Olympus to Makapuu

Five of us did the club hike today.  Hike start time: 7:40 a.m. at Waahila
trailhead.  Hike end time: 4:40 p.m. at Makapuu Lookout--9 hours on the
trail. It was an ideal day for this hike, with a cloudless summit all the
way, high clouds to block the sun, and brisk trades to keep us cool.  God
was smiling upon us.

The hike up Waahila was uneventful and we summited at 9:00.  We were then
eastbound on the crest, passing a parade of summits--Kaau Crater, Lanipo,
Waialae Nui, Wiliwilinui, Wailupe, Hawaii Loa, Kulepeamoa, and then
Kuliouou West.  The trail along the summit was generally good, especially
the segments the club hikes and maintains.  The most brushy sections were
between Olympus and Kaau and between Kulepeamoa and K-West.  We reached
the latter at noon and ate lunch there.  I made walkie-talkie contact
with Ken Suzuki, who was leading a hike for the Nature Center in
Maunawili.

I had suggested that folks leave water caches at either Kuliouou or
Mariner's Ridge, and three of us did just that, so we ended up with close
to 4 supplemental gallons to replenish our H20 supplies along the way.
And this water proved very helpful to us, especially as the long day wore
on.

To my surprise, the only other hikers we saw on this beautiful day were
some folks at a distance heading down the Kuliouou state trail.
Otherwise, we saw no one else during the hike.

The hikers:  Hiroshi Sakae, Man Friday (who didn't want his real name
used), Dave Waller, Richard Fernandez, Dayle Turner.

Comments: Five folks, for various reasons, had to withdraw prior to
today's hike.  I hope they, and other interested hikers, organize
a group to complete this hike someday.  To me, the hike, in a much lesser
degree, is akin to thru-hiking the Appalachian or Pacific Crest Trails.
Hiking it section by section is an accomplishment, but hiking it in one
shot is a tough but doable challenge. I'll gladly offer information and
logistical support for anyone who gives this a shot, just don't ask me to
do it with you.  One time is enough.  :-)  One pitfall of today's hike is
that it finished at a time that would not allow any of us to attend the
wedding of HTMC folks Steve Brown and Lin Black.  Congratulations and best
wishes to them nonetheless.

Kudos: Ralph Valentino and Justin Ohara for shuttling us to Waahila in the
morning. Kirby Young, whose excellent OHE write-up of this hike helped
provide a frame of reference for us.  The HTMC trail crew, for all the
work done on sections of trail along the summit.  Dick Cowan, for the
solid cable on the cliff section just before TomTom.  Much mahalo to these
folks.

For those who want to take a look, Kirby's write-up is at

 http://www.geocities.com/oheposts/5-25c.html

Go HTMC!

--dkt