To the Weekday Morning Menahune HURT100-M Trail Workers: 9-27-06

I’ll be heading up the MMs (Morning Menahune) for occasional workdays, and coordinating the weekday trail work plans with Aaron. (Mike will be coordinating the heavier weekend workdays already scheduled).

By the way, I met Aaron this Monday to discuss our intended Nuuanu trail work, and he gave us some very good suggestions, including engineering instructions for some minor grading around the slide areas. I’ll pass that on to you on the trail, and we will include that with our main efforts of rubble raking .

We are NOW formally scheduled for work on Wednesday morning, Sept.27.- We will meet and park on Nuuanu Pali Hwy, just below the "Y" where it splits off into Old Pali Rd., for a 6 am departure to the Jackass Ginger trail head. (Maybe we will see the LOST crew filming one of these days).

We will head towards the top of the switchbacks to target a few work areas, and work down from there in small groups.

Please bring gloves, LOTS of water, and a snack to sustain you through the morning. We won’t work past 11:30 am.

I need a headcount please, no later than Monday, so I can pick up the tools from Aaron on Tuesday. Cheryl, Mike M, Carl Wooten, have already indicated they can attend(please reconfirm), but we need a few more.

Aaron is very grateful for our interest in grooming the HURT100 trails this season. So, if any of us see a problem on the trails that we want to correct during the weekday, please send me a brief description of the work and location intended, so I get it into an email to Aaron. That way he will have the opportunity to add his input if he needs to, and he will also be informed if anyone calls him to ask what’s going on in any given trail work area. I thought that was a fair request, and would benefit us of Aaron’s trail expertise in certain work areas. (My contact info: hurtpals@aol.com / 235-0577)

Until Aaron is able to hire another "tech" for the one he lost, we need to take a more pro-active role in maintaining HURT100 trails. We understand that Aaron is working through the cumbersome process of hiring another employee….it is definitely in the works. After not finding a suitable employee "in house" (which the State requires they search first), they are interviewing additional applicants).

I should mention that there are a few areas that are being reforested on the Tantalus trails- the main one by an interested  botanical group, in the area just below the TTT high point on Manoa Cliff Trail, down towards what used to be "the map sign". They are cutting cinnamon trees, and weeding in order to make room for the Hawaiian trees and plants- already there have been more Koa seedlings sprouting, several Hawaiian ferns, etc, in the area, due to their hard efforts.

If we ever plan to do overgrowth clearings, we need to be aware of the native plants, and stay away from the areas where the botanical folks are working.

Please let me know if you can help out. Aloha, PJ