Sunday morning I was still totally toasted from Saturday's big expedition. I slept in and didn't get out of the house until nearly 11AM. After filling up with coffee and snacks (more liquids this time!), I went up Saddle Road to see what kind of short afternoon outing would strike my fancy. I stopped at Tree Planting Road, intending to either do the diagonal southeast trail below Tree Planting Road, or to try to find Morita Camp Trail North of Saddle Road. There was constant gunfire from the parking area near Morita Camp Trail, so I decided to head down below Tree Planting Road. The weather was mostly overcast, hot, humid, nasty and windless. It was a very sweaty day.
The mysterious "road to nowhere" East of Tree Planting Road starts out about the same place as Tree Planting Road, and heads southeast across the 1855 lava flow (now covered in low scrub forest) that Saddle Road is built on. The beginning is flat, but before entering the first kipuka it becomes constantly downhill. After a few hundred meters it drops into the first kipuka, which is open canopy from old 'ohi'a dieback. The understory is choked with 'uluhe, and the ground is extremely hummocky with deep moss but little soil above the lava substrate. It would be an absolute nightmare to be lost in a forest like this, tunneling through the maze of 'uluhe and sliding over deadfall and mossy mounds. The road emerges from the lower end of the kipuka, crosses another branch of the 1855 lava, and dead-ends in a sphagnum bog in the second kipuka. The second kipuka is so boggy and choked with 'uluhe I haven't been able to get anywhere inside it yet.
It is completely unclear why this arrow-straight road to nowhere was bulldozed. One possibility is to facilitate pig hunting deeper in the wilderness. Another possibility is that it may be an abandoned (thank goodness!) part of the tree plantation project that brought us Tree Planting Road and the plantation grid along Stainback Highway. Another possible purpose lies in the fact that there's a matching and equally mysterious dead-end road that appears to be almost exactly long the same alignment heading upslope from Ola'a Flume Road on the upper edge of Hilo. Were they meant to connect?
The first kipuka is open canopy wet forest, with fairly common plants. It's completely choked with 'uluhe and the ground is a maze of deadfall and mossy hummocks on sloped lumpy lava. Nearly impenetrable. The most astounding aspect of this kipuka is the wealth of massive 'oha wai trees! (10-15 feet tall) They're absolutely spectacular, given that brittle 'oha wai have difficulty surviving in many habitats on the island due to cattle and pigs. (In Kona's cattle-infested forests 'oha wai were almost completely absent as terrestrial plants, but survived here and there in trees as epiphytes.) The dense undergrowth and lumpy ground has protected the smaller plants from pig rooting, and 'oha wai also does well as an epiphyte. As far as I can tell they might all be clermontia montis-loa, and the population is really healthy and diverse in age. In some spots the 'oha wai even form most of a low canopy, which I've never seen before. They were flowering abundantly. I need to go back with my wide-angle lens.
Birds at this elevation (3800 feet) are less numerous and varied than at higher elevations. Over 10 minutes there would usually be about 6 'apapane, 3 Japanese white-eye, 2 'oma'o, and one each of 'elepaio, i'iwi and hwamei. I never saw or heard any leiothrix, 'amakihi or pheasants. Down in the second kipuka where the 'uluhe was more thick there were also Japanese bush warblers.
I wandered around looking for rare plants, but the number of plant species was limited by the fairly demanding habitats. I was happy when I found a second species of cyrtandra and some wikstroemia trees. I was surprised that with the abundance of clermontia montis-loa I was unable to find any other lobelioids. I was particularly keeping an eye out for rare clermontia peleana and clermontia lindseyana. I'll have to go back some day and explore further from the road. It seems like the kind of place that could harbor something rare in a hidden nook. It was a pretty good choice for a short outing.
The mysterious "road to nowhere" East of Tree Planting Road starts out about the same place as Tree Planting Road, and heads southeast across the 1855 lava flow (now covered in low scrub forest) that Saddle Road is built on. The beginning is flat, but before entering the first kipuka it becomes constantly downhill. After a few hundred meters it drops into the first kipuka, which is open canopy from old 'ohi'a dieback. The understory is choked with 'uluhe, and the ground is extremely hummocky with deep moss but little soil above the lava substrate. It would be an absolute nightmare to be lost in a forest like this, tunneling through the maze of 'uluhe and sliding over deadfall and mossy mounds. The road emerges from the lower end of the kipuka, crosses another branch of the 1855 lava, and dead-ends in a sphagnum bog in the second kipuka. The second kipuka is so boggy and choked with 'uluhe I haven't been able to get anywhere inside it yet.
It is completely unclear why this arrow-straight road to nowhere was bulldozed. One possibility is to facilitate pig hunting deeper in the wilderness. Another possibility is that it may be an abandoned (thank goodness!) part of the tree plantation project that brought us Tree Planting Road and the plantation grid along Stainback Highway. Another possible purpose lies in the fact that there's a matching and equally mysterious dead-end road that appears to be almost exactly long the same alignment heading upslope from Ola'a Flume Road on the upper edge of Hilo. Were they meant to connect?
The first kipuka is open canopy wet forest, with fairly common plants. It's completely choked with 'uluhe and the ground is a maze of deadfall and mossy hummocks on sloped lumpy lava. Nearly impenetrable. The most astounding aspect of this kipuka is the wealth of massive 'oha wai trees! (10-15 feet tall) They're absolutely spectacular, given that brittle 'oha wai have difficulty surviving in many habitats on the island due to cattle and pigs. (In Kona's cattle-infested forests 'oha wai were almost completely absent as terrestrial plants, but survived here and there in trees as epiphytes.) The dense undergrowth and lumpy ground has protected the smaller plants from pig rooting, and 'oha wai also does well as an epiphyte. As far as I can tell they might all be clermontia montis-loa, and the population is really healthy and diverse in age. In some spots the 'oha wai even form most of a low canopy, which I've never seen before. They were flowering abundantly. I need to go back with my wide-angle lens.
Birds at this elevation (3800 feet) are less numerous and varied than at higher elevations. Over 10 minutes there would usually be about 6 'apapane, 3 Japanese white-eye, 2 'oma'o, and one each of 'elepaio, i'iwi and hwamei. I never saw or heard any leiothrix, 'amakihi or pheasants. Down in the second kipuka where the 'uluhe was more thick there were also Japanese bush warblers.
I wandered around looking for rare plants, but the number of plant species was limited by the fairly demanding habitats. I was happy when I found a second species of cyrtandra and some wikstroemia trees. I was surprised that with the abundance of clermontia montis-loa I was unable to find any other lobelioids. I was particularly keeping an eye out for rare clermontia peleana and clermontia lindseyana. I'll have to go back some day and explore further from the road. It seems like the kind of place that could harbor something rare in a hidden nook. It was a pretty good choice for a short outing.
