Waimalu Ditch with HTMC

Waimalu Ditch with HTMC

Posted to OHE on 23 January 2004 by Steve Brown

Pretty good hike, if a little damp. No incidents—except the near miss described below.

The National Weather Service listed a 10% chance of precipitation for the Pearl City and Mililani zip codes. The weather was good in the morning: partly cloudy with occasional light breezes.

Trail maintenance efforts had been somewhat thwarted by recent high water in the streams. Mahalos go out to Tom Yoza, who cleared and marked the initial ups and downs; to the Hoots, who cleared the rest of the trail up to the lunch spot at the saddle during the week; and, of course, to the whole trail maintenance crew for their good intentions.

We got some exercise on the scheduled day of trail clearing, even though little clearing occurred. As a result, the upper loop wasn’t cleared and was not included in the hike route, which disappointed some of the hikers.

Steve was sweeping (in and out), but Pat Rorie called on the radio around 11:00 a.m., indicating that he was behind, having started late.

On the way in, the streams were full and flowing fast with brown water, but were crossed without incident. There was thunder at the lunch spot, though there were occasional bits of clear sky toward the summit.

Steve, as sweep, was last to leave the lunch spot. He ran into Pat at the bottom of the switchbacks. Pat said he was going to continue up to tag the lunch spot and then come back down.

Steve continued back and descended into Waiawa Valley, crossing the first stream without incident. But when he was about ten feet from stepping into the second stream, a flash flood came down. The water depth increased by only about a foot and a half, but the flow was much faster, noisy, and roiling around the rocks.

Steve could not cross the stream. He called Larry Lee on the FRS radio—Larry was part of a group just ahead—to let him know what had happened. Steve said he would wait a while to see if the stream would subside. This was the same approach Tom Yoza had taken the week before when he was working on the same trail and was also stopped by a flash flood.

Steve waited quite a while—perhaps an hour and a half—with little perceptible change in the stream conditions. Larry Lee then called back on the FRS and said his group would come back down to the stream to see what could be done.

The group that returned consisted of Larry Lee, Bal Dasa, Gay Nall, and Clayton Kong. Communication was by FRS radio, as the stream was so noisy that only the loudest shouts could be heard across the water.

Steve had a length of webbing in his pack (mahalo to Jim Yuen, whose advocacy years ago resulted in Steve always carrying it). The webbing was thrown across the stream and tied securely to two trees.

Steve periodically tried to reach Pat by FRS without success. Finally, on one of his trips back toward the other stream crossing, he spotted Pat and asked him to get on the radio. Steve explained the situation and said Larry’s group would attempt to send one person across the stream, after which Steve and Pat would try to cross.

Larry Lee rigged a harness around his waist and crotch. The line was wrapped around a tree and belayed by other members of his party. Larry attempted to cross the stream, positioning himself upstream of the static line with his arms over it for safety.

He made it less than two feet into the stream before his legs were swept out from under him. It was clear that no crossing could be made under the current conditions.

Meanwhile, Pat reconnoitered another stream crossing and found a spot where the water was broader and not as fast-flowing. He crossed successfully and joined Steve.

Pat and Larry’s group bushwhacked upstream—dealing with cat’s claw all the while—in an attempt to find a similar crossing on the apparently uncrossable stream, but were unsuccessful.

It was decided that Steve and Pat would head back to the Waiawa Ditch Trail, crossing at the broader spot Pat had found, then make their way back via the trail and the circuitous dirt-bike access route to the road leading to the Waiawa Corre