Crawling Waiakea Stream, Big Island

[mikebecher]

Leave the kids and the 1.9 rigs at home, this spot is insane! Waiakea Stream just mauka of the UHH baseball field transitions into a crawling nightmare. It took me three hours to traverse 640 feet of the most difficult terrain I've ever crawled. The pictures don't do it justice but here they are.

It starts off pretty easy...


but then quickly narrows with rocks strewn everywhere.


Fortunately some spots have a path just wide enough...


while other lines are quite precarious.


One mistake nearly rolled it off a 10' drop into a nice pool.


Keep climbing...


and climbing.


At this point the stream banks are shear 20' cliffs.


Took a while to find a line out of here.


One last obstacle and only one way up.


This formation is really strange and needs a better picture. I'll definitely be back to this spot and will get some better photos and maybe some video. Thanks for looking.

 

[RusT808]

Looks like a really fun spot. 4s should get you flying out of there. "thumbsup"

 

[mikebecher]

I went out to Waiakea Stream this morning to get my a$$ handed to me again :x It only took 2 hours this time but I had to winch through five sections, one of which I still can't conquer. One 'alternate' path ended up with my rig upside down and submerged in a pool (can't go that way!). And at least a dozen times I had to reset due to rollovers or getting wedged-in. I still can't get pics that capture the 'essence' of this spot, but here's a descent shot of one of the easier sections. I'm curious to see how the terrain changes after the stream has a good runoff.

I'll surely be back out to try again. It might be doable going downstream but the upstream crawl is my white whale for now.

 

[nosyajg]

looks like an awesome spot...

 

[mikebecher]

Another battle with Waikea Stream today. I chose a different route which I had dismissed before because it's way too steep and must be winched twice. It turns out to be faster than my previous route since it avoids three gnarly traverses.

I've decided to nickname this one The Gutter.

 

[BakedMopar]

It was a fun course for sure.

 

[rn38]

Nice!!! Just keep track of the weather and make sure nomore snow up the mountain. Doesn't have much water but this past rainy season it was rarely dry. Looks nice though always wanted to try over there.

 

[mikebecher]

We've been fortunate so far this year, it's been dry four weekends in a row. C'mon out, Saturdays at 9:30, if no rain.

 

[mikebecher]

I took another run at this crawl on Saturday, only with my new lightweight Wromber I've named Levior. I am now hopeful that I can tackle the whole run without assistance. There's one section, The Gutter, that is still too steep but I may be able to take another route with the improved capability of this rig. Once the weather clears I'll get some photos and hopefully a video of the very last climb that I never could clear with my Wraith. Needless to say, I'm very happy with the performance of Levior and have some more tricks up my sleeve to do even better.

 

[mikebecher]

I'm now offering a bounty for this crawl! Here's the Google Doc https://goo.gl/Qd7uZj and I'll publish to bookface in a few days.



Waiakea Stream Bounty Challenge

The section of Waiakea Stream just above Nowelo Street is, in my opinion, the most interesting and challenging bit of crawling anywhere in the Hilo area, and maybe the entire island. I’ve been visiting and touting this spot for a while and it’s time to put some money where my mouth is...

I am offering at least $100 to the first person who can complete a no-touch run with a class-3 legal rig.



Rules

• Vehicle must meet SORCCA class-3 requirements or better (class-1 or class-2).

• Take any path you like but you must stay within the creek banks during the entirety of the crawl (green marker to red marker on the map).

• No touching and no assistance of any kind. Specifically, you may NOT use a winch, tow rope, sand ramps or ladders, rock stacking, other vehicles, etc.

• No touch also means no battery changes, repairs or accidental contact.

• No righting the rig but if you rollover and back onto the wheels you may continue from that spot.

Practice and Attempts

Waiakea Stream usually doesn’t flow but don’t go in if there is snow on Mauna Kea or it has rained heavily in recent days. Use caution if the stream bed is wet, it can be very slippery.

Practice first, you will not succeed on your first attempt. It may take hours just to find a viable path.

You must contact me (mikebecher at gee mail dot com) before making your first bounty attempt so I can verify your rig and the maiden run. After that, I will accept a complete video of the attempt as proof but me witnessing it will leave no doubt.

For each unsuccessful attempt that I witness which progresses farther than any previous, I will add $10 to the bounty.

More details and photos:
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/hawaii/555027-crawling-waiakea-stream-big-island.html

This is a challenge in the spirit of scale to push drivers to build more capable rigs and improve their driving skills. Any attempts to circumvent the spirit of the challenge will be disqualified. This challenge CAN be accomplished and I fully expect someone to do so.

 

[ohana.rc]

WOW! I want to check that spot out!!!