Thursday,
November 04, 2010 at 20:53:43
Hi
David,
Thank
you for sharing Ken's and your moving thoughts about Lorin. He was a
big influence in my life as well...I was born a local haole with really
no local experience, even though I went to University Lab School , or,
during the Red Scare of the 1950's, the "Little Red Schoolhouse On the
Hill". The first hike was Kohala Ditch in 1974, but the second or third
hike was Wailau. I remember Lorin picking a ripe mountain apple and
then proclaimed it, "makapa!" He said that it would be delicious
because of the purple/red maka at the end of the fruit...shortly after
having everyone looking for makapa mountain apples, he then started an
awapuhi fight...someone, I think it was me, sent an awapuhi head at
Lorin and it hit him on the side of the face...he wasn't pleased. There
are so many similar stories it's hard to remember them all....it was
the ili of Malama that inspired us (and Mary Kawena Pukui) to come up
with our son Matt's middle name: Kalamaulula'au or "the light through
the trees in the forest." I am happy to see that it was Lorin's
favorite ili as well.
He
was an inspiration and a teacher. Walking together along the jeep road
on the summit of Hualalai, Lorin suggested that I put together a
glossary of Hawaiian geological terms...I labored for a year and
collected a lot of information. It sat a long time before I gave it to
Lorin to look at...it eventually went to some MGF people in Waianae and
who eventually, put more meat on the bones.
I
also remember following Lorin's example of drinking out of every little
pot hole on the trail (to keep your immunities up) and promptly got
sick after climbing out of Wailau. I guess my most memorable
experiences with Lorin were hiking on Molokai: the Pelekunu to Wailau
hike in 1976 with Dana Peterson and Chris Yuen, the 1977 Olokui
Expedition, and the 1977 trip to Pelekunu (after Wailau) where Lorin
and I hiked out to the eastern point of Pelekunu, feeling the strong
trades and seeing the waves crash into a small cusp of a valley. And of
course, the 1975 Mauna Loa hike was very exciting...were we going to
wander over the wastes of Mauna Loa for eternity, or find the cabin at
Ulaula?...well, we survived! There were so many hikes/experiences that
it was the essence of his being that entered all of us through osmosis.
Lorin
came to my retirement luncheon in 2005 and presented me with his Leeteg
painting of my dad's photograph of the old Hawaiian man. Lorin was an
inspiration.
Again,
thanks for sharing.
Aloha,
Glenn
(Bauer)