Kalo Falls - Koloa Gulch Left Fork Traditional Cache
Kalo Falls - Koloa Gulch Left Fork
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Caches is located at the end of a 4 hour hike which inclueds at least 35 stream crossings one way and then approx. 30 minutes rock hopping in the stream.
Koloa Gulch is not part of the State of Hawaii trail system but it is open to the public. You can request a permit application by calling 293-9201 and faxing back the completed form. You can get good information about the trail from a Google search for 'koloa gulch'. There you can find out what to expect as most of the trail description info was insightful and accurate.
To get into the valley park at Kokololio (Pounders) Beach Park at the Kahuku end of the park. Walk toward Kahuku along Kamehameha Highway about ¼ mile until you reach these coordinates. N 21 37.707 by W 157 55.492 Turn to the left and head up a short dirt road. In a few minutes you will come to a clearing and a memorial on the right to remember the loss of life of a young boy scout due to flash flood. Please read it and take it to heart. If it begins to rain hard PLEASE TURN BACK.
From there walk into the valley following the narrow trail thru the tall grass. It soon cuts to the right and comes near a lot of junk, like toilet bowls and old bathtubs. The trail then cuts left and climbs to a ridge line Follow the ridge for quite a while like maybe 1/2 hour till you come to a trail on the right going down into the valley on your right. Coordinates approx N21 37.169 by W 157 55.975.
Go down into the valley on this trail. When you reach the stream bed go upstream. I began numbering the crossings at #5 writing on plastic ribbons on both sides of each crossing. At the 9th crossing there is a small very low dam just up stream. Just keep going up stream until you reach the fork. You will have crossed the stream at least 35 time when you reach the fork.
Most people hike up the right fork for about 1/2 hour to a nice water fall and small pond you can cool off in. I placed the cache in the LEFT fork. It should take you at least 35 minutes to reach the cache and an even nicer water fall (if water is flowing of course). The coordinates given for the cache are approx. and taken off a map. The valley walls are to close together to get a reading.
If your GPS tells you you have to climb up an 80 foot water fall don't believe it. You are at the cache location. The pond here is not to deep and there were a number of hungry looking fresh water prawns swimming around in it.
To the left of the pond the land rises about 5 feet behind a wall (natural I think) Behind the wall at one time was a Kalo (Taro) Patch. Wild pigs have dug it up pretty bad. The Kalo Patch gives the falls it's name.
Anyway back to the cache. It is under some rocks (to keep it from being flash flooded away) about in the middle of the walls length and at the top of its height. Until the next flood there is a guava branch w/3 lavender ribbons marking the exact spot.
Bring plenty of water. On the day I hid the cache it was very hot. I had a 2 liter bladder and a 20 oz bottle of Gatoraide. I drank all of it. Beware of flash floods if it begins to rain hard head for high ground if you can. Much of the upper valley is very narrow and there is not much HIGH GROUND at all. Don't forget to get my President Truman Geocach on the way in or out. Its on the up side of crossing 26. Good Luck!! The trail was cleared and ribboned on July 23 2006.
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