That was the last picture I took as it pretty much rained steady for the next hour or so. We left the tower at 12:20 and soon the group really spread out along the trail. Brenda, Dick, Ralph and myself brought up the rear. As earlier stated somewhere around the first electric power tower Ralph cut himself with his machete as he slipped on the mud. Lucky there was little damage and Brenda was willing to bandage the cut. Duct tape saved the day. You know about Duct Tape don't you? If you're a Star Wars fan you'll under stand this:
Soon enough we hit the road and shortly there after the 4 mile marker. Just past a pu`u with two Cook Island pines the road turns left and on the left there are tied about 2 dozen ribbons of various colors. They mark the down trail. This is the infamous "guava hill" where I slipped and bruised my rib, Bill G a little later also slipped and I guess suffered no damage. Dayle and Jason also reported slipping on their way down. It was at this point that I noticed my GPS was fogging up. Moisture had invaded it even though it is supposed to be water proof to 1 meter. To make a long story a little shorter. My last good reading was the 4 mile marker. The marker for the trail down is a guess. By Monday morning it had dried enough to get the readings posted in this report.
I arrived at the trail head to find about 1/2 the hikers gone. The "party" was to be held at the Soccer field on Kalanianaole Highway. As I was about to leave Laura comes down out of the bush. I said "Gee I thought you were way ahead of me, what happened?" She replied something like "I missed the turn off on the ridge jeep road and hand to double back!" There we all met and enjoyed talking of the hike, next weeks hike, and the up coming "court" date. We all watched Jay drive past the field, make a U turn and then drive in the OUT road. Later as we all went home he went out the IN road. Some people are just born rebels.
