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Lehua on the Schofield-Waikane Trail

Posted: July 16, 2009

I joined the trail maintenance crew of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC) to clear the Schofield-Waikane Trail that leads to the Koolau Summit Trail from Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa. 

The Schofield-Waikane Trail was built by the Army in the 1920′s to connect Schofield Barracks with the windward-side of Oahu. Starting in the foothills above Wahiawa, the graded contour trail is a 14-mile round-trip that gains 1,400 feet in elevation to a lookout point above Kahana Valley and connects with the Koolau Summit Trail.  

The leader for this hike, Ralph Valentino, lead the pack of trail clearers up the Schofield-Waikane Trail which was heavily overgrown with uluhe ferns and clidemia. 

Mark Nierode makes his way through native forests of koa trees (Acacia koa) no more than 25-30 feet high with a thick growth of uluhe ferns in the understory. 

Hapuu tree ferns (Cibotium spp.) also grow in the understory of koa trees.  For some reason, koa trees on Oahu rarely grow larger than 25-30 feet tall which is very different from the Big Island where they grow much taller and thicker. 

Kris Corliss and Helene Sroat make their way through hapuu ferns ferns about 6 feet tall along the trail with koa trees overhead. 

Red lehua flowers (Metrosideros polymorpha) were in bloom along the trail along with the native club moss or wawai’iole (Lycopodium venustulum). 

Blossoms of orange lehua burst into bloom us along the trail.  Note the subtle orange color in its green leaves — you can sometimes predict the flower color of an ohia plant by examining its foliage.   

The futher we hiked on the trail, the more ohia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) became the dominant tree, many of which were just covered with moss. 

Yellow lehua also thrives along the trail.  Note again, how the rosette of ohia leaves, particularly the ones at the bottom, have a hint of yellow in them. 

Laura Owens, Jenny Chadbourne, and Ralph Valentino push their way through uluhe ferns that choked the trail. Anyone not wearing long pants or gaiters were punished with a thousand lashes.  

The higher we got on the trail, the more we began to see loulu palms (Pritchardia martii) — the native fan palm which is endemic to the Koolau Mountains.  I was tickled to see a bulge of mosses and ekaha ferns on the trunk of this loulu palm.   

When we got near to the summit, we began to see ohelo berries (Vaccinium dentatum) along the trail.  I could not resist snacking on them as we neared the goal of our hike. 

When we reached the Ko’olau Summit we were treated to a panoramic view of the undeveloped windward valleys of Punalu’u, Kahana, Ka’a'awa, Hakipu’u, and Waikane.  As we ate our lunches we admired the peaks of Puu Piei, Manamana, Kanehoalani, and Ohulehule as they towered over the Koolauloa Coast from to Punalu’u to Kane’ohe Bay.  The panoramic image above occupies almost your entire field of vision from Pau’ao Ridge on the left to Pu’u Kaaumakua to the right and has been reconstituted from 8 overlapping photos.   

While admiring the view, I noticed that several lehua ahihi (Metrosideros tremuloides) were in bloom with red lehua flowers at the summit.  Time passed quickly at the summit and soon it was time to leave.  As we made our way back down the trail, I reflected on my great fortune seeing the magnificent view and the charming red, orange and yellow lehua flowers on the trail.  What a great hike!

Many thanks to Kim, Dan, and Michelle, from the Oahu Army Natural Resources Program, who drove us to and from the trailhead saving us a considerable additional hike on the road.  

–

SOURCES

Native Hawaiian Plants, University of Hawaii, Department of Botany

Schofield-Waikane Trail, Hiker’s Guide to Oahu, Stuart M. Ball