To those who attended the Mau’umae Ridge Trail hike sponsored by the Hawaii Section Younger Member Forum (YMF) on Saturday, July 11th – congratulations! You accomplished quite a feat!  Our group of twelve younger members, Student Chapter members and friends met at the trail head at 7:30 AM and after Jeff Kalani handed out our survival kits of bento box lunches, we all began the 7 and ½ hour journey single file through the woods…

As advertised, the scenery was, indeed, spectacular. As its namesake implies, the trail led right along the edge and along the way we had unimpeded views of Diamond Head, downtown and the Pacific beyond. About an hour into the hike we were rewarded with a view of Ka’au Crater and the waterfall in the upper Palolo Valley. The weather had been wet in the upper elevations, so the waterfall was strong and full. We stopped several times along the way to regroup, particularly as we climbed because the rainfall was quickly dissolving the trail into mud puddles and goo.

From time to time Molokai native Silas Collier and Hilo native Aaron Erickson, pointed out and shared their knowledge of the various flora along the trail. Some of us tasted strawberry guava (locally known as waiwi) for the first time. Someone must have picked the special Ohia Lehua flower on the way up the mountain that despite warnings that is would cause the rains fall, because the skies unleashed a heavy shower upon us as we were still hours from the summit.  All of us decided it was no longer worthwhile to try and stay out of the mud and happily sloshed through the trail behind our friends.

Eventually, ah – the summit! Never mind that we couldn’t actually see that we had made it to the summit because the views were socked in by rain clouds. Jeff promised the views were incredible. We all laughed that we should have taken group photos with the Windward side (white clouds) behind us and then with Honolulu behind us (white clouds) with our “ASCE Hawaii Section YMF!” sign proudly displayed. At this point we all pulled out our bento lunches, enjoyed lunch, felt really proud of ourselves for sticking with it to the top, and then began our descent back home.

Student Chapter Member Aaron Erickson introduced us to the art of “trail surfing” down the steep and muddy descents – a sport in which he demonstrated that he is a fearless champ. Even more impressive was how calm and cool Laura Smolinski remained after she suddenly slipped off the trail and discovered herself hanging on for dear life in the bushes on the cliff! Not to worry – Laura’s alive and with us today. Phew!  Congratulations to rookie hikers Kelie and Fei Fei Feng who, although never hiked ever before, completed this arduous 7.5-hour hike with a smile from beginning to end.

Thank you to all the determined hikers for participating in this fun and beautiful YMF adventure!