This geocache is named to honor K. I. Chuck Godek a long time
member of the Hawaii Trail and Mountain Club who passed away in
2000. Chuck and good friend Irwin "Ski-Poles" Jaszkulski cleared
the trail described in #3 below. That trail is known as the
Godek-Jaszkulski Trail. The below link will give you some
information about Chuck and the beginnings of this trail.
Chuck
Godek
I placed the cache in a “Hobbit” hole between two very large
Hawaiian Koa trees. This is a small cache with about 7 “Key Rings”
in it. The cache container is in a 1 gallon Zip Lock bag for
protection from water. Let’s try and keep it a KEY RING cache. I
forgot to place a “First to Find” card in side so whoever is first
will get the card if they mail me their “snail” mail address.
This cache is NOT for the weak of body. You will huff and puff
and sweat in your quest to find it. The cache was place on top of
the left ridge of Moanalua Valley. You have three ways to go after
it. NONE are easy, but the time is now as the trail was cleared on
July 29th 2007 by the Hawai`i Trail and Mountain Club’s trail
clearing gang.
1-Behind the tennis court is a trail that zigs and zags its way
to the ridge crest. It is steep in places. I reported on this
access at the following location.
Hike Report
Three hardy workers climbed to the ridge top packing a gas
powered weed wacker. The three cleared all the way to the “big”
Cook Island Pine forest. They began sometime around 7:45 in the
morning and arrived at the pine forest around noon.
2-The second way up is not recommended it is very steep in
places and although cleared today it was a rough clearing in the
middle section. This was the way both teams came down from the pine
forest. The trail now known as “The Bamboo Trail” begins after the
4th “bridge” on the valley road. You should see the bamboo on your
left as you cross the 4th bridge.
3-This trail begins after a hike of about an hour on the valley
road. Distance to the point you leave the road is about 2.6 miles.
A good hiker should be able to average around 3 mph on the road.
The trail takes you past a stream gauging station. Up to this point
it is the same trail that takes you to the “low back” crest of the
Ko`olau Mts. Just after the station you cross the stream and before
the next crossing take a sharp left turn and begin climbing. Eight
of us began the climb up somewhat after 9 a.m. Because one of the
eight was having back trouble he and another turned back after
going about 3/4th of the way to the ridge crest. It took the six
that made it to the crest about 1 hour and 40 minutes.
After a 20 minute break we began working makai on the trail. I
placed the cache about 11:30 a.m. after hiking makai about ½ of a
mile. There are some very narrow dike sections with crumbling rocks
to cross if you go this way. Only serious hikers should attempt
this section of the ridge.
After placing the cache I continued makai on to the pine forest
(about ½ mile) where we all had lunch. It was about 12:30 and I had
walked about 4.3 miles. After lunch we hiked down the “Bamboo
Trail” talked about above.
I reached the parking lot about 2:50 p.m. The hike took roughly
7 hours including the 2 20 minute breaks. Total distance about 6.3
miles. GOOD FUN YEA?