Today, the crew worked on the Kulepeamoa Ridge trail, part of the Hawaii Loa trail, and the crossover on the summit between the two for an upcoming (3/25) HTMC hike. As it always is, the starting place for the outing was in Niu Valley at the end of Anolani Street. We started at 8 and on hand were Mabel Kekina, Jay Feldman, Ken Suzuki, Carole K. Moon, Ralph Valentino, Grant Oka, Georgina Oka (16!), June Miyasato, Dick & Brenda Cowan, Connie & Gordon Muschek, Ed Gilman, Peter Kempf, Tom Yoza, Ken Mankhoff (78!), Brandon Stone, Kay Lynch, Karen, Karen's boyfriend, Karen's boyfriend's brother (didn't get the names of these two), Jason Sunada, and I. Also doing trail work for the club (Kawaewae Ridge overlooking Kaneohe) were Dusty Klein and Steve Brown. Around noon, I made walkie-talkie contact with Dusty. Soon afterward, I tried radioing someone on the HTMC Pupukea to Laie hike but did not hear a response (I once made contact with Mike Algiers via walkie-talkie when I was at the Poamoho summit and he at the Kuliouou summit, so I knew connecting at such a distance was possible). Today's weather was of the spectacular variety, with clear summits and a brisk, nippy breeze. The winds were so gusty at times that I had to remove my cap for fear of having it blow off into oblivion. The net result of capless hiking: a sunburn. Ouch. Most of the crew ascended Kulepeamoa Ridge while a smaller group started at the head of Hawaii Loa and went up and around that way. With just a half mile between ridges, both groups could easily see (and hear, by whoops) each other. I hung near the back of the Kulepeamoa-ascending group and got to talking with Jason, who told me about a descent into the valley on the right (Kupaua--lit. "upright clam") a few years ago during his "adventurous days." On the way up Kulepeamoa, Jason tried to pinpoint the place where he'd headed down into Kupaua but couldn't be certain. The spur that looked like the likeliest candidate looked messy and unpleasant. Further up, we came to a forested saddle between two hills. At that point, we poked around on the right and found a (pig?) trail contouring along the base of the upslope hill. Along this contour, we spotted some cut branches and that was encouraging, so we ventured further until the path began descending the crest of a spur ridge. At that point, I said something like, "So shall we?" and Jason said something like, "I'm game." So down we went. The upper section of the spur wasn't too steep and populated with just enough guava for abundant handholds but not so much to create messy blockades. Further down, we had to resort to hunching over and doing maneuvers akin to a duck walk to get by guava. Luckily, there was no uluhe. In 15-20 minutes, we had lost 700 feet of elevation to arrive in the dry bed of Kupaua Stream, overgrown with vegetation. We made our way downstream, looking for a landslide on the far bank. During his adventurous days, Jason had climbed up this landslide and had found a zigzag trail up through guava to ascend to the crest of Kuliouou's west ridge. We found the landslide, climbed it, pushed briefly through some thick vegetation, then came to a more open area of guava. Sure enough, trails zigged and zagged along the slope. Jason thought these were hunter trails but I thought they were made by pigs. Whatever they were, these led us up to Kuliouou West, where we topped out in an ironwood grove. In the ironwoods, we found a shady spot and sat down to rest for ten minutes. In the past year, Jason had hiked part of Kuliouou West with Jim Pushaw, Bill Gorst, Jay Feldman and others, and he thought we were downridge of the spot where he and the others had crossed over from Kuliouou's middle ridge (he was correct and later pointed out where the crossover junction was). After our rest, we began up Kuliouou West, which was dry and relatively open initially and uluhe-covered higher up. Fortunately, the swath from last year's trek was still intact through the uluhe. Also recognizable were old ribbons and lopper cuts by Wing from his successful circumnavigation of Kuliouou a couple years ago. Good work, La Wingo. After a steep final section, Kuliouou West merged with Kuliouou Middle at the uppermost of two cable sections on the middle ridge. From there, Jason and I hiked to the Koolau summit in ten minutes and sat down to eat lunch at just about high noon. Up to this point, no one from the crew seemed to realize we had gone off exploring. I thought that if anyone would eventually check on us, it'd be Tom Yoza, a man who is big on head counts and keeping track of folks. Sure enough, during lunch Tom radioed, asking for our whereabouts. The conversation went something like this: Tom: Dayle, what is your location? Me: Jason and I are sitting down to eat lunch. Tom: Are you coming up? (he thought we were still coming up Kulepeamoa). Me: We already are up. Tom: On the summit? Me: Yes. Tom: Whereabouts? Me: About a mile east of you. Druing the radio conversation, we could see Tom standing on the summit of Kulepeamoa and I'm sure at that point he shifted his gaze to the east to look for Jason and I sitting atop the summit of Kuliouou middle/west. >From our vantage point, we could see hikers making their way along the summit from Hawaii Loa toward Kulepeamoa. Jason, using his binoculars, verified that these were Ken, Georgina, Carole, et al. Toward the end of our 30-minute lunch, we saw members of the Kulepeamoa team heading across toward Hawaii Loa. At 12:30, Jason and I departed the Kuliouou west summit to cross to Kulepeamoa. This section was overgrown with clidemia and uluhe but wasn't hard to push through. Plus, the trail was mudfree, a welcome contrast to the quagmire I'd hiked in the day before (Alewa Ridge). We'd thought we'd need 45 minutes to make the crossing, which includes a steady, grinding, final climb, but 30 is all it took. Good deal. Resting at the Kulepeamoa summit were Ken, Connie, June, Georgina and Carole. They had come over from Hawaii Loa and would be heading down Kulepeamoa. Jason and I followed them down, and we all made an unrushed descent on a sunny, pleasant afternoon. We all made it back down to Anolani Street without a major hitch (Carole did have sore feet), and we enjoyed refreshments ala Mabel. Superb Next week Sunday, the crew will be working on the Waikane Trail up to the KST and Pu'u Kaaumakua. Meeting time is 8 a.m. at the parking lot of Waikane Beach Park, located on the makai side of Kam Hwy a bit past Waiahole Valley Road. New volunteers are welcome. --dkt
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