A Rugged Mountain Climb Up the Pali Face on Kauai By Harry Whitten, Mon Nov 14, 1983 Star Bulletin Silver K. Piliwale, at the age of 82, continues to astound his hiking companions by his rugged mountain climbs. Recently the hardy Hawaiian, in company with William K. Hussey of Haena, Kauai, climbed up the pali face from Kalalau Valley, on Kauai's Na Pali coast, to Kokee. Hawaiians in the old days, when they lived in Kalalau, had a trail of sorts going up to Kokee. Piilani, the wife of Koolau the Leper, is said to have used the route when she left Kalalau to go over the mountains and down to Waimea to get supplies such as sugar or tobacco to bring to her husband in the isolated valley. Koolau was the subject of a story by Jack London after he fought off a party of national guardsmen sent in 1893 to captures and take him to Kalaupapa Settlement on Molokai. He was never captured, but in time he and his son died of the disease and his wife returned to her family in Kekaha, Kauai. In time landslides erased the old trail. At rare intervals over the years people have climbed up to Kokee from Kalalau but its a difficult and dangerous venture that government officials, who don't want to send out rescue parties, try to discourage. Several years ago two members of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club, Herman Medeiros and Charles Nakamura, accomplished the climb. Piliwale and Hussey took five days for their adventure, one day more than they expected, which caused concern for Hussey's wife Barbara. In the morning of their last day, the two climbers observed a helicopter which they decided must be searching for them. When they reached state park headquarters at 3:45 p.m. that day they told park personnel, "We were the two missing hikers," and assured the police and fire departments they were all right. Barbara Husssey came to pick them up. The climb itself took three days, of which two nights were spent on the steep slopes. The first night wasn't bad, Pilwale said, but on the second night it rained. Hussey had brought along canvas which they spread out to catch rainwater for drinking and use in cooking. They used machetes often in cutting their way through thick vegetation. They carried small ropes; at some times they shed their backpacks in order to climb unhindered and then used the ropes to haul up their packs. It took them two hours to go up one steep stretch of terrain. Piliwale, who has been a seaman, musician and heavy crane operator among other things, now puts in many hours as a volunteer at Lyon Arboretum or helping build trails. In 1972 he celebrated his 72nd birthday anniversary by hiking the Koolau Summit, Pupukea to Moanalua Valley and hiked over most of the same route again in 1979 for his 78th anniversary.
