Mabel Kekina

Remembering Ma

I first met Mabel back in 1993 on the Hauula Trail.  It was an HTMC hike (coordinated by Sandy Klein) and, in fact, was my first-ever club hike.  Along with me that day was my future wife, Jacque.   I was a non-hiker back then I remember at one point on the hike hearing this silver-haired grandma talking about having just recently hiked the Pu’u Manamana trail, which I knew to be one of those expert trails from Stuart Ball’s book.  Of course, the silver-haired grandma was Mabel.    I remember Mabel encouraging me on that hike because I was struggling on it (Jacque needed no encouragement because she was in good shape).  I thank her for that morale boost.

I met her a second time on the club’s Koko Crater hike.  After having ascended the steep trail from the Blowhole parking lot, she was enjoying the view on the crater rim.  It was there that she and I chatted.  She invited me to come out and join the club’s trail clearers and not long afterward, I did.   I had ulterior motives.

First, I could do all the club hikes, including the members-only ones, and did not even have to be a member (a year or so later, after Mabel’s “encouragement” I did join).   An even bigger benefit of being a part of Mabel’s crew was partaking of the ono goodies that she prepared for us for after-clearing consumption.  Those goodies included awesome cakes, cookies, and pies.  For a period of time I was on a low-carb diet to which Mabel responded by bringing me no-carb food: hotdogs!   Mahalo nui, Mabel, who we members of the crew called Ma.

I have many Ma stories to tell, including the one where we went careening off the side of the dirt road in East Range that leads to the Schofield trailhead.  Mabel was at the wheel of her Maroon SUV and on board, as I recollect, were Jay Feldman, Connie Muschek, Bill Gorst, and I.   While trying to negotiate her vehicle past a huge rut in the road, Mabel swerved to the left and gunned her engine to get us past the rut.  Well, that didn't go according to plan and we ended up going off the road, careening down a steep slope,  and being wedged upslope of a well-situated guava tree.  Mabel's reaction:  she shifted the vehicle into reverse and attempted repeatedly to get us out of there.

While she did that, I thought I heard the sound of the guava tree beginning to crack, which if it did, would send us careening to the bottom of the ravine end about 100 feet below us.  Sensing impending doom, I suggested to Mabel and the others that we best get out of the SUV ASAP.  At first, Mabel, strong-minded as she is, refused to evacuate, insisting that she could get her vehicle out.  But, after she continued to try to reverse her vehicle which refused to reverse, we eventually convinced her.  Eventually, her vehicle was extricated, at considerable cost.  As I recall, many came forward to donate funds to defray the cost and much more than enough was collected.  Such was the love that people had for Mabel.

Mabel was also well-known and respected as a resource person to aid in the search for lost hikers.  When police and fire honchos convened to form an action plan to find the lost, Mabel was the one they turned to, and she in turn, enlisted a willing and able bunch from the club’s TM crew to be among those who headed into the mountains to aid in the searches. When Mabel asked us, we assumed it was our duty to help, and many did, including searches at Kahana (Danish girls), Kamaileunu (Lowe), Lanipo/Palolo (Levey), Wahiawa Hills (Lefevre), Nuuanu (Morishima), Tantalus (Rubin), Kalihi Valley (Tam), Waimano (Parsons & Yoshida), and Pupukea (Watanabe). 

One time, Mabel even came out to search for me.  Wing Ng and I decided to hike the Koolau Summit Trail from Laie to Pupukea, thinking we could easily do it during daylight hours.  Well, we overestimated our ability and underestimated the length of time we’d need as well as the hike-ability of the KST which led us to an after-sundown arrival at Pupukea head of the KST.  Waiting there for us was a relieved yet not-too-happy Mabel who promptly read us the riot act for our indiscretion.  “You should know better,” she said to me to which I had no reply.

Then,  she gave me some hotdogs and a couple of sodas.  Such was Mabel. 

It was hard not to love her.  And we do love that woman.  And we will miss her.

Me ke aloha, e Mabel!