Chris had free time on Saturday, and the weather was outstanding, so he and I met Root and Ckucke out at the Ditch. Jeff and Sara were out on the water, and JT was working, so it was just the four of us. Although the sky was perfectly blue, the ground was still damp from rains on New Year’s Eve. We figured our best bet would be to stay up high, so we climbed Government Road and took the Demon Trail all the way to Pube Tree. Demon Trail was slightly damp, but no worse than usual. The further extent was a little grown in with invasive weeds.
On our way up, we stopped to rest at the end of the doubletrack. Some tri-sport riders came up the trail, and two neighborhood old timers came down from above the gate. One of the tri-sport women kept name-dropping when the conversation went to the Waiawa Outlaw Recreation Area. The other got all snippy when the old timers identified themselves as long-time ‘Nalo Boys – “They’re setting off all the bombs in Waimanalo” – as if these two gentlemen were somehow responsible. WTF?! At least the tri-sport man was cordial.
On the way back, we dropped down the side loop. At the upper traverse, I felt compelled to continue along the traverse to see if we could find the flume and tunnel. Snippy woman had mentioned it to the ‘Nalo gents, so I got some bug in my butt to see it. Maybe part of it was a perceived passive/aggressive challenge laid down by Ms. Snippy when she described going through it. I could not let her greater knowledge of the region go unanswered. The traverse was actually a little more open than the last time we had come down the trail. Continuing along past the first washout and the second Royal Palm washout, we came around a right bend and found the flume and tunnel. Carved directly into the crystalline basalt, the ‘Ani’ani Nui Tunnel must have been a laborious undertaking to build back in the days of the Waimanalo Sugar Company. If nothing else, I now knew where the active Maunawili Ditch came out.
Pictures here
D = 11.59 km (7.20-miles), Vavr = 7.9 km/h (4.9-mph), Vmax = 29.0 km/h (18.0-mph), T = 1-hour, 28-minutes (actual trail time around 4-hours)
that was a good ride.