Above the H3
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There’s an omnipresent hum in the air on this trail. You can feel the rumbling vibrations in your ears and sometimes in your head, and you know that this rumble is from the souped up cars and the trucks and the big rigs that are careening down the H3 at high speed. You know this, but you also know that there’s another rumble you can feel deeper in your bones and in your center of gravity. Well, maybe you do or maybe you don’t. That particular rumbling comes from the Hawaiian history and culture that were bulldozed over to create the H3– or maybe it's just a rumble from your empty stomach telling you it’s time for a clif bar, who can say. There is a long and complicated history surrounding the H3 that is unfortunately mirrored by many other cases of “politicians finding really good reasons to erase Hawaiian culture for the greater good of the US military of the people,” that I won’t get into here, but the highway sure does look pretty at night.
Considered a by many to be “a really good road”
This is one of the rare times I’m not solo camping– I’ve got one of my good braddahs with me and plans to cook up a giant pot of my famous mountain stew. Word gets around, you know? This trail starts at the Keaʻiwa Heiau, a Hawaiian spiritual place that so far hasnʻt been bulldozed to make a parking lot for Humvees, and a good spot to try and pick up some good vibes before embarking to the mountains. I usually see a few different types of people on this trail: skinny trail runners, Korean aunties and uncles out for their morning walk, military dudes wearing weighted packs, stressed out moms with young kids of various ages…you get the idea. We exchange nods and good mornings and the occasional “Ho brah long time no see my braddah how you been brah?” and we’re on our way.
The Korean aunties and soccer moms don’t usually get to this point
The trail is friendly, as far as trails go, and soon enough we find ourselves winding alongside and looking down on the H3. The effervescent hum of engines makes it harder to feel isolated, but the further up we get the quieter the noise. Eventually we make it to the campsite and get set up. I never like to dilly dally with setting up my tent when I reach camp– 10 seconds of heavy rain will completely soak you and all of your gear and you never know when the rain will fall. You will get rained on if you camp in the Koʻolau mountains, it’s just a matter of when. This is the watershed, the aquifer, the source of life for the flora and fauna. We like the rain here, and we need to help flush the raw sewage and the jet fuel out of our once pristine water sources. The ʻōhiʻa lehua bloom in the wetness, and it’s wonderful to see them all along the trail. They’re very important to the watershed and have been battling fungus and disease, so take care of them and enjoy them while you can.
Take care of our diminishing natural resources
So we get set up and start cooking and most importantly we start drinking. No matter how cold or wet or uncomfortable or sore you are, as long as you have a flask of good whiskey everything will be okay.
Hyperlite mountain gear Ultamid 2
So we drink our booze and we eat our beef stew and look down on the H3 through the diminishing afternoon haze, wondering what kind of weather, both spiritual and meteorological, the night will bring.
Famous mountain beef stew
What they don’t tell you in the haunted tours is that the night marchers don’t like to come out in the heavy wind and rain, so we weren’t visited by any ancestors. Instead we just got stormed on intermittently. I got some cool shots of H3 lights at night time before that happened.
If you hear the drums then just turn over and go back sleep
With morning comes the promise of hot coffee and the uncertainty of pooping on the trail. All in all it was a good trip. It’s always a little sobering camping on this trail knowing that there’s so much spiritual unrest in the valley below. That’s why I don’t like hiking or camping in any of the valleys here, too many bad memories in the trees and the earth. Up on the ridge the wind is always blowing and blowing and blowing, clearing away the juju of ages. The perpetual motion of the wind tells us everything is always in flux. Our lives are always in states of change, and it’s just as hard to ignore the ill-fated rumbling in my gut as it is to ignore the rumbling of the cars below. As I embrace my own fate and find a nice toilet seat shaped branch out above the H3 I look down and think, “at least it looks pretty at night.”
Appreciate what you can while you can
Gear list for this trip:
Camera: Sony a7siii
Tripod: Peak Design Carbon Fiber
Mic: Rode VideomicNTG
Pack: Hyperlite Mountain Gear Southwest
Tent: Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 2
Cot: Thermarest ultralight w/ mesh
Inflatable Pad: Thermarest Uberlite
Cook system: Trangia 27 ultralight stove with 2.5L billy pot
Knife: Tops Shadow Tracker II
Stick: Bamboo from da forest grove
If you appreciate these videos then do me a favor, like and follow me on YouTube and Facebook and drop a comment or shoot me an email if you want to talk story. I’m planning some cool stuff for the near future so stay in touch, donate to the beef stew fund below and keep an eye out for the members only section to launch. Hike safe out dea, kden.
Aloha,
Braddah Codes
