Kaleponi

The hillsides around us are dotted with magnificent trees we call “live oaks” because they maintain their foliage in the winter. One particularly impressive example sits in a meadow adjacent to Acalanes Ridge, the highest peak in our immediate neighborhood. The East Bay Regional Park District maintains a trail between the Briones Reservoir and Mt. Diablo that takes us up to the ridge and the majestic oak tree. Ledward and I have been hiking along the trail and scouting locations for a video, so when we reached the meadow and the live oak we knew we had found our spot.

A couple of days later the weather warmed up a bit so we packed up two guitars, four cameras, mics and recorders, and headed up the trail. I used a little GoPro to capture parts of the trip up, but I remember those hills as being a lot steeper than they look on video (grin). The light was difficult with the sun just starting to touch the ridge line, but the thermals must have been just right because a paraglider was cruising along the ridge, and landing on top.

I adjusted two of my cameras badly, so we wound up with clips from just the GoPro and a Panasonic Lumix GH2, but I think they tell the story well enough. The song is one Ledward learned from one of his maternal uncles back in Kalapana, an old Maui praise song called Aloha `Ia No `O Maui. Please forgive my big embarrassing oopsie on the missing `okina in the video title.

I’m really enjoying scouting locations for slack key videos, and I’m sure I”ll be visiting Acalanes Ridge again when we get some more warm weather. Meanwhile, Ledward leaves tomorrow for Eugene and Portland OR then on to the Seattle area. If you’re in one of those neighborhoods and want to hear some wonderful Hawaiian music, check Ledward’s calendar for locations and dates.