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Fire at Puu Kalena

Posted: September 22, 2009

I joined the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC) on their hike to the summit of Puu Kalena, the second highest peak on Oahu, where we encountered a smoldering campfire that completely derailed our plans.

The hike to Puu Kalena (3,504 feet) is a tough climb that gains over 2,100 feet over a distance of 2-1/2 miles.  Situated in the Waianae Mountains just south of Mount Kaala (4,025 feet), the highest point on Oahu, the climb to Puu Kalena is a heart-pounding climb that traverses dikes with some of the scariest drop-offs on the island.

Our adventure started with a climb up a severely eroded slope devoid of vegetation.  The rock on the steep slope is crumbly and makes for unsure footing and a heart-pounding ascent.

After gaining the spine of the Waianae Mountains, hikers are confronted with a series of dikes.  Dikes are formed when magma is extruded through the cracks in previous lava flows.  Since dike rocks are denser they resist the forces of erosion better than the surrounding rock.  Over the passage of time, the softer rock erodes away, leaving the dike rocks exposed as narrow knife-edged ridges.  Hikers need considerable balance, concentration, and nerve to cross the dikes especially on a windy day.

Hikers are often intimidated by the steep drop-offs and choose to straddle the rock formation as they make their way up and over the narrowest parts of the dike.

Drew Erickson climbs up a dike to reach Puu Kumakalii, a peak along the way to Puu Kalena.  From this vantage point, it is apparent that the dikes form the spine of the mountains along this section of the Waianae Mountains.

Hikers must either climb over or contour around even more dikes as they make their way up the trail.

While making our way towards Puu Kalena, we saw kookoolau (Bidens torta) in full bloom with brilliant yellow-orange flowers no more than half-an-inch across.  Kookoolau is endemic to Hawaii and was brewed into a tea by Hawaiians for medicinal purposes.

When we neared the half-way point in a grove of strawberry guava trees, our hike came to an abrupt halt when we stumbled across a smoldering fire right along the trail.  Apparently someone started a campfire and did not completely put it out.  An area about 6 feet in diameter was hot and smoldering, with the vegetative matter underground burning.  Despite pouring many liters of water on the pit, we could not douse the fire.  So a call was made to 911 for fire fighters to put out the fire.

Pat Rorie, our leader for the hike, wisely canceled the hike to Puu Kalena.  If the wind picked up, the smoldering pit could easily have been fanned into a raging conflagration trapping us behind the fire.  As a result, we turned around to return over the dikes the way we had come.

Since we had time to spare, Fish Arabia, Drew Erickson, and I explored a dike that veers off the main trail and plummets a thousand feet nearly straight down into Lualualei.  This dike is home to a community of native plants many of which are covered with white lichen.

One of the more interesting native plants on this ultra sharp rock formation is akoko (Chamaesyce sp.) which crawls prostrate on the surface of the dike.

August Smith and Drew Erickson hike effortlessly over the narrowest dikes as we make our way back down.  As we descended the steep slopes, we met 2 fire fighters climbing up with a shovel and hazel hoe to put out the fire.

Since the day was still young when we got back down, many hikers went to further south on the Waianae Mountains where they could see a considerable increase in the smoke from the campfire — presumably from the efforts of fire fighters to dig up and put out the fire.  While we were disappointed that our hike was cut short, we had a time great climbing over the dikes and were pleased that the fire did not harm the rare native plants and animals that live at Puu Kalena.

–

MAHALO

Many thanks to Pat Rooney for allowing me to use his 2 photos of the fire in this article.  Click here to see more of Pat Rooney’s photos.

SOURCES

Native Hawaiian Plants, University of Hawaii, Department of Botany

Puu Kalena, Hiker’s Guide to Oahu, Stuart M. Ball