Who could ever think that a hike into remote Hawaiian wilderness would leadto a brush with death?(hah!) Yesterday, my original plan was to hike down the Halemau'u Trail in Haleakala National Park and explore a few miles down Keanae Valley as a recon for a future backing packing trip all the way down. I got up early and checked the Haleakala Summit webcam:http://banana.ifa.hawaii.edu/crater/ and saw thick clouds filling Koolau Gap, so I went ahead with Plan B - which was to hike Honomanu.
Honomanu Valley is the biggest valley west of Hana. According to the topo map, I should reach a 400 foot waterfall in just less than 1 mile from the bridge. A smaller tributary called Uluini Stream tumbles into the Valley just below the falls. Elevation gain along the valley floor should be about 400 feet. The Honomanu bridge is just before Mile Post 14.
I headed down into the stream and soon found an overgrown track on the left just above the streambed. I followed this for a few hundred yards before coming back down to the stream. I also found a couple of good-sized bamboo poles washed up that made good hiking poles. I picked my way slowly along the slippery rocks of the stream, the bamboo poles were a great help and prevented some nasty falls.
After about 30 mins, I heard a loud crack like a gunshot coming from up above, behind me and to the left. I heard a rock tumble down the cliff and splash into the stream. "Its good thing I wasn't standing there". I shrugged and started to walk off when a deafening crack and the the sound of thunder filled the valley as the cliff above gave way! I dropped my poles and bolted upstream as fast as I could on the slippery rocks, trying to fight down the panic. Behind me, I could hear branches breaking, dirt sliding, and rocks bouncing off the cliffs and splashing in the stream.
I realized that no one could ever outrun a rockslide, so headed for a large boulder a few yards ahead. It was on the right side of the stream and and only a few feet from the valley wall. The space in between the boulder and cliff looked like it would give me good protection. Just before I reached the boulder everything went silent.
I crouched behind the boulder, my heart racing and knees shaking from the adrenaline surge. I quickly decided to continue upstream. To head back would mean walking right under the part that just gave way. If the whole thing was going to give way, it would probably have more of a chance of happening now rather than in the hour or two it would take for me to go all the way up then head back down.
I continued on, walking as fast as I could on the rocks to get out of the immediate danger area. I was now pretty paranoid and every little noise I heard had me looking up and getting ready to take off running.
In a few more minutes I came to a delicate waterfall cascading down from the right. This must be Uluini stream. I rounded the next turn and saw a 100 foot waterfall surging into the valley. Not as big as I hoped, but nice nonetheless. The valley at this point was very similar to Maakua Gulch on Oahu with its vertical walls shooting straight up from the floor, the only difference was the massive scale of this valley. The stream was much wider than any I've seen on Oahu. I rounded another turn and was awestruck to see a 400+ foot waterfall roaring down the back of the valley. What I thought was the main waterfall was in fact Uluini.
It was amazing to see 2 tremdenous waterfalls at the same time. I think it was a first for me. Honomanu Falls was about 100 yards past Uluini. The pool at its base was enormous but I didn't go for a swim, it was already 4:30 pm. The waterfall did a free fall ito the the pool for the last 20 feet so you could swim directly into the falls if you wanted. The last time I've seen anything this big was Hanakoa Falls on the Kalalau Trail
After a rest, I headed back without incident. While passing the area of the rockslide I saw a dozen television-sized boulders amid fresh soil and twisted tree limbs scattered over a 50 foot long section of stream bed. In reality, this was a very small rockslide and probably happens several times a day in this valley alone, but it doesn't seem so small when your running from it.
Here's a link to my Yahoo photo album where you can find a picture of the 2 falls of Honomanu Click on "My Photo Album". Just remember this was taken with a crummy digital camera. http://photos.yahoo.com/eric96753
Author: Eric Stelene stelene@email.com>
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