Hawaii’s
Back yard
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi
Big Isle hike offers
beauty and cultureOn their 30th wedding anniversary in 2000, Dr. Hugh Montgomery and his wife, Kaulana, didn't celebrate with a gourmet dinner in a fancy restaurant. Instead, they donned hiking boots and windbreakers and, with their dog Kela, backpacked over a once-forgotten trail to a campsite perched high above the Big Island's Waipio Valley.
The trail was built in 1908 for mules to carry supplies and equipment to 1,200 men who were building an extensive tunnel system to transfer water from remote streams in the valley to sugar cane fields on the island's eastern flank.
After the trail was abandoned around 60 years ago, mud and wild ginger formed a thick blanket over it, and for decades it lay hidden. Then in late 1998, workers from the Montgomerys' company, Hawaiian Walkways, painstakingly began removing tons of muck and shrubbery by hand to expose an extensive section of the old stone trail. Today, participants on Hawaiian Walkways' Waipio Waterfall Adventure can see this segment of the historic path and retrace the footsteps of the intrepid tunnel builders of nearly a century ago.
HAWAIIAN WALKWAYS
Hikers who follow Hawaiian Walkways guides are rewarded at the end with a swim under waterfalls.
The Montgomerys share a love for Hawaiian history and hiking, and the Waipio Waterfall Adventure, which goes 4.5 miles around the rim of the valley, is one of Hugh's favorites. Known as the Valley of the Kings, Waipio was the primary seat of power for many of the Big Island's ruling alii until the time of Umi (early 1500s), who moved his headquarters to Kona.
"Everywhere you look on this route, there is beauty and a story to tell," Montgomery says. "From close-up views of hapuu ferns to the vast panorama you see of the mouth of Waipio from the land above Hiilawe Falls, there's a wealth of sensory information; all the senses are engaged.
"The numerous plants along the trail include an extensive array of native flora, as well as many species introduced to Hawaii by the Polynesian colonists of ancient times. We talk about how the Hawaiians used these plants long ago and share some of the legends associated with them."
One such tale revolves around the lehua, the bright red blossom of the ohia tree. Old-timers say plucking it brings rain. As the story goes, Pele transformed a handsome man into the ohia tree in retribution for his rejection of her advances because of his love for another woman.
When the woman learns of her sweetheart's fate, she prays to have the curse undone, but the gods cannot turn him back into a man. The best they can do is to change her form so she can be close to him. When she accepts their proposal, the gods transform her into the lehua. The saying "Makau ke kanaka i ka lehua" (literally, "People are afraid of the lehua") reminds admiring passers-by that if they pick the lovely flower, the work of the gods will be undone; that is, the lehua is again removed from the ohia, and the gods will weep to see this. Hence, rain will fall.
THE EXACT ROUTE taken on the Waipio Waterfall Adventure depends on the group's capabilities and the weather on that particular day. If conditions are favorable and participants are willing and able, the guide may offer them the option of embarking on a more challenging journey.
"For example, Hiilawe Falls makes such a deep cleft that it is most visible from the front, not from the sides," Montgomery says. "There is, however, a place where the waters of Lalakea Stream can be seen plunging over the cliff to become Hiilawe. It requires going down a steep 20-foot section via fixed ropes and then hiking a rugged trail to a high rock. Clearly, this is not for everyone, but if the group is game, we'll do it."
People from all over the world, from all walks of life, have enjoyed the Waipio Waterfall Adventure since Hawaiian Walkways launched it four years ago. "A family from New York City once asked us to take them someplace special for their daughter's bat mitzvah," Montgomery recalls. "We hiked with them to a point overlooking Waipio and witnessed a ritual from Judaism in this very Hawaiian place. We were all deeply moved by that experience, understanding that shared human emotions -- joy, awe, love -- dissolve distances between people and cultures."
Montgomery is a clinical psychologist by profession. He and Kaulana have lived in Hamakua, where Waipio Valley is located, since they moved to Hawaii from Northern California's Shasta Valley 30 years ago.
HAWAIIAN WALKWAYS was started in 1984 by Ken Sandborn, a Kona-based psychologist who wanted to develop a business that nurtured his passion for hiking. Montgomery became his partner five years later, and they ran the tour company around their private practices. Sandborn moved to Japan in 1991, and Montgomery operated Hawaiian Walkways part time until 1994, when he devoted his attention to it full time.
"I'm intensely curious and interested in how things have come to be the way they are," Montgomery says. "I love to share the excitement and satisfaction of this understanding with people on our tours. To look at a natural setting, to grasp the forces that produced it and to know how it influenced people long ago, as well has how they influenced it, is immensely gratifying."
Montgomery believes knowledge is not only power, it is an investment. "Our staff hopes not only to develop visitors' appreciation for Hawaii's unique culture and natural history, but 'new eyes' with which to see the places from which they come," he says.
"If the guests who hike with us look at the plains, valleys, rivers or mountains where they're from with questions about their formation, if they begin to discriminate native plants from exotics in their yards, if they learn the stories of the people who populated their areas long before there was written history, they will become informed, enthusiastic advocates of the value of their own homelands."
Waipio Waterfall Adventure
Place: Meet at Hawaiian Walkways' headquarters, 45-3674 Mamane St. (Highway 240) in Honokaa 15 minutes before 9 a.m. departures.Cost: $95 per person, $75 for keiki ages 8 to 12; price includes lunch and swimming by a waterfall
Call: 808-775-0372 on the Big Island or 800-457-7759 from the other islands
Notes: Wear sturdy covered footwear with good traction, long pants and a lightweight top. Pack a camera, swimsuit, towel, hat and a long-sleeved cover-up. Hawaiian Walkways provides light packs, raincoats and walking sticks. Certain trail areas are slippery when wet. The elevation changes are not extensive; ropes are in place in steep areas for those who need them. Ask about the company's other tours through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the Saddle Road district and the cloud forest on the slopes of Hualalai Volcano.
E-mail: hawaiianwalkways@verizon.net
Web site: www.hawaiianwalkways.com
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based free-lance writer and Society of American Travel Writers award winner.
