Pear Gulch Wandering
Wednesday September 05, 2013
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Today just Gene and I again. We headed out an hour earlier than usual
to beat the heat on the paved BWS road. The plan was to head up Pear Gulch
Middle gulch past the Avocado House Site until we reached the second fork and
then take the left fork and hope to spot the trail we made about 3 years ago
which crossed the rest of Pear Gulch to the walls below Razor Ridge.
Hoping or is it Hopping? that Alan was trying to catch up we took a break at
the boulders just past the up trail to the Lookout. I just love the way
Kukui branches just curve this way and that way as they fight for light.
After passing the entrance to Peacock Gulch we turned left and continued up
the middle gulch. Crossing the stream there is this huge erosional remnant
made up of rocks and boulders and dirt. Pretty cool how it remained
standing while on both sides the streams washed everything away.
Looking at the map and starting at the lower left side, we began following
the black dots and then when they head up to the Lookout we switched to the
yellow dots. Yea the yellow doesn't stand out to well. Next time
I'll use a different color or type of line. We follow the yellow trail in
the middle gulch until 930 when we took a break where the valley forks. We
took the left fork now marked w/white dots and followed this for the rest of the
day.
We totally went past the trail we were looking for as we headed up the left
fork. In time we did run into some orange ribbons that were NOT any that
we had put up at any time. They took us out of the gulch on the left
side and upon reaching the crest headed up the ridge. We headed up until
we decided that this was not where we wanted to go. At this point were we
in a "Lama" forest and decided to call this ridge Lama Ridge. No I didn't
mark it on the map, but it's the ridge w/the white dots that goes high on the
map. We then headed back down but stayed on the ridge. After
some time we found "our" trail from years ago by spotting some old orange
ribbons that I hung way back when......You can see on of them in the photo
below.
We headed off on the "old" trail following ribbons and around 11:30 decided
to have lunch as marked on the map. After lunch we continued on the trail
that was pretty wide open and well used by pigs. Crossing a small gulch I
came across this piece of a dead tree that looked pretty cool.
Sometime after lunch and after crossing 3 gulches we lost the old trail and
decided to just head down as it was after noon and we were still pretty deep in
the valley. We came across one semi-open spot w/a nice view and cut
down some Formosan Koa to open it. This is a panorama shot so scroll to
the right to see all of it. Below this is another copy this time w/some
peak identification.
There were lots of native plants all along today's route. Didn't stop
to take a lot of pictures but could not pass up this `A`ali`i, (Dodonaea
viscosa). Sometimes the seed capsules are red or pink.
Got this great clear view of Ohikilolo.
Here "he" is again in the middle of no where. Who ever puts up these
trail markers is a mystery to us. But we've seen these in many Leeward
Wai`anae Valleys. He ties them to the branches w/short pieces of wire.
As we bottomed out on one of the gulches I spotted this big clump of
Maiden Hair fern. It's not a native but pretty cool anyway.
As we looked thru a small clearing at Kamaile`unu Gene spotted a Wiliwili,
(Erythrina sandwichensis) in full orange bloom. If you click on the mass
of Orange you'll get a close up.
Later in the hike we came across an area w/some pretty huge boulders.
Beneith this one someone a long time ago placed all those small stones.
Wonder why!!
For a parting shot, here is the map again.