Well, we are in the gut of the beast.  If you have been putting off the distance tests, the night runs, or even the full loops then now is the time to plan on getting onto the trails and doing the do.  Best make what ever bargains you have to at home, because the weeks are ticking down fast and we are sitting at about four.  And depending on what kind of tapering freak you are, you may not have much time left to actually practice before you justify sitting around telling yourself that rest is the answer to doing the HURT.  

Frankly I don't have much of an opinion of the taper and feel it makes you really soft and whiny on the dark muddy trails of Sunday morning.  But its as hard to talk people out of the taper as it is to talk economists out of the neokeysian concepts of abundant money creation.  Both are trying to make something out of nothing. And sooner or later both tend to end up quite badly.  

Anyway....this week is a great time to do a lot of running.  Starting Friday at 6:00pm there is that thing around and around the inner loop. Just as that ends we are scheduling another loop or two starting at the Nature Center at 6:00AM.  If you've got any real idea of doing the HURT you ought to be thinking of coming out and doing a bit of the Hog Back and then doing at least a full loop.  Real Ultra runners will be considering a full 18+ hours of trail time.

I urge everyone to post their alternative plans.  If you are going out mid week please post the departure times and points.  It really helps the new runners to go out with others during the week.  Given the condition of the trails lately, some company is, perhaps, a wise thing.  

Remember the Hog Back on Friday!  Plan on a long run this week-end.  The stashes have water! No excuses but to get out there and RUN!    

---A point of planning.   We are trying to arrange a trail maintenance day on some of the HURT trails in conjunction with Na Hele.  The tentative date is  January 7th.   One of those 'taper' week-ends.   Please mark that down and we will get back to you in greater detail as the time approaches. 

Aloha.....Mikem

Training Time:  6:00am Saturday  UPDATED: Now on Saturday!

Place:  Top of Manoa Road--Street Parking

What:   Manoa/Jack ass Repeat(s) 12 miles a pop.   + Trail Work (Sign installation) on Aihualama 

So, there it is, after a few days of thrills and hugging and back patting everyone is back to doing what ever they do to keep themselves together.  There will be one further spurt when the stats come out and we can all hug and back-pat and empathize for a few more hours, but then Peacocks is in the bag.  History, and nobody gives a damn what you did last week, dude.  We are all over it, get a life,  or better yet an iphone.  

A fork has been stuck in the bird! Its time to start dealing with the HOG!  Not those cutsy piggys of the Maunawili, but a real HOG.  This is the oficial beginning of HURT training, HURT trails, HURT loops, HURT stashes, HOG Back Climbs,  and hurt body parts.  

This Saturday we will do at least one Manoa to Jack-ass repeat; most of the bad parts of the HURT in just 12 easy miles. Some of us will do the Trail Work originally scheduled for Thursday too.  

So come on out, run a bit of the HURT trail, find meaning in the mud, the roots, and the rocks and let's give back a bit to keep the trails in better shape.  

Well,  not really 'No Cuts Brah!'  but the same thing in formalized state speech.

STAY ON THE TRAIL!!

What:  Sign installation at major trail cutting points

When:  6:00 AM Saturday, November 5, 2011 (Could go on Saturday and incorporate Training run)

Where:  Meet at the top of Manoa Road

Details:  I have 4 fence posts to pound in, and the signs to go onto the posts.  We plan to put them in at the bottom of the major cut at Manoa Trail/ Aihualama (Near Chief Ehu Rock)  and then go up farther to put in two more at the first major cut on the Switch Backs.   A future installation will be on the upper section of Aihualama to catch the people on the way down. 

Why:  I  have been running/training the falls trail and Aihualama for some time and have long noticed the increasing number of morons cutting trails and causing severe erosion.  This is more than just a matter of making the trail runnable, it boils down to places where major slides can and will close the trail at least temporarily.  I volunteered to help Na Hele with this. 

Who:   I need two others to help.  It should take 3 hours.  Will be dark when we leave, so bring lights and water. It's always fun to see the night time 'Gee it gets dark fast' crowd stumbling out of Manoa.  We will be carrying in the sign posts and the post pounder.  One person to hold the post, one to pound, and one to attach the signs.  We could probably use a few more to stand around and tell us what we are doing wrong. 

If you can help please contact me, or leave a message in comments section.  

Thanks,  Mikem

Elbows is gone!

She lays lonely

down the gritty black slope.

The tree missing an arm

Looks lopsided,

Forlorn.

No longer intimidating;

Lost perhaps.

Its purpose shorn.

One more dread

Disappears

As Ahuilama is

Slowly tamed.

Just got off the phone with Mauricio. Cheryl had called me too after Bozo called her. Apparently there is a very fresh slide and tree down on Nuuanu trail. It is somewhere close to the lower of the two ropes on the trail. Mauricio was able to get through it but he said it was difficult. He said going down was one thing but coming back up was pretty hard. He will probably post his own comments here a bit later. Be safe out there!

Aloha, Bob

Below is a photo of over 50 pounds of trash removed from Maunawili Falls Trail.  I led a group from two high schools and a Rotary club up to the falls and removed every piece of trash we could find.  As we always promote during races, never leave trash on our beautiful trails.  If you are out on this trail, please enjoy the clean beauty while it last!  Aloha - Paul

I thought you guys would like to know a little bit about the Trail Advisory Council- we meet every other month (just met Tuesday 2/17) to let Aaron, the Na Ala Hele Trail Technician (the main guy up there) bounce ideas off of us regarding current and future handling of NAH trails. There are reps from motorsport, equestrian activities, hunting, biking, hiking, trail running (of course), Nature Center programming, and now we will soon add Roddy Akau as our cultural practitioner. It is a congenial group. Anyone is invited as a guest to attend and observe the meetings.

We start off with Aaron’s staff report. NAH is working on adding a couple new trails to the inventory. The first, “Honouliuli”, is on the Waianae Mountain Range near Makakilo. The second, in Moanalua Valley, at the top of the hill, “Kulana’ahane Trail” and “Kamana Nui Valley Road”.

Aaron indicated that all the NAH trails are scheduled to be “brushed” 4 times a year. Maunawili, now getting overgrown, should be cleared within the next month. I assume the same for Dillingham (Cheryl recently told me it is getting hairy up there now too).

Aaron will be looking into the problem of the recent dirt bike/ ATV usage at the Ditch Trail in Waimanalo- we noticed last week that there were very deep ruts about half way down the trail, and our equestrian rep said the horses can’t even get by it. Worse, the guys on the bikes (motorcycles) were very threatening to the horseback riders! You might want to avoid this area for a while, especially late afternoons.

22 or so people turned out for the final training session at Peacocks.  The weather was perfect with some overcast and coolness in the heights.   Many PR's, and fast times.   My challenge was to see how fast I could do it at a walk.   Taking pictures and screwing around a bit I managed a sub 8. 

Here are some pics from the last few days.  Click Here.  Most of the Trail in Pics.  With some typical commentary.

Aloha,  Mikem

Devon and I headed up to Peacocks and restocked the main water drop at the junction of Kuaokala Road and the Kuaokala Trail on Thursday October 9.  It is basically an all day affair to get out there, up the hill, and back down, and return to town.  There are 26 gallons at the main stash site., and 6 gallons at the start of the Kuaokala Trail (look back behind the trailer off to the right and next to the Norfolk pine)   

Please remember:  The idea is that you should be able and responsible enough to do this loop on your own, with your own resources and water. The drops are for emergencies.  We all miscalculate and need some help. The stashes are placed for that reason.  However, please plan to carry sufficient water to get yourself from the parking lot over to the bottom of long road.(For 90 percent of us this means more than two bottles.) Help is up there if you need it, but remember it is a real pain in the ass for others to get it up there.  Please respect that. You need to hump as much water as possible up the hills as you can.   

This is Devon's second trip up.  Gordon has been up there at least twice.  Rob has also restocked water. Please show your appreciation for the efforts and expenditures of these very helpful individuals. Thank them, and you might even offer to help pay the restocking costs, or if you are shy give it to Cheryl who will see it gets to the proper places. And  try to carry sufficient water to get your miserable ass through half the loop.  Also please discourage anybody unfamiliar with these trails from going out without sufficient water.   Some pics are attached others will follow.

Devon at the bottom of the road  Upper ridge,center at top of gulch, is Kuaokala fire trail section.  Line going through center of photo is the road to the golf ball.

I'll post all the pics in a following note to this post.

As Always......MikeM

There has been some discussion of the trail modifications that are going to be installed at Tantalus side of the  Manoa Cliffs trail, and, much later, over on Pauoa Flats---Boardwalks or bridges over some of the more muddy areas, so to speak. I can not say I was too excited about them when I first heard about these proposals but I have since had a chance to talk to Aaron and I have to admit I fully understand where he is coming from, even if I still do not fully agree with the proposed solutions. I’m writing this little blurb to let everyone know the reasoning as I understand it, and what I see are the implications for HURT runners in general.

Thanks again to all the people who took time out of their busy lives to get out and help with this trail work. All the runners in January will appreciate your efforts as will all the hiker's who use these trails! Aloha, Bob

We had a group of ten that met at the Pumping Station at 6 am- Jeff Fong brought two of his good friends, Johnny Landeza, and Heather McCafferty (who turns out to be my long lost cousin- we are both from the Sutherland family in Scotland!). The rest of the team: Greg Cuadra, Earnest Tay, Fish, Ed Radetich, Gordon Lau, Larry Inouye, and yours truly, PJ.

It was another windy rainy day, and we had to dodge downed branches on the way up Tantalus drive- near the top, a big tree had fallen, and was being guarded by a police car with flashing lights- we were lucky to get around the obstacle and get to our destination.

We parked at the Moleka trailhead, and started up the Cliff trail in the dark. We hiked almost up to the top, lugging our backpacks and tools, to survey the areas we wanted to attack. We left Gordon, Larry, Earnest and Fish for the biggest job- a forty foot section of badly eroded trail, that they leveled this blustery morning.

My cousin Heather, Ed and I took the first slide area down from there, and Greg, Jeff and Johnny started down the hill for another slide area. All in all, we must have widened about 6 or 7 slide areas, and tried to dig in some drainage troughs- some areas were so wet with the rain and the water seeping out from natural springs, that it was hard to keep ahead of the slop.

Nonetheless, we made quick progress, and were able to head out a little early, finding Bozo (after having done her 50 mile training run the night before) trimming overhanging branches of bamboo.

It was a chilly ride back down the hill! Thank you Jeff for driving us and the tools. Thanks to everyone for all the hard backbreaking work, and rearranging your training schedules for this work day. Between Wednesday and Saturday’s work, we had 17 workers- pretty awesome family!