Hiking Trails on Oahu

  Koko Crater - June 19, 2011      An Elliptical machine cost around $500. Walking for 30 minutes on an Elliptical machine will burn you 350 calories. Not a bad workout.    Koko Head stairs is a man made Elliptical machine times two. It takes the average p erson 30 minutes to get to the summit. You burn over 500 calories going up. Your heart beats so fast, it feels that its going to jump out of your body.    Which is a better 30 minute workout?  The first time I did this hike was a few years ago. I remember having to stop frequently and breathing extremely hard. It took me a little over 30 minutes to get to the top. I also remember getting sick the next day because of physical and heat exhaustion.    Now its June 19, 2011. My resume includes; many intermediate hikes, a marathon, two half marathons, and a consistent dose of exercising over the past two years. The only downfall is my drinking. For some reason, I've been drinking a lot...

  Kainawa'aunui via Mau'umae Trail - June 15, 2011   Today I was suppose to get to the Lanipo summit, but misunderstood where Lanipo was actually located. The Mau'umae trail is as intermediate as it gets. Its also listed in Stuart Ball's book as an intermediate trail. This trail can get physically taxing to a novice hiker I had an early 8:30 am start. I was on my way to the Kaimuki area and up Wilhelmina Rise. This road goes straight up the hill. When you get onto Maunalani Circle, park on the side of the road. The people there are pretty cool, as long as you don't do anything stupid.  The start of the trail is along a fence. When you get to the top of the hill, the ridge opens up. There is some rock scrambling which was great, not too dangerous. There are beautiful views of Diamond Head, Honolulu, Palolo Valley, and Waialae Nui Valley.  After walking on the open ridge, the trail starts to enter a forest  Wear pants going on this hike. I wore shorts....

  Ice Ponds of Kalihi Valley - June 13, 2011 I was reading Joshua blog 808 Goonies yesterday and stumbled upon a secret trail that led to cascading waterfalls. Wow very impressive. Its called the Ice Ponds. Why Ice Ponds? Its not frozen. Two local stories exist. 1) Its a place of gathering for tweakers smoking Ice (Crystal Meth), not too appealing. 2) The stream is cold as ice. I guess the urban legend yields many stories.  On this day I went with my wife Michelle. The initial plan was to only take her out to lunch, but I threw in a hike because of my recent addiction. Though she resisted, I persuaded her enough to at least come along. We headed toward Kalihi Street at 9:30 am. I had no specific directions, but a source on the internet provided some coordinates to the Ice Ponds. The night before, I inputted the coordinates into google map and a location popped up. With that to work on, we headed deep into the valley.  We parked near the end of Kalihi Street a little ...

Waiakeakua Pools - June 12, 2011 I've been trying to prep for the Waiakeakua pools for a while now. I've already found Manoa Falls, Aihualama Falls, & Naniuapo Falls in Manoa Valley.   I headed towards Manoa Valley at 8:00 am. Trail directions to Waiakeakua are a little sketchy. It appears that the bloggers and website hosts who know where Waiakeakua is, keep it a secret. The recurring hint is Pu'u Pia. I've been to Puu Pia once already, and did not see a sub trail. I needed more clues to find the trail to Waiakeakua Falls. I looked in the Puu Pia section of Stuart Ball's book, The Hiker's Guide to Oahu and there was a clue. The topo map shows that when the Puu Pia trail takes a U turn, the Waiakeakua stream appears at the same time. Since Puu Pia is at about 500 feet of elevation, one would think that getting to Waiakeakua stream would require descending down the mountain to the valley floor. This was my plan. 1) Go onto Puu Pia 2) When the trail takes an o...

  Ka'iwa Ridge Trail - June 10, 2011          I cannot sleep. I open my eyes a little after 4 am. Hiking blood is circulating throughout my veins. I have to go on a hike. But its 4 am, What hike will suffice this early in the morning? A long hike? A hike far away from my house? A popular hike? Don't know. Change thinking. What would look amazing at this time in the morning? SUNRISE. Okay, where is a good place to see the sunrise. The sun rises in the East. What trail is on that side of the island? Makapuu Ridge? Nah! Maybe Kokohead? Nah, I'm not up for a stairmaster this early. Ka'iwa Ridge trail? Good choice! The Ka'iwa Ridge trail is located in Lanikai and features 2 World War II bunkers also known as pillboxes. The trail is also known as the Lanikai Pillboxes.                      I pack my bag and drive off to Kailua at 4:45 am. The sunrise was at 5:50 am according to the KGMB 9 website. I arrive in...

  Hau'ula Loop Trail - June 10, 2011 I could be on to something today. I wanted to take the kids out for a hike, and of course they resisted. But I added an incentive this time.  We would go on a hike first. There would be no complaining. If they could follow through, then we would go to the beach. Agreement made (The kids had no choice). If all went well, both parties would be happy . We got to Hau'ula Homestead Road at about 11 am. The Hau'ula Loop trail is about 2.5 miles. There is also a longer sister trail to the left of the Hau'ula Loop trail called the Papali Loop trail. Good hiker's usually do both hikes during the same day, therefore most hiker's on Oahu call it Hau'ula-Papali Loop trail.  My kids at the trailhead sign     The Hau'ula Loop trail ascends up the mountain via lazy switchbacks. Its a gradual ascent, so there is some huffing and puffing, but not too difficult. When you get to the top of the hill, a view of Laie comes into view, but...

Tantalus Arboretum Trail + Makiki Valley Loop via Nahuina - June 7, 2011 Part 4 of the Makiki Saga introduces the very easy Tantalus Arboretum Trail and Nahuina Trail. I haven't done these trails yet. To add to the drama, I added the Makiki Valley Loop today which was featured on the entry titled Makiki pt. 1 although I didn't realize it at the time.   In the entry titled Makiki pt. 3, I tried to find the Tanatlus Arboretum Trail because I read that it was a very easy trail and I wanted to take the kids on that hike last time. However, I couldn't find the trailhead and ended up at the Moleka trailhead instead. Today, I decided that there were no excuses, I was in no rush being summer vacation and all. I just wanted to find the trailhead and complete the trail as it would put a checkmark by my list of accomplishing the Makiki Trail System. I started on Tantalus Drive and was very observant focusing on the parking areas. When a parking area is in sight on Tantalus, there usua...

Laie Falls - June 6, 2011 Erik S. and I did this trail last August (2010) and the result was disappointment. Add to that, I didn't document the hike and so the experience only exist in our minds. I vaguely remember going up hills and stopping a little over an hour into the hike because it appeared we were going nowhere. Regardless of how it went, we didn't get to see Laie Falls. I reread the Laie Trail chapter in Stuart Ball's Book,  The Hiker's Guide to Oahu  to gain a better understanding of the Laie Falls Trail. Based on what information I gathered, it seemed that Erik and I missed the critical junction that goes down to Laie Falls during the August 2010 hike. I started heading down to the North Shore at about 8:15am. Can you believe it took 60 minutes to get to Laie from Kapolei. I guess people from the mainland who are reading this are laughing right now. But, yes a 60 minute drive on Oahu is a long one. Most people, I'm assuming don't get a permit. I didn...

  Mount Olympus (Awa'awaloa) via Wa'ahila Ridge Trail - June 4, 2011 Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Manoa. Its Hawaiian name is Awa'awaloa, but some years ago, students at Punahou renamed it Olympus. The name stuck and its also on listed as Olympus on Hawaii maps. I wanted to do this hike yesterday, but with a flash flood in effect for Oahu, that was out of the question. So I decided to do it today, which after much reflection was still a mistake. Lets just say climbing a steep mountain one day after a downpour isn't the right thing to do because you know, slippery mud.   I headed towards St. Louis Heights Drive at 8:30 am. After turning on a couple of side streets, I ended up at Wa'ahila Ridge State Park. I remember doing the first 30 minutes of this hike with the kids a couple of years ago and they had trouble, so we turned around. The lower Wa'ahila Ridge Trail claims to be a novice hike because there is little elevation gain. However, there is rock cli...