Waipio Valley (Kilauea, Pahoa: for sale, house, construction)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I see ads for beautiful land for sale in the Waipio Valley. I also see a lot of comments about how dangerous the road is to get into the valley.

So, the question is: does the road make it impossible to build there? Can the trucks carrying building supplies get in?

[MyrrMade]

All I can say is that is one SCARY road. I went down in a 4-wheel-drive van to do the horse ride down there, and MAN, it is unbelievable. The driver said to leave seatbelts OFF, leave doors OPEN and I thought he was joking. So I buckled up. But he was serious. People have had to jump out when brakes fail and some lives have been saved that way.

It's only one-lane too, with a few narrow pull-outs for passing. The horse concession has a big stock trailer and have had to evacuate the horses a few times during tsunami threats, so since horses weigh as much as building materials, apparently they can haul them up (and down).

I noticed the "eccentricity", for lack of a better term, of the people I saw there wandering around, was like Pahoa concentrated 10 times over. I loved it! But getting in and out of there for basic supplies seems a daunting prospect....

[Snikt]

I just walked down the road a few days ago, and it is seriously steep. I don't really think of it as that dangerous though, there are guard rails almost the whole way also.

Saw many 4x4s driving down, even some I would never drive down that myself. The Waipio shuttle is a 4x4 van that drives up and down it many times a day.

With a proper 4x4 and low-range I would have driven it. You could always walk it yourself first to check it out. Here is my elevation GPS map from hiking down the road, around the valley and back up.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...01501,0.021007

[hotzcatz]

I guess you didn't take your phone swimming, Snikt? I'm amazed you were able to get signal in the valley.

The trucks from the lumber stores will not deliver there. UPS will not deliver there. Nor will the post office. You need a true 4WD - one with a low lock, not just a low gear. AWDs aren't allowed. You will have to haul all the construction material into the valley yourself, so that will limit what you will be building with. No big pre-built trusses for example, no pre-mixed concrete, etc.

I was talking to an elderly local woman and she said small kid time they had to hand carry bags of rice to the top of the trail since they grew rice and didn't have any other way to get it up the trail. That seemed a rather daunting task, but she didn't seem too concerned about it, it was just what was done.

They have fixed the road a lot in the recent past, but still, even "fixed up" it isn't a road I'd want to take on a daily basis. Guard rails are nice, but I don't think they will keep that many cars from sliding off the road.

[Pikake]

I hike there every Saturday and what a killer workout it is! The first time I attempted it, I gave up after taking 35 steps, threw out my hitchhiking thumb, and was immediately picked up. My friend who had hiked it back up gave me grief about doing that.

It is a 25% grade and man, does it suck.

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

I guess you didn't take your phone swimming, Snikt? I'm amazed you were able to get signal in the valley.

The trucks from the lumber stores will not deliver there. UPS will not deliver there. Nor will the post office. You need a true 4WD - one with a low lock, not just a low gear. AWDs aren't allowed. You will have to haul all the construction material into the valley yourself, so that will limit what you will be building with. No big pre-built trusses for example, no pre-mixed concrete, etc.

I was talking to an elderly local woman and she said small kid time they had to hand carry bags of rice to the top of the trail since they grew rice and didn't have any other way to get it up the trail. That seemed a rather daunting task, but she didn't seem too concerned about it, it was just what was done.

They have fixed the road a lot in the recent past, but still, even "fixed up" it isn't a road I'd want to take on a daily basis. Guard rails are nice, but I don't think they will keep that many cars from sliding off the road.

Nah I didn't have any signal, this was just recording from the GPS in my phone, not using the cellular network.

Speaking of signal though I was actually very impressed at the signal all around the island.

I had 4G LTE on Kilauea Iki, near the coast, in the mountains, at south point, crazy.

Even had like 3 bars of 3G at the summit of Mauna Kea

[MyrrMade]

Agreed for most of the island, but yet I got NO signal at all in Kapoho with Verizon, and was told I'd have to get an At&T phone to work there. No internet either...

Then again, there's no cell signal where I live either...

[KaraBenNemsi]

I was down there a few weeks ago and actually saw a D-9 dozer working in the middle of the valley. I am still baffled about how they got that thing down this road. Detaching the blade and trucking the blade down? Needs a big truck as well.

I know folks who have second homes down there and let hippies take care of them most of the time. The river beds are the roads and you need to know what is high water and when they are drivable. Flash floods can happen within minutes for minutes or days, sometimes weeks. A house at the further end of the valley may then be cut off, unless you hike out. No worries about building inspectors but also not many banks out there for financing it either. Tsunamis and land slides are an iffy thing which keep me firmly on the visitors side. Enchanting it is, and this shabby, scary road is one thing to keep Waipio the way it is.