After my first initial trip up to this summit, I found myself standing at GZ just a few weeks later, this time with a bunch of volunteers. We spread out and made a sweep line across the fence, faced the leeward side, and over and down we went into the valley to clear out Angiopteris evecta and any other weed that stood in our way. This is a highly invasive fern and conservation efforts are being made in this area to keep this and other invasive weeds out to protect the native forests. If you look out leeward towards the valley floor, you will see a section that has been completely overtaken by this fern. This is what we are trying to avoid. Clearing the fern from the summits and cliffs up above will help to prevent the spread of the spores to the valleys below. So we spent two days hiking, climbing, sliding, and scaling cliffs to pull thousands of weeds and inject herbicide into the monstrous overgrown ferns. We probably would have stayed out even longer had we not run out of herbicide. And most of us had less exciting jobs to return to the next day. But unless this weed is obliterated off this island, efforts to remove this weed will continue. After all, as you know, a minion’s work is never done!
This cache is not located on the “contour” Ko’olau Summit Trail; you must hike up to the “true” Ko’olau Summit. If you are standing atop a ridgeline and have 360° views of both the windward and leeward side, then you are in the right area. The cache is next to a native manono plant, so no need to worry about an over-zealous volunteer whacking down GZ. There are various ways to reach this cache, from at least three different directions. Pick the one that best suites your hiking style. And if you happen to come across an Angiopteris evecta, please, be a good minion. Kill it.