Kohala

Just back from two weeks in Hawaii. On our last full day we drove up to Kohala and took a hike in the Kohala Forest Preserve. Officially the trail was closed. Earthquake damage. However, anybody who can climb the locked gate can negotiate the trail, even in its current state. Which is not good. Big cracks running through the trail itself, hunks of the embankment collapsed onto the trail, the occasional tree toppled that one must climb over (or duck under). The goal was an overlook to the Waipio Valley, a steep-sided valley that ends at the sea. When we got there the valley was masked by clouds. There were a few dim windows to the wall of the valley opposite but even those closed up while we waited.

The trail follows an irrigation ditch much of the way. There were places embankment had tumbled into the ditch. But these rubble dams would not have stopped the water had water been flowing. Last year we tried to take a Flumin' da Ditch tour that floats canoes down these slow-moving old ditches dug a century ago for the sugar cane plantations. We were rained out, the water too high to allow clearance through tunnels. The earthquake end of October (week before our trip) seems to have killed the irrigation system entirely. No more tours, no more water for crops. Sugar cane production was pretty much uneconomic on the Big Island anyway ... Still, sorry to see the end of that and the canoe tours. There already was very little local industry.

The photo is of one of the flumes we passed. The boards are damp but no water runs.