Oh My God! ridge

A handful of us gathered at the end of Kala'au Place in Kuliouou Valley
this morning with the goal of creating a new route to the crest of the
valley's middle ridge.  Though Wing established a new MR route recently,
for reasons I won't go into, another one was being sought.  To summarize
what happened, yup, we all made it up to the crest of the MR.  And after
lunch, we made our way back to the valley by way of yet another route
makai of the one we went up.  What did all this accomplish?  Really, I'm
not sure, other than I, for one, was the glad recipient of a really nice
hill-climbing workout.   What anyone does with the new routes we did I
leave that to them.

Okay, so who showed up?  Mabel, Jay, Georgina, Connie, Gordon, Peter, Wil,
Tom, myself, and a wahine I'll call gung-ho-first-timer (or GHFT, for
short). I think her name was Jan or Joan, but my recollection is hazy.
Anyway, who didn't show up was one of GHFT's teenage sons, much to the
chagrin of Georgina, who I think came out today more for the prospect of
meeting said son rather than hiking.  But I might be wrong, and Georgina,
as she is wont to do, will surely correct me if I am.

About 8:15, we began hiking.  Embraced by sultry humidity, we ambled up
the shaded valley trail and a few minutes mauka of the junction with the
ridge trail, we headed on a trail to the left.  A ribbon marked the spot
and the left-heading path went through laua'e ferns, scattered guava and
christmasberry trees.  Very soon, the trail crossed a dry Kuliouou Stream
at a rocky section that created a natural bridge.  On the far bank was a
broad slope under large ironwood trees.  The ironwoods created a clear
understory and after a brief climb, we came upon a level clearing with a
fire pit and campsite.  Broken bottles littered the pit and on the ground
in the surrounding area I found "bullets" from paint ball guns, indicating
that enthusiasts of this pastime frequented the area for their battles.

The open slope under the ironwoods continued for a few minutes above the
campsite; then we ascended through the guava zone, which required bobbing,
weaving, and chopping (the latter I did little of but my companions were
much more diligent).  The angle of ascent was generally gentle.  The ridge
did steepen, but that would be a bit later.  On the way up, at at least
two points we came upon well-trodden pig trails that contoured across the
line we were climbing.  Having an inkling that these contours would likely
not net any fruitful way to ascend to the crest, I ignored them and
continued straight-up climbing.  Peter climbed right behind me for a good
ways but stopped to explore one of the pig trails.  To my surprise, GHFT
moved right onto my heels and stayed with me all the way to the ridgetop.

As I indicated earlier, the final segment of the ridge became quite steep,
requiring hand-over-hand upper body clambering.  Also in the decisive
segment, we came upon several rockfaces but were able to exploit
weaknesses in these, to borrow an expression Wing is fond of.  Once at the
ridgetop, GHFT and I rested for a few minutes.  I  then suggested we try
to clear a useable trail through the final steep guava section since the
concluding "trail" we had taken was handhold-deprived and generally
avoided the worst of the guava.  She agreed.

So back down we headed, hacking away at the guava. From time to time, I
whooped out to the others below.  Return whoops indicated my ascending
colleagues were within 100 meters.  While working downward, I came upon
Jay, Georgina, and Peter.  Seeing them, GHFT and I reversed fields and
scrambled back up to the top, with J, G, and P right behind us.  Several
minutes later, Tom topped out, then in rapid succession Mabel, then
Connie, then Gordon.  Upon reaching the ridgetop clearing, an exasperated
Mabel exclaimed, "Oh, my god," hence the christened name of this ridge.

To provide some perspective, the topping out point of Ohmygod Ridge is
just mauka of the uppermost ironwood grove on the middle ridge and is
clearly visible from the Kuliouou trailhead at the end of Kalaau Place.
Take a look the next time you're there.  From that vantage point, the
final section looks ridiculously steep, and, now having done it, we can
report that indeed it is.  Hey, but we all made it, including Mama Mabel,
all seventy-plus years of her.

After we were all together, we set off makai on the middle ridge.  Since
it was still early (10:30), Jay suggested we hike the gently graded
contour trail route over to Kuliouou's west ridge and, with no nays heard
from among us, we did just that.  The junction with the contour trail was
a few minutes makai of the apex of Ohmygod Ridge, and in about ten minutes
we were over on the west ridge settling down under an ironwood tree for
lunch.  From our lunchspot, we had an unhindered view of Kulepeamoa Ridge
as well as Kupaua Valley, the basin that sits between K-West and
Kulepeamoa.

After lunch, we backtracked to the middle ridge, then continued makai,
with the goal of finding yet another route back to Kuliouou Valley.
Several minutes down the middle ridge, we found a promising spot by the
ironwood grove just mauka of Wing's middle ridge access trail.  Spotting a
potential line, Tom and I headed down on the mauka side of the grove while
the others, with Jay, Peter, & Wil as the ramrods, began descending near
the grove's center.  Regardless of where we began, we all arrived
generally in the same place: next to the Board of Water Supply pumping
station that one can get to by following the chained-off paved road at the
end of Kala'au Place.  We had to negotiate several rockfaces en route, but
all had weaknesses (wave to La Wingo) and were surmounted with little
difficulty.  In addition to the rockfaces, our route was dry, dusty and
populated by ulei, guava, and koa haole.  Near the pumping station, I
poked around in the dry streambed and came upon two pig carcasses hanging
in trees.  I reported the discovery to the others via walkie-talkie, and
Tom, in reply, said, "You always seem to find the pigs."

We all were back at Kala'au by 12:30 and we enjoyed part of our 4th of
July partaking of snacks and soft drinks there, while we watched hikers
coming and going on their way to the Kuliouou State trail.  Speaking of
the Fourth, I hope everyone is having a good one.  If nothing else, my
hiking companions and I had an interesting time on part of ours.

--dkt