Pear Gulch Wandering
Thursday October 10th, 2013
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Met Gene and Alan at the towers and headed up into the valley on H-4.
Wow, it's really looking good. It's about 8 tenths of a mile and takes
about 25 minutes to walk to the stream crossing. GREAT JOB DONE BY GENE
AND DAVE!!!!
From there we headed up the road by-pass trail to Pear Gulch and took a
break at the big boulder and took a 10 minute break. We wanted to see
where the Army Environmental people were working so we went up the Middle Gulch
past the lone Pear tree and then past the Pear tree house site (orange dots).
We followed their blue ribbons out of the gulch and climbed to the ridge crest
on the right. We then followed the ridge (blue dots). Along the way
Gene spotted the rock outcrop that he and Alan are calling Godzilla. There
it is in the middle of the picture. Still not sure if it's a cliff or more
like the King Kong rock outcrop.
No sooner did we top out on the ridge I noticed the ground was covered in
Lonomea fruit.
We continued up the ridge and Gene spotted a young All Spice tree
about 7' tall. This is the only All Spice we have found in Makaha.
We kept going untill we came to the Pear Gulch Ramble (yellow dots) and turned
right to the place we usually eat lunch when doing the Ramble CCW. There
under the Formosan Koa we found their camp. No one was home and from the
sound they were making it sounded like they were one more ridge over to the
right. Not wanting to go any farther in that direction I tied a long white
ribbon between two trees and wrote "Welcome to the Pear Gulch Trail". LOL.
We then did an about face and followed the Ramble (yellow dots just like in
Wai`anae) until we reached `A`ali`i Ridge which is the one w/the trail going up
to the Ironwoods. We took a break there in a clearing we made last week.
This Christmas Berry tree was blocking the view of Kawiwi and Kamaile`unu so
Alan and Gene cut it down. Big improvement.
During the break Gene noticed a White Tropic Bird flying across the gulch.
Can you see it in the middle of the picture?
After the 10:30 break at the clearing above we headed over to Wiliwili Ridge
and then began looking for the old trail leading to the next ridge.
Couldn't find it so we sort of bushwhacked across the ridge and down into the
next little gulch. Still no sign of the old trail going out of the ridge.
Gene and Alan went down stream a bit looking for a trail. I spotted a pig
trial going up the other side and headed up on it. Soon I was busting thru
Christmas Berry so thick there were times I was on my knees crawling under
branches. Finally getting on the crest and pushing deeper into the
Christmas Berry I spotted a pig trail going down and then some old "cuts".
Ah Ha! The old trail. It was still over grown and I busted my way
down the ridge on the "trail" until I ran in to Gene and Alan who had the same
troubles as I did. Once together we headed down the ridge and began to
find old ribbons and cuts. Soon it opened up and we were making time on
the old trail.
Around noon we stopped for lunch on a series of old terraces.
After a nice lunch break we headed down past this big Pohaku.
Along the way I spotted this interesting young tree/bush. The leaflets
come in threes and then are "opposite" of each other on the branch. At
this point we have no idea what it is or if it is a native.
As we got lower we could begin to see the upper valley when Knife Edge Ridge
no longer blocked out view.
Once across the road and on the by-pass road Gene and Alan showed me this
rock wall. It's about 8 feet high and perhaps 30 feet long forming a
terrace above it. Very OLD for sure.
Here are two maps. The first has the whole Pear Gulch Ramble and
today's path. The second just the Ramble. The Ramble is marked in
Yellow as is the Wai`anae Ramble and the three "bail outs" are marked in Orange
as in Wai'anae. Now to get the ribbons on the trail to match the map.
LOL
