Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

I pray thee well and hope this season finds you in good health and spirits.

I am in my usual state of good health and enjoying my retirement. I hiked the Grand Canyon (GC): Rim-to-rim-to-rim for my 68th birthday. It was a 5-day backpacking trip following the Angel Bright Trail from South Rim to North Rim and back. We summited the North Rim into an arctic blast and stayed just long enough to gobble a food bar and water before hustling down into the protection of the canyon walls. All around beautifully colored rocks crumbled and tumbled from the cliffs. Methinks artifacts fall from their walls on a daily basis. I trained for this trip like a madwoman: hill-work with ankle weights, loaded backpack (I bought a 20# bag of rice just for training), reverse Romanian lunges, backward uphill—walking. Hiking the GC was not easy but also not as difficult as anticipated. I had a fabulous trip. So life affirming. First photo is from the top of the Koko Head crater trail. Local “Friends of Koko Head” restored the battered rail-trail early in 2024. I hiked it years ago and deemed it dangerous. It’s moh-bettah now!

The Chun Clan gathered in March to scatter Aunt San’s “cremains” into Kaneohe Bay. We stood on the sandbar, sang Aloha Oe, and poured her ashes near those of my Mom and Dad, and her siblings: Sammy and Cornelia. The scattering was followed by a big Chinese luncheon where we poured over our family tree, and enjoyed one another so much that we decided to make it an annual event. “During the winter,” the mainlanders said. And so I am returning in February for more Chun-Clan Ohana-time. In April, Koa and Kea (my cats), and I traveled to Joshua Tree Natl Pk (NP) to meet friends and catch the spring bloom. We were about 7 days too early, though spring was starting to burst open in the southern areas of the park. In early August, I backpacked into Goddard Canyon with 2 friends. Goddard is a lonely canyon, home to many marmots and sees few people as the John Muir Trail turnoff is nearby. Earlier, my friend group won an early September permit to the Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp (HSC) in Yosemite. Ultimately, only three of us made that trip and there… we caught COVID. Me for the first time! Luckily, I was fully vaxed and experienced only mild symptoms. It did not prevent me from hiking Tuolumne Meadows to the Vogelsang HSC and back, a 14.6 mile trip in 1 day. The infection did keep me from attending my Yosemite volunteer week, scheduled for the subsequent week. Lesson learned - no exposures prior to my volunteer week. I was sooo disappointed. When school started, I began hiking again in the Sutter Buttes Ed program, an outdoor classroom for 3rd and 4th grade excursions.The 3rd-graders are studying local, native American tribes while 4th-graders are studying geology. Lots of learning for both held within this 10-mile, circular, extinct, volcanic hotspot. I am learning to guide both educational hikes and recreational weekend, adult hikes. I spend 2-4 days/week in the Buttes, stomping around overhead while the rattlers sleep. No Rip Van Winkles, rattlers dictate the very short hiking season. Nā pōpoki (the cats) and I made another van trip to LA to see friends. They are becoming pretty good little travelers and that’s a good thing as I hope to travel to the East Coast for the fall colors in 2025. KaPili, my ukulele group added a 3rd voice again late summer. We have been floundering since Malia moved 3-hours away to Fremont. Debbie is a wonderful addition to our group. She has a strong voice and is an ukulele strummer as well. We had two Holiday performances. YeeHaw! We are back in business again! Best novel I read this year: Gone Girl. You probably saw the movie; I have not. The book is a nail-biting, masterpiece thriller with unexpected twists of the knife. Best podcast I heard this year: What School You Went? Any islander living on the mainland will love this podcast. Former KHON TV broadcaster and local-boy, Ron Mizutani, interviews local people. His first question is, of course, “What school you went?” He also asks his interviewee to sing one verse of their high school alma mater. Funneee! Lots of pidgin-english and local jokes. It is a much enjoyed touch of island life. What’s on tap in 2025? Family reunion in February. June dog/house sitting at Kailua, O’ahu. Tour du Mont Blanc (a circumambulation of Mont Blanc via France, Italy, and Switzerland) in August.Then I hope to head east for Ann Arbor, MI (niece Lael’s family) no later than mid-September, crossing before snow-flies on the Rockies. My ultimate goal is Acadia NP and a meandering drive down the east coast, Gulf states, and Southwest. A mop-up tour of the few NP’s that I’ve missed over the years. Leaving the Alcan Hwy and Alaska for 2026(?) Wassup wit you? I would love to hear! Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! ~Lorin