Trail maintenance Schofield-Waikane
It’s not like Dayle didn’t want to go trail clearing with the HTMC gang—but he said he had to go to a ukulele concert or something. He even jogged up California Avenue in the morning to talk story with us in the East Range parking lot before the hike. At the time, it was drizzling lightly and looked like we were in for a cool, wet day.
The inner gates were locked, so Mabel hiked around in the woods looking for a way to the Ranger Station. It took some time, but she made it—only to find no one there. Meanwhile, hike leader John Hoover and I located some nearby Army personnel and asked them to check with Range Control. They radioed in and reported that we wouldn’t be allowed to drive up that day.
As a result, everyone drove to the end of California Ave. and parked in the neighborhood. The walk up the jeep road added another six miles or so to the hike.
We began our trek around 8:40 a.m., and almost immediately the rain stopped. The jeep road section took about an hour. The group planned to split into two teams:
Team 1—Kris, Larry, and Jason—headed off to check out the Kaukonahua Stream Trail and planned to tube down the river. Maybe Jason can post an update on their adventures.
Team 2 consisted of John, Nathan, Jr. Lau, Jay, Mel, Ralph, Dick, Dusty, Peter, Laura, Brenda, Grant, Kenji, June, Carole, Charlotte, Bill, Tom Mendes, Gordon, Connie, Lucy (new), and me. I’m not sure which team Mabel joined, but my guess is she went with the river rats.
Today turned out to be one of those epic, bust-your-okole, run-out-of-water hikes. While most folks were expecting a nice, cool day, it instead became very hot and humid. The Nā Ala Hele crew had recently weed-whacked the first two miles of trail, and it was in fine shape. The upper two miles weren’t too bad either.
Because of recent rain, there were plenty of puddles and mud holes. Last week, Kenji mentioned that several sections near the summit needed pick work to widen the trail, so that became my goal for the day.
Jr. Lau was the first to top out, followed by Nathan and John Hoover. All three were already headed back down by the time Jay and I reached the summit around 1:00 p.m. When I passed Jr., he kept muttering, “Too hot, too hot!”
At the summit, the wind was very light—so light you had to lean over the edge to feel any cooling at all. There were also no views, just clouds. Before leaving around 1:30 p.m., Jay and I inventoried our water: Jay had only one liter left, and I had just a little more.
Given that, Jay decided not to expend any more energy clearing on the way out. I spent about an hour cutting uluhe until the blazing sun finally did me in. I ran out of water on the jeep road, but it was cooler by then, and I eventually made it back to my Scout around 5:30 p.m.
Earlier, Ralph had radioed that he picked up Jay and suggested we meet at Fresh Water Park for snacks. By the time I arrived, most of the crew had already left.
Hopefully, the air conditioning wasn’t too cold for Dayle at the concert.
Aloha,
Thomas
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