Nate’s Adventures: Repairing Steps on the Kuliʻouʻou Ridge Trail

by Nate Yuen, Chapter Outings Chair | Reading time: 3 minutes

I joined Randy Ching on a Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi service project to repair steps on the Kuliʻouʻou Ridge Trail. This trail is a heavily used public trail in East Oʻahu that gains some 2,000 feet of elevation over a distance of 2.5 miles to the Koʻolau Summit Ridge.

The trailhead is located at the end of Kalaʻau Road in Kuliʻouʻou Valley in a residential neighborhood. Randy asked us to be courteous to the residents of Kalaʻau Road by parking our cars several streets away. Hikers negatively impact the community by taking all the street parking, blocking driveways, making noise, taking water, and other discourteous behavior. Randy advised us to minimize negative impacts on the community and especially to residents living near trailheads.

The main purpose of the project was to repair and maintain steps built into the slopes of the trail.  But Randy also used the opportunity to train new hike leaders. We met at the trailhead signs where Randy oriented us to the Kuliʻouʻou Ridge Trail. From right to left: Matt Pennaz, Ed Mersino, Randy Ching, Brooke Jones and Nate Yuen.

We hiked up the many switchbacks on the trail which like most trails in Hawaiʻi is dominated by non-native and invasive species. We saw two native forest restoration sites as we made our way up the Kuliʻouʻou Trail. Lots of little flags marked the spot where baby plants were inserted into the ground. Good to see efforts to bring back the native vegetation.

As we made our way up the trail we came across many roots in the trail – some of them presented tripping hazards. Ed Mersino cut and dug out the roots that could potentially trip hikers on the trail.

Switchbacks have been carved into the slopes at different elevations to lessen the grade of the ascent. Randy Ching pointed out than when people make short-cuts between switchbacks, premature erosion is often the result. He urged us not to make shortcuts in the trail.

We made our way up the trail through a forest of wood trees where a shelter is located and then a small grove of ficus trees. After gaining more elevation, we finally reached the native part of the trail where ʻuluhe ferns and ʻōhiʻa trees grow.

From 2010 to 2013 Randy Ching led multiple Sierra Club service projects to install about 300 steps on Kuliʻouʻou Ridge Trail. Our goal for the day was to repair a section of the steps where rain water had seriously eroded two steps.

Ed Mersino, a retired agricultural extension agent with the University of Hawaiʻi, supervised us in repairing the steps. He brought plastic wood for us to extend the length of the step. Iron rebar was pounded into the ground to brace the plastic wood into place.

A shallow trench was bug at the foot of the steps to divert the water to run-off away from the steps. The dirt was also used to backfill the step. In order to finish the step we pounded the dirt with a sledge hammer to compact the dirt.

Several other steps further up were also eroded by rainwater rushing down the steps. We installed additional pieces of plastic wood and reinforced them with stakes. We dug up dirt from further up and backfilled and compacted the steps we repaired.

The most important feature we put in was above the set of stairs we repaired. We dug a shallow ditch to divert any water into the valley rather than to wash down and erode the steps.

Randy Ching was pleased that we repaired this section of the stairs. We'll have to come back to tackle another section. Stay tuned for announcements on future stairs repair.