Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 17:00:46 -1000 From: JFEL873@aol.com (Jay Feldman) Subject: Olomana Check Out
Whereas this morning was perfect for hiking, Sunday was completely imperfect. Olomana, the traditional Christmas hike for HTM was up for grabs given the rain, slickness of the trail and the overall difficulty of the hike. Dayle Turner, Henry Davis, Rich Jacobson, and I met early (7:15) to check out the route prior to the arrival of Hike Coordinator Doug Klein. Clicking in on his FRS radio as he came out of the Pali tunnel, he queried us on the status of the trail. As we sat huddled, shivering, soaking, dripping, just below the vertical rock face on the slope of the first peak, all we could croak out was - "Dusty, cancel this damn hike, we've got a river here instead of a trail."
Now if you know Dusty, the only thing that would hold him back from a hike is two broken legs. Having nothing to do with our grinch talk he asked if we could recommend at least the first peak. Since we were only yards from there we grudgingly gave our OK. "Only crazy people will go further!" we suggested, forgetting for a moment HTMC is entirely made up of crazy people who by sheer coincidence have all joined the same organization.
However, we knew this was a hike open to the public and there was a chance novice hikers (i.e., not crazy yet) might try for the third peak. We also knew that this was no day for the inexperienced to try to go that far; especially if the weather got worse, which plainly it would given Murphy's First Law of Hiking - "If you're worried something may go wrong, it already has." However, not ten minutes into our descent the rain ceased, the clouds began to lift and off in the distance we could briefly see Kaneohe Bay. "Don't even think about it, this is temporary, it'll be pouring again," were our mental comments.
Suddenly, there they were, the speedy advanced group just spitting up that slimy trail. They were easily moving upwards twice as fast as were descending. As they hustled past us, seeing us as momentary obstacles, human flotsam, our cautionary words served only to briefly outline their wake. In a wink they were gone. No one is that fast! Familiar faces yes, but "who were those guys?" resonated in our minds. We knew, via the radio, that Dusty had limited the hike to peak one only. Would "they: proceed to peak III we wondered? We knew there were no facilities along the back side of peak II to assist their descent or return, so we were confident they would adhere to Dusty's suggestions. Or so we thought. Much later we ran into the remainder of the large group that had assembled for the hike. There were a number of skilled and hardy hikers, but also a few who looked less sure of themselves. Vindication was ours.
Returning to our cars, Rich and I went over the use of the new Motorola FRS radios he had acquired for us. He has a extra Radio Shack one for sale now if anyone is interested. Henry contributed about 150 feet of inch and a half nylon webbing for the TM crew (which quickly disappeared in the back of Dayle's Jeep), and I offered up cold drinks for everyone, accidentally exploding a Coke on the street when it slipped out of my hand - no significant injuries resulted.
Dayle and I headed out for Ho'omaluhia to assist the TM crew's endeavor to reconnect Likeke trail to the park sans a trip to Likelike highway. For that story, check out Dayle's OHE contribution of 12/26 - Likeke TM.
Jay