Extreme Hiking Hawaii

Hike date : April 2003 Certain recollections come to mind when I think of the valley isle of Maui: the tourist town of Lahaina, where there are "brown eyed girls to break your heart"; the long and winding road to Hana, with its wonderful waterfall/swimming hole hikes; lush, isolated Pu'u Kukui, where a group of HTM trailclearers once participated in a service project (Dec. '99); and then there's remarkable Haleakala Crater, the location of my very first neighbor island backpack (May '97), coordinated by Ken Suzuki.After reading about the trip Dayle Turner, Ed Gilman and Mark Short did to Haleakala's summit via a route along Manawainui Gulch in December of last year, I had a strong desire to check it out myself. Moreover, I'm really into elevation gain these days, and after accumulating a total of 7600' via a double traverse of Mount Ka'ala on February 2 of this year, I wanted to exceed this one day total. "10K in one day" ha

The 2010 HTMC calendar is really a thing of beauty, but there is outdated information that I would like to see corrected. On the last page (bottom flap of Club Facts & Trivia) it reads, "Pete Clines has also attempted this climb to True Manamana but fell short of the summit. As far as we know, no one has conquered the summit of True Manamana." I am pleased to report that these statements are no longer accurate, as two HTMC members had lunch there this past Saturday! With an EARLY 6:30am meeting time, Laredo (Rainbowman) Murray, Nathan Yuen, Chris Cheng, and I prepared for a long day of adventure. By 6:50am we were leaving the cars (by Kahana Bay) and were heading for the "Cemetery Route" up the Manamana club hike. Clouds and on-and-off rain throughout the day meant the ground would be muddy and slick for the duration. A little before 9am we reached Turnover at about 2000ft and had a short break. The club route would reverse direction here, a