Malaekahana and Kahuku Trails

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It's been years since the HTMC has hiked the Kahuku Trail. Perhaps some long-time members might know when the club last hiked Kahuku. My guess is that it's been at least 20 years. Access restrictions at the makai end of the trail might have led to its disuse, but recent exploratory jaunts into the area by club members have not only resulted in the re-opening of the route but also a solution to the access bugaboo.

What does that spell? K-A-H-U-K-U. The club will be hiking it again.

Today, a group of us gave the route a nice going over in preparation for the members-only club hike on Sunday 10/7/2001. The indubitable duo of Jay Feldman and Wil Kawano will coordinate the hike.

Today's TM roll call: Mabel Kekina, Jay Feldman, Wil Kawano, Bill Gorst, Mike Algiers, Kay Lynch, Brandon Stone, Dick Cowan, Brenda Cowan, Gordon Muschek, Connie Muschek, Tom Yoza, Ken Suzuki, June Miyasato, Grant Oka, Georgina Oka, Jason Sunada, Ed Gilman, Art Isbell, Larry Oswald, Kris Corliss, Dayle Turner. Apologies if I missed someone.

As we sometimes do on TM outings, we work in several teams: Team Pupukea, comprised of Larry and Kris, start from the Boy Scout camp at the end of Pupukea Road and work on Kahuku from the top-down; Team Malaekahana, composed of Ed, Jason, and I, go up the Malaekahana trail, then up the Malae shortcut to the KST, and also pitch in with the top-down clearing of Kahuku. Everyone else, except Mike and Mabel, is part of Team Kahuku, and do a bottom-up attack on the trail. Mabel and Mike, btw, work on and mark the Malaekahana Loop, which Mike will coordinate for the club this Saturday.

We get off to a relatively late start this a.m., shoving off from the Laie ball park at 8:30. Jason, Ed, and I, hiking under a high ceiling of clouds, move steadily up rollercoasterish Malaekahana Ridge (it's getting overgrown), reaching the junction with the shortcut trail in two hours. Using the shortcut, the KST can be reached in approx. 30 minutes. Jason puts up some supplementary ribbons along the shortcut route; meanwhile, Ed and I push ahead to open up a direct connector path where the shortcut and KST merge. A multitude of ribbons are affixed at the KST/shortcut junction and a hiker will have to be in a coma to miss this spot.

Bound for the summit of the Kahuku Trail, we head north on the KST at 11:25. This segment of the summit trail is muddy and about half of it is generally overgrown (though passable). Hiking at a good clip, we need an hour to complete it.

At 12:25, we sit down to eat lunch at the summit of the Kahuku Trail (a small green sign marks the spot). Below us down-ridge, we hear the drone of Larry's hedge trimmer. Radio checks with the Kahuku team indicate the bulk of them are hammering through the trail's lengthy guava section while a smaller group is forging ahead upridge to attack the uluhe.

By 12:45, Ed, Jason, and I are on the move again and heading down Kahuku. The work that Larry and Kris do is wonderful, and I remark to Ed that I hope they have cut their way a good distance ahead of us before we catch up to them. Eventually we do, and we join them in the uluhe assault.

Around 2 p.m., we make visual then physical contact with the Kahuku team at a breezy hilltop populated with ti plants, and at that point I invoke a stipulation of my trail clearing union contract that says, among other things, that I shall not be maketh to hack at vegetation after 1400 hours. With no union busters in sight, I put my machete in my pack and saddle up for the hike out.

During the descent of Kahuku, it is great to see the freeway condition of the trail. Great work has been done on the uluhe slopes and equally fine labor has been done in the lengthy guava segment. What a transformation that trail has gone thru since I first did it a couple years ago with Jim Pushaw, Mike Algiers, Helen Sroat, and Larry & Kris. Nice work by today's crew!

The first are back at the ball park by 4 and the last by 5, and there we all enjoy the cold drinks, lilikoi pie, watermelon, chips, dips, and assorted other goodies Mama Mabel provides for us. The party breaks up at 5:45, and I enjoy the pleasant drive back home to Kaneohe via the coastal section of Kam Hwy through Hauula, Punaluu, Kaaawa, Kualoa, and Waiahole. A productive day!

Author:  Dayle Turner <turner@hawaii.edu>

Hike date: 23 Sept 2001 

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