Hiking Trails on Oahu

Maunawili Falls & The HTMC Clubhouse – April 28 & 29, 2012 Today I joined the Pearl City Hiker’s Club as they planned to hike in the day and sleep overnight at the Hawaiian Trail & Mountain Club Clubhouse (HTMC). I also brought Malia and Jared as this event would be a wonderful experience for them. We started the day at 9:00 am, dropped our stuff off at the HTMC clubhouse and went towards the Maunawili Falls trailhead. Parking was at a minimum as it overflowed with local and tourist cars. After a few minutes of trying to find parking we all walked towards the trailhead. There were 12 of us; we walked at an average pace. Jared and Malia were doing well and in a little over an hour we hit the falls. There were, as always, loads of people. I made a statement that Maunawili Falls has taken over Sacred Falls as one of the most popular waterfall trails on the island, maybe even more so than Manoa Falls. One reason is because Manoa Falls charges a fee for parking. at falls After 3...

Tom-Tom to Pu’u O Kona – April 21, 2012 I never did the Tom-Tom trail before, hell I didn’t know where the trailhead was. After today, there was no doubt that I would find it and do it again. Tom-Tom is a windward ridge in Waimanalo. The trail is the easiest out of all the southern end windward ridges on the Koolaus. In ancient Hawaiian times, kukini were able to use the Tom-Tom trail to hike from Waimanalo valley and deliver messages to Ali’i Chiefs in the many Hawaii Kai valleys. Tom-Tom is a trail named after two Toms back in the early 1920s, HTMC named the trail “TomTom” to honor Tom McGuire (a forester) and Tom Cadle (HTMC president) who rediscovered the ancient Hawaiian route (Nate Yuen, HawaiianForest.com).  The plan today was for Ikaika and I to hike from Tom-Tom to the Kuliouou state trail. We staged one car at Kala’au place near the Kuliouou trailhead and then made the long drive to Waimanalo. (Long is relative) We would park on Maunawaialoa Street and start the Tom-Tom t...