Waiahole Ridge

In the summer of '99, a handful of us tried to gain the summit of the
Koolaus from Waiahole Valley (see the OHE posts for June '99 for
write-ups).  We climbed up a ridge christened Kipapa Windward.  I was
so confident we'd reach the crest, I made a bold prediction success
would be ours.  Well, success wasn't to be had and it was humble pie
eating time.

I mention this because today I, along with the TM crew from the club,
returned to Waiahole, not for a summit attempt, but to work on the
Kuolani-Waianu trail for a 2/11, Sunday club hike.  There was something
out of the ordinary that happened, and I'll get to that later in the
write-up.

We, about two dozen of us, met at 8 by the Waiahole Poi factory just off
of Kam Hwy.  Along with the usual gang, we had three newbies out with
us.  It's interesting to have new faces in the crowd and observe how the
vets act and interact with them.  There's an intriguing dynamic that
transpires and a definite variance in behavior patterns.  I won't go into
specifics, for if you reflect on what happens when a new person appears
amongst a group of people who have a long association with one another,
you'll understand what I mean.

Okay, enough observational mumbo jumbo. Mabel gave us our hiking orders
and off we carpooled--some heading up the left fork of the valley road and
most heading to the right.  I caught a ride with Charlotte Yamane and her husband Volker 
to the end of the left fork, and hiked with Jason Sunada, Grant Oka, and
Georgina Oka.  After about 15 minutes, we caught up to Dusty and Sandy Klein.  Right
at that point, Jason and I bailed on the usual club route and began
climbing up the brushy but still doable lower segment of Kipapa
Windward.  I mentioned to Jason that it'd be good if Wing would come back
to re-clear the uluhe in the beginning, for it was Wing who reopened this
trail back in May '99 (www2.hawaii.edu/~turner/ohe/May99/5-29b.html).

But the uluhe was manageable and we were soon above it and climbing in
more unhindered conditions underfoot.  In less than 30 minutes, we emerged
on the Waiahole Ditch Trail, where we headed right (or north).  Neither I
nor Jason had ever hiked this segment of the ditch trail.  And, based on 
its overgrown, landslidish state, it appeared few, if any, folks hike it
nowadays.  But there's something about being able to say, "Yes, I've hiked
that trail."  And Jason and I can say that about this segment of
the ditch trail though it's unlikely I will be hiking it again
soon, for I can take only so much of weeds in my face and fallen logs to
crawl over & under.

After 90 minutes of moving slowly along the overgrown ditch trail, we
finally arrived at the improved section the club uses on its
outings.  Dusty was standing at the junction when we arrived and we found
out from him that most of the group had gone the other way around the loop
and were working toward us.  

This segment of the ditch trail didn't need much work aside from rocks and
branches that we tossed or kicked off the path. At one point, we passed an
outflow of the ditch, with water gushing out forming a noisy
cascade.  Not far past that, we explored a tunnel on the left.  Assisted
by Jason and his photon light, we stooped and shuffled through the tunnel
for 40 meters, stopping at a 4-foot  retaining wall.  Fifteen feet beyond
the wall was the Waiahole ditch.  Jason said something like, "With some
inner tubes away we'd go." No tubes, no go, however.

We exited the tunnel and continued north along the ditch trail.  I tried
to raise various members of the crew via walkie-talkie but had no
luck.  With all the intervening side ridges and a thick canopy of trees
overhead, negative radio contact was expected.  

I pushed a little ahead of Jason and Dusty and when I came to place along
the trail with ironwoods and an open uluhe slope on the left, I decided to
climb up the slope to try to gain a vantage point where I could
A) Sit down to eat lunch with a good view of the valley and
B) See further upridge to determin if I could find a way to try and climb
up toward the summit of the Koolaus.

As I climbed, I saw Jason and Dusty hiking along the ditch trail, and I
called out so they'd see where I was and follow me if they wanted.  Jason
waded up the slope after me.  Dusty, with trail marking duties to tend to,
declined. When Jason caught up to me, I pointed out an octopus tree 100
meters ahead of us that would be a good place to accomplish goals A &
B.  He was agreeable to that, and after huffing, puffing, and swapping the
uluhe-crashing lead position, we arrived at our lunchspot right around
noontime.  We each had altimeter watches that put us at the ~900-foot
level.

We had a nice lunch and jabbered about a variety of things, including
the merits of various new and used cars, the material composition of
gaiters, and the equitable dispursement of gifts for multiple
siblings.  And we also talked about the likelihood of summiting via the
spur ridge we were on.  From our lunchspot, it was clear we'd have to have
our ridge join up with an even larger one just to the north of us.  Humps
in our ridge kept us from seeing if it indeed connected with the bigger
ridge, so we made the decision to keep climbing to find out what would
happen.

Faced with overhead uluhe and no trail, we traded off in the lead
with the front man plowing through and the trailer doing some
chopping and uluhe stomping.  Our ridge narrowed a bit but never
approached a razor-like state.  To provide some perspective, it was like
climbing to Pu'u o Kila in Kahana but today's ridge wasn't as steep nor as
narrow.  We eventually climbed above the uluhe and had an easier go in
a section of  native forest (lama, ohia, akia, maile).  The ridge became
rockier on the final ascent but the climbing wasn't that difficult. At
around 1:15, we reached the place where our ridge joined the bigger ridge
to the north.  The bigger ridge had a faint (pig?) trail on it and from
the look of things, it appeared we could have continued on up and perhaps
even summited.  Jason, one of the few to climb Piliwale ridge to
Konahuanui,  was game for a summit go, but I had had enough climbing and
excitement for the day.  An altimeter check put us at the ~1500-foot
level, about 1000 feet from the top. A topo map review gave us an idea
what ridge we were on and where it would hit the summit.  

Based on all this, I'm cautiously optimistic we can acquire the
summit with this route and do so without great peril.  Keep in mind I
made a similar prediction before and was very wrong.  Although I'm not
sure when we will make a try for it, it'll likely be before the end of
February. 

Jason and I returned the same way we'd climbed, and on the way down we did
additional uluhe stomping to further establish the swath we'd created.  We
needed about half an hour to descend back to the ditch trail and another
hour to hike out to the end of the right fork of the valley road.  Tom
Yoza was waiting for us there and provided a ride back out to the
highway.  Mahalo, Tom.

Refreshments aplenty were being had at Waiahole Beach Park, and in
addition to consumption of cold drinks and snacks, I did more observation
of vet/newcomer dynamics and interaction. Interesting, indeed.

Next Sunday's TM outing will be Waimano.  Meeting time is 8 a.m. at the
top of Waimano Home Road next to the Waimano Home guard
checkpoint.  Newcomers are certainly welcome.  See you there.

--dkt