Sunday, September 05, 2004

Doomed Landscapes and an unknown trail

About two miles above the upper road to Costco an old Hawaiian trail crosses Hina Lani Drive. The trail crosses very rugged a'a lava and is impossible to see from the road. The rough undisturbed lava has sparse vegetation, and some rare and interesting plants, like ko'oko'olau, a medicinal plant with yellow daisy-like flowers, and halapepe, the native draecena. But it's mostly bare rock. The trail consists of broken small cinders, a flat surface (with smooth pieces of pahoehoe and even smooth oceans rocks here and there), and raised curbs. The problem is that where a'a lava has been disturbed, plants grow more readily, so the portion of the trail near the road is choked with fountain grass and christmas berry. That's why you can't readily see the trail, much less use it as a trail. But if the vegetation were cleared away, the trail is almost as finely constructed as the one that goes through Honokohau-Koloko National Park to the HELHA Road. The difference is the Christmas Berry. The fountain grass is passable.

Is this an unknown trail? If so, who should I report it to? The State? Na Ala Hele?

1 Comments:

At 12:30 PM, Blogger Hokule'a Kealoha said...

report it. It may not be "unknown" but rather "forgotten" maybe convieniently so...

I dont know who to, but you can find out I would think.

 

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