Trying to Clear Higgins Ridge in Wahiawa

Higgins Ridge Clearing Part 1 - June 25, 2014

This is Erik and I's third time scouting Waikakalaua. More practicing on google earth yielded me with enough tools to actually see the ridge close up. That, and my new droid phone with backcountry navigator app. on it results in some good navigation tools I can use for exploration. 

Erik and I have this unbelievable desire to explore the Schofield East Range, a.k.a. Waikakalaua or South Kaukonahua Stream. Last time in May 2013, we found the Waikakalaua Tunnels mentioned in Stuart Ball's first edition of Hiking on Oahu. Unfortunately, those tunnels are boarded up, we did however intersect with a ridge. Building upon our efforts, we decided to check out the ridge today. Dayle Turner has the only write up of this ridge, he calls it Waikakalaua Ridge, I decided to rename the ridge Higgins Ridge, named after the road that leads to the trailhead. With so many hikes starting with wai, another hike that starts with wai would confuse people in the hiking community, a community which only a certain % of members actually know the exact names of each hike. Higgins Ridge would provide something different, like how Waianae Steve names his hikes in Waianae, Water-Walls, Bolohead, Ramble, Hobbs, Star Trek ~ easier to identify. Higgins Ridge goes straight up to Pu'u Ka'aumakua. If the hike can ever be done, its about 7 miles from trailhead to summit. 

Meet up time was 7:45am, but the army was doing training near the trailhead. Being that hikers get turned away at Hapapa, I felt that trying to persuade the army to let us in would be mute, so I told Erik meet at Mililani Mauka. Erik and I stumbled upon the Mililani Mauka "indirect" trail in November 2012. 

After getting ready, we had a very short descent into the stream, crossed it, and headed up towards the jeep road. During that time, we found someones living quarters with chair, shovel, and even a 20 foot ladder. We also heard a huge pig grunt. He or she was very upset that we were there and decided to get up (probably from a deep sleep) and walk to another part of the forest so he or she wouldn't be bothered. 

After 40 minutes we hit the ridge, made the right this time on a well maintained trail. We were shocked that the trail was in such great condition. It was even graded, wow! This reminded me of the Kipapa hike which Marvin and I did back in June of last year. This trail was similar. Along the way, we stumbled upon survey markers, now this was eerily similar to Kipapa. Seems like the Division of Forestry and Wildlife is doing work in this area. The trail is graded, but follows the ridge for some parts. One cool part was the hallway of Paper Bark trees. I call it the Paper Park Hallway or Corridor. Trees that are lined up on both sides of the ridge with a wide walkway in the middle. 

After about 45 minutes on the trail, we finally hit some massive walls of uluhe. The trail was there, but the uluhe connected creating disorientation and bushwhacking. The walls of uluhe were similar to the Hau'ula Loa hike Marvin and I did in December of 2012. That time, we encountered near 10 feet high walls of uluhe, this ridge is similar. Erik and I took turns whacking the trail. After pushing for about an hour, up a hill no less, I found a koa tree to rest. I named the hill I was on Pu'u Koa and told Erik that was enough. As we hiked back, Erik pointed out the area where he believed Dayle Turner took his crew in 1999 and bushwhacked up a steep ridge encountering a farm on Mililani Mauka Ridge. We could see a huge house on the ridge, the one Dayle Turner describes in his write up. 

Going back was much easier and Erik chopped up parts of uluhe with his sickle. Hopefully will get back here before the uluhe connects again. On the way back, we took the wrong trail and headed down the ridge. Erik who observes things very well said "we not on the right trail". I told him "nah we good". We were on the wrong ridge, so we backtracked and found our way again. Going back, we cleared some more. Though I didn't feel tired, I was exhausted. 

Since we had the OAG dinner later on in the evening, we decided to eat something small. Mililani Foodland had poke bowls on special, so we ate that. For some reason, there were a lot of attractive women in the area. Maybe our stink attracted them... maybe not. 

I hope others can help us clear this ridge. It would be awesome to do something like this. Not sure if it was cleared to the top in the past, but will know in due time.