My favorite topic. Also, a tree that a town near Honolulu is named for! (Hint: not Pearl City)

Today I decided to hike up in the Mountains. I went up to the top of Kaloko Drive so I could slip through the gate just next to the "KSBE No Trespassing" sign. Actually the sign has been obliterated, but I know what it says so morally, if not legally, I don't have a leg to stand on.

Anyhow, when I got to the top two truckloads of (adult) mountain bikers were busy putting on all their shiny new knee pads, shin pads, elbow pads, helmets and so on and unloading their shiny new mountain bikes (is "motocross" the technical, if stupid, name for them?) and looking all self-importantly extreme, so I decided to go elsewhere. Near the bottom of Kaloko Drive I stopped to take a photo of some 'ie'ie in bloom and what to my wondering eyes should appear in the lush green field opposite the forest but another pair of displaced donkeys from the Ka'upulehu herd, munching away up in the cool highlands. I called them over and the first one was all "Hey, dude, thanks for all the elegiac posts about how tragic it is that we were displaced. We're so sad that we're up here in this lush meadow with this watering trough rather than out on the hot bare lava looking for moisture from scraggly weeds." At this point the donkeys looked at each other and appeared to roll their eyes. "Yeah, this grass is so much more uncomfortable to walk on than frickin' bare rock that's been baking in the sun all day!" the other donkey added. I hadn't realized that donkeys were so capable of sarcasm.

Finally I did actually hike, in the first bunch of trees north of the goat-proof enclosure at Kau'pulehu. The hike was all on a'a lava, some of it on my least favorite suface, a'a lava covered in fountain grass. The trees were mostly Lama and Ohia Lehua, but there were also a couple of 'iliahi (sandalwood) and even what I'm pretty sure were three 'Aiea trees. Photos later.

Speaking of place names and Hawaiian trees, an enclosure made from lama wood was called a Palama. Add the article "Ka" and you have Kapalama.