempt, but to work on the Kuolani-Waianu trail for a 2/11, Sunday club hike. There was something out of the ordinary that happened, and I'll get to that later in the write-up. We, about two dozen of us, met at 8 by the Waiahole Poi factory just off of Kam Hwy. Along with the usual gang, we had three newbies out with us. It's interesting to have new faces in the crowd and observe how the vets act and interact with them. There's an intriguing dynamic that transpires and a definite variance in behav...

What a difference a swath makes. That's a thought that popped into my head a bunch of times today while I hiked. Joining me was fellow swath-buckler Ed Gilman, who needs no introduction since he's been mentioned on the list quite a bit. The swath we were glad to have in front of us was on the west (aka north) ridge of Moanalua Valley. A small group of us did this ridge a couple weeks ago, and in my write-up of that hike I belabored the point that we had a pretty tough go of it because no trail existed up there. But there is a trail on Moanalua west now as a result of the push-through we did two weeks ago and some chopping Ed and I did today. Mabel tells me she will lobby the HTMC schedule committee to include a hike on this route, so club members stay tuned. And for non-club members, new hikes like this might be incentive for joining the ranks of the HTMC. We're a pretty good bunch of folks. My motivation for doing what we did today was two-fold. First, the club...

Nine months have passed since we last cleared the 7-mile Halawa Ridge Trail. And after yesterday's HTMC TM outing I can attest that the vegetation we chopped last April has made a large-scale growback in 3/4s of a year. The top prize for fastest regeneration went to Setaria palmifolia (palm grass), a reedy pest that seems to have multiplied and thickened ten-fold (for a pic, see http://www.floridata.com/ref/s/images/seta_pa1.jpg ). Additionally, there was no shortage of thick uluhe along the trail. The good thing is that we had a good-sized turnout of about 30 yesterday. Even at that, the crew still needs to return to Halawa this coming Sunday to complete the job. An energetic and enthusiastic bunch, we were armed with machetes, sickles, and loppers. We even had heavier artillery, namely a chainsaw and two gas-powered hedge trimmers, one which crapped out early on. But we still couldn't finish clearing the trail up to usual club standards. So this Sunday again to Halawa...

To OHE this past April, Stuart Ball posted a tribute to the late Chuck Godek (see http://www2.hawaii.edu/~turner/ohe/April00/4-3b.html to read the post). In his write-up, Stuart mentioned a "hair-raising loop" using the left (north) ridge of Moanalua Valley. The loop was pioneered by Godek and his hiking contemporary Erwin "Ski Poles" Jaskulski. Intrigued about the route, I made a mental note to give it a go at some point. Today, a handful of us--after a bunch of sweating, scrambling, clawing, slipping, and swearing-- completed the challenging circuit. My companions today, for better or worse, were Dusty Klein, Jay Feldman, Ed Gilman, Jim Wilburn, and Jason Sunada. Four of the five who'd join me showed up at Moanalua Valley Park at 8 a.m. for HTMC trail maintenance of the Moanalua Valley Trail and had no idea what the day really had in store for them. The day before, Jason and I had talked about the possibility of trying the loop. After checking out th...

As I've done on New Years morning for the past five years, I drove out to Koko Crater to do the annual first-of-the-year hike with the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club. There was a bunch of us who arrived before eight to get a head start on the masses (over 30 hikers) who'd arrive a bit later. Among the early birds were Jim Yuen & Ralph Valentino, who went to the rock arch to prepare it for the two dozen-plus hikers who'd traverse it. Other early arrivers were Bev Valentino, Gordon & Connie Muschek, Jason Sunada, Bill Gorst, Jim Pushaw, Stuart Ball and wife Lynn (celebrating their 4th anniversary today), Lin Black, Nathan Yuen, and June Miyasato. >From the Blowhole side, there are two ways to get to the rim: the rock arch way and the direct route from the parking lot. A handful of the early birds went up the direct route and a handful the rock arch way. Like last year, I ascended the no-nonsense direct route and enjoyed the workout it provided. It was brisk,...