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"Original Belt Road—The 1898 annual report by the Hawai'i Minister of the Interior details the completion of the road"...from Kiilau bridge through Laupahoehoe to Ka'awali'i gulch, making one of the finest sections of road on the Island." (Hilo Paliku-Maly, Page 8)Above we show a 195o Aerial Photograph by R.M. Towill, Civil Engineer- Surveyor, Honolulu,T.H. via Pan Am flight image of the gulch showing all 3 routes of the Ala Loa/Improved"1922 Sugar Road",the Old Mamalahoa (1897) and the defunct Hilo/Consolidated Railway. The makai branch crosses the river and is lost due to overgrowth but on maps follows a short curve up the North West pali thru State lands and the `O`okala Community Forest. On the bluff there is ample space where F fishermen sometimes park to scramble down the North cliff, as that side of + the Ala loa trail has had a much longer period since use/repair, (with some rockslides from construction of Highway 19) and ends at the stream ' without legal beach access. Beyond to the North,the Ala Loa appears to connect with the old Moonlight road/Lower Cane Haul road which �to nd;- _ transverses mostly public lands or Kamehameha Schools lands the next 24 miles of Hamakua coastline. This Lower Cane Haul road is beloved by the -community and and eyed as an alternate route to the busy Highway 19 for recreation. The new section of Highway 19 thru Ka'awali'i was built in 1957 04 after the 1946 tsunami damaged the trestle and bridges of the Hilo Railroad Company(built in 1912 and later reorganized into - Hawaii Consolidated Railway in 1916).The railway took a path similar to that of the Old Mamalahoa (built to support the horse drawn carts of the thriving sugar plantation businesses along the coastline) following a less steep route along the back of the valley manageable for locomotive engines. These paths combine for the most part now into 1957 Highway 19 whereas the Ala Loa " •. _ _ footpath curved down closer to the shoreline at a sharper incline p" = manageable for pedestrians and horses. RECREATION As 1922 Ala Loa improvements included paving with macadam into a 8ft wide Sugar access road, hiking,biking, and horseback riding could be relatively easy along the Ala Loa thru the Gulch with some upkeep,we envision perhaps even a corridor along this beautiful valley and onwards thru Hamakua.William Ellis wrote his journal, published in 1827, about this route and Isabella Bird's famous book`Six Months in the Sandwich Islands' recounts this . adventure via horseback in 1873,with depictions of fording the surrounding major gulches in the midst of a tropical storm that inspired women around the world for over a century. While conditions for this journey have improved at least on this parcel, it is still an adventure many would be impressed by today,whatever the means of transport. Beach: Surfing-The house on the parcel was built by professional bodyboarder and surfing world champion, Mike Stewart in 1995• In touring the house with the realtor it was mentioned he loved to surf Ka'awali'i and its beauty so much he made it his home break, a sentiment shared,likely,by beloved Hawaiian King`Umi a Liloa Sugg.26-02 5