Bob Burd's Trip Reports

Continued...

Today we returned to the Ka'Ohe Game Management Area on the west slopes of Mauna Kea, an area Tom and I had visited a week earlier. There were a few that Tom and I had missed, so this would give me a chance to tag these while Eric and Ingrid would get to do most of the others in this dry forest. Later we drove to Mauna Kea Rd hoping we might get to drive to the summit area to see the new snow. Sadly, the road was closed past the Visitor Center, so we did a few summits near the closure and then a last one when we returned to Hilo in the late afternoon. This was one of the better weather days we had, a mix of sun and overcast but no rain. To save some redundancy, I've only included some info on the peaks that Tom and I hadn't already climbed on the first visit.

Pu'u Ai'akala

Somehow we had missed this one on the first visit. It's located within the Ka'Ohe Restoration Area.

A fence surrounds this 1,400 acre area at the north end of the game management area, designed to keep pigs, goats, sheep and cattle out and allow the native trees to recover. Hunting for game birds is allowed inside the restoration area with several spur roads providing access. We drove one of these to within 1/3mi on the southeast side.

Cross-country travel through thick, invasive grasses over relatively

flat ground leads to this

minor point.

Pu'u Okau

This was one Tom and I had deliberately skipped because it was more than half a mile from the closest road. That seems pretty wimpy, but we had just finished struggling with two short approach summits that were somewhat tedious. This one looked to be much the same. Thankfully it wasn't in practice. We parked near Pu'u Mana'o (which Eric & Ingrid climbed first while I stood guard over the jeep) to the northwest, starting from there. We found

an old road that we'd seen on the satellite view but couldn't find in the jeep (the road wasn't much good for vehicles anymore), and followed this to near the base of Pu'u Okau. There was some thicker forest and brush on

the lower slopes, but with careful route-finding we kept this to a minimum. The middle and

upper slopes were somewhat steep but no real brush to contend with. We picked a slightly different route on the descent, finding no advantage over the ascent line.

Ho'okomo

This is the first named summit encountered on the left side of Mauna Kea Rd as one drives north from Saddle Rd. It is inside Hawaiian homelands, sandwiched between Saddle Rd and the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve. The area is

signed for No Trespassing and a number of other activities which turn out to be redundant to trespassing. Ingrid held the moral high ground by staying with the car while Eric and I tossed ours to the wind and made a quick circuit up and down the small,

grassy cinder cone.

Kilohana

This is the highest of three cinder cones on the left side of the road, near the Visitor Center. These are all located within the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and open to the public. We parked at the Visitor Center, walked

across the roadway and

made our way to

the summit in about 10min following

use trails. There were a few other parties coming and going to this summit and

Pu'u Kalepeamoa, fairly popular short hikes in the area.

Pu'u Loa

This minor summit is located on the west side of Hilo, not far from Ingrid's home where Eric and I were staying with her family. We parked at the end of an unnamed spur road near the end of Waianuenue Ave where

a locked gate bars vehicle access. This used to be signed for No Trespassing in the past, but these have removed. The

continuing road provides access to

abandoned homes and utility structures &

equipment higher on the heavily forested slopes. We hiked about 3/4mi to a large cleared area on

the south bank of the

Wailuku River where some heavy construction equipment was found, evidently used to help with some flood-clearing efforts following four days of unusually heavy rain. The location of

Pu'u Loa is marked by a PVC pole stuck in the ground, but it has no elevation claim over the surrounding area. Evidently the Pu'u was flattened or never actually existed as depicted on the topo map.