I coordinated a hike for the club today, and from my calculations, we covered about 13 miles. At 8 a.m., the group (Richard Fernandez, Roger Breton, Peter Kempf and I [4 no-shows]) met in Halawa Valley at the end of Iwaena Street, then jumped in my vehicle for the drive over to Moanalua where we'd begin our day's journey. Wing Ng also was doing the hike but instead of meeting at Iwaena, he got an earlier start at Moanalua. I'm sure he'll post a report at some point.
It was 8:20 when our group of four started up the dirt road into Moanalua Valley. The morning was dreary, with some light showers and gray clouds upslope. About twenty minutes in, Richard realized his hiking poles, which he'd fastened to his pack, had fallen off. Though he backtracked for a few minutes, he didn't find his poles. Not surprisingly, he was bummed.
A few minutes past nine, we arrived at the place where we left the road to begin hiking along the valley trail. A couple minutes in, just past a water gaging station, we crossed a dry Moanalua Stream and almost immediately came upon an obscure junction (I had earlier marked this with double-orange ribbons) where we veered left thru hau to begin the climb up a spur that would take us to the top of Moanalua's north ridge aka Red Hill Ridge aka Godek/Jaskulski Ridge. We needed about half an hour for the climb and our ascent was made easier because of some TM work done by a small group (Jay, Bill, Roger, and I) this past Wednesday.
We had thought that we would catch up to Wing at some point during the climb up the spur, but Dr. Ng (Esq.) was making good progress and we would not overtake him until later. A low-carb diet, which has helped La Wingo shed 14 pounds over the past several weeks, seems to be serving him well.
Upon reaching the crest of Red Hill ridge, our group rested for a couple minutes and then recommenced the march. Our goal: to reach the terminus of the Halawa trail by 12:30. Whether we could do that depended on the condition of the trail, our energy levels, and our determination. Whatever the case, we were game. Roger, as is often the case, was in good form and led for a good portion of the climb to the Koolau summit. At times, he fished out his machete to chop intruding uluhe even though I did not ask him to do this. He just seems to love to work. Richard, wearing long pants on a hike for the first time, also spent some time at the front.
At 10:10, just short of two hours into our hike, we caught up to Wing, who donned his trademark blue jacket and was moving along steadily up Red Hill ridge. I congratulated him for his good progress, and he seemed confident he'd make it to the summit, cross over to Halawa, and finish at Iwaena before day's end. Wing was carrying a recently purchased walkie-talkie, and he and I communicated several times later in the day after our group passed him. Also before I left him, he gave me a spare set of keys for his car. The plan: Roger and I would shuttle Wing's car over to Iwaena from Moanalua in the afternoon.
Roger, Richard, Peter and I reached the Koolau summit at almost 11:00 a.m. on the dot, and our reward was a sparkling view down into Haiku Valley and beyond to windward Oahu. We plopped down to rest at the small summit clearing and fifteen minutes later began the northerly crossover to the Halawa terminus. Peppered with steady trade winds, the crossover route was in generally good shape, with no major bush bashing to do. The ridge top, with one significant pu'u to negotiate, was muddy in spots and in many places the drop offs to windward were quite precipitous. We had no incidents on the crossover, however. In 30 minutes, we found ourselves dropping down to the clearing that marked the end of the Halawa ridge trail. The time: 11:45. We had needed just under 3.5 hours from Moanalua Park to our lunch spot-pretty good.
Not feeling hungry, I ate a handful of roasted peanuts and a Balance bar for lunch, and as I dined, I noticed the others also weren't eating much. Everyone took care to drink fluids, for on tough hikes like these, adequate fluid intake is a critical element. During our 30-minute noon rest/meal break, I tried to raise Wing on the walkie-talkie. Though I couldn't raise him, I was able to chat with Dusty Klein who was monitoring the channel from his Kaneohe home. Dusty reminded me about tomorrow's HTMC TM outing (Keahiakahoe), and I made a joking remark, hinting that I might take the day off from hiking.
At 12:15, Roger, Peter, Richard, and I arose and began down Halawa Ridge. I was interested to see what shape it was in since it'd been eight months since the club last worked on it. The report: generally overgrown with several blow downs and small landslides. I'm not sure when we're next scheduled to work on Halawa but whenever it is, we'll have a tough Sunday (or two) of work to do.
Roger was on a mission and blitzed ahead of the rest of us down Halawa. With Roger well ahead, we met a young haole couple just mauka of the crossover, and we found out later that they'd told Roger of their plan to hike to the Halawa summit, cross over to Red Hill Ridge, and descend the route we'd hiked up in the morning. I'm not sure if indeed they were successful or if they're HTMC members, but they told Roger they knew me. When I passed them, however, I didn't recognize them. Peter theorized that the couple just might be Last Koho and his wife! Who knows? Let's wait and see if an OHE write-up appears.
Roger reached Iwaena Street before 2:30, netting first-to-finish honors for the hike. The rest of us shared the runner-up title, arriving at the cars at 2:50. In all, it was a good hike. I hope it was the same for Wing.
Go HTMC!
--dkt
Author: Dayle Turner <turner@hawaii.edu>
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