Caveman's Birthday Hike

-

 Makapu’u Ridge to Puka - December 29, 2013


This hike was a birthday celebration for Marcus Greigo. Marcus is a hiker in the Oahu Hiking Community known for doing some of the most ‘extreme’ hikes on the island. If you read my entries, I really don’t know the true meaning of extreme, so I call a very hard hike, a difficult hike. Regardless on your interpretation of the word extreme, this hike I was about to go on had some bad ass hikers, people who’ve completed the entire crest of the Ko’olau Summit and some of Oahu’s most dangerous ridges. I’ve hiked with a lot of these people before and let me tell you, they bad ass.


I picked up Darren from Mililani and we headed off towards Makapu’u. Near the University cut off, my tire blew out. I panicked a little, but we methodically got the spare and put it on. However, while driving, the spare was flat, the car started to shake since the car was running on 3 tires, so I drove to a gas station nearby to fill air. Luckily Darren knew where the gas station was. After filling the spare with air, I drove very slowly towards Makapu’u.


The lookout, as always, is packed with people. Things didn’t get any better as at least 60 people were expected to show up for this hike. The start time was at 9am, but because Marcus's Caveman Crew are adrenaline junkies, they got restless and headed up the ridge without waiting for him. While going up, I was right behind Aaron. We talked story about photography, a hobby I’m really into right now. Going up and down the rolling ridge wasn’t too bad. My cardio is still good since the marathon. As we neared the puka, I saw Kenji, Jay, Ted, Thomas, Randy, Nate, LyZel, etc. I also saw some people who I’ve always wanted to meet. By the time we arrived at the puka about 30 people were already there. The wind was howling, dirt flew in my eyes. Marcus eventually came with a group of people and gave a short alpha male speech. We took a group picture, sang happy birthday, and talked story.


talking story before puka (Aaron, Kenji, Thomas, and Darren)


Makapu'u Puka

alpha male speech

choke people

The PHM was at Kona Brewing. Darren and I bought Marcus a beer and Darren and I did more socializing. We bailed about 1 hour into the fun at Kona Brewing because I wanted to get my car fixed and Darren needed to go to a party.


Kona Brewing, my favorite place to eat, though we didn't eat


flat tire

This was a nice meet and greet. It’s hard to meet all the hikers in the Oahu hiking community, but Marcus and probably Baron are two people who can pull it off.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring a hike in Mililani

-
Image
Waikakalaua Stream – November 23, 2012 We didn’t find the tunnels today, but that’s okay. A few months back, I scouted possible access points to get down towards Waikakalaua Stream. Today, along with Erik, we would find what we were looking for. Erik has lived in Wahiawa his whole life and I have lived in Mililani most of my life. This hike, albeit an exploration hike would make a lot of sense. Waikakalaua stream separates Wahiawa from Mililani. The hike is described in Stuart Ball’s original book, though I don’t have that book, it wouldn’t matter today as we were going to explore a different route.        Our goal was to find the pool and tunnels. We would allot ourselves 2 hours in and 2 hours out, for a total of 4 hours. Erik and I met at the Park & Ride, and immediately we drove up the road. We took a left on the road across Mililani Ike and followed it till its end. After getting out of our vehicles, we immediately tried to find a trail going ...
Read more

Kipapa Trail to Schofield-Waikane

-
Image
  Kipapa to Schofield-Waikane – June 14,15 2013 First of all, the initial plan was to get to Papali-Uka, but that didn’t happen. It is apparent that this route was for the grinders. Knowing what we know now, starting from Manana and getting to Papali would have been a three day thing or a two full day excursion. What we experienced was two 10+ hour hiking days and it was a hard 10+ hours for both days.  The plan today was to start on Manana drop into the valley towards Iliahi ridge, then drop into the valley towards Waiawa, and drop into the valley again towards Kipapa. From Kipapa, we would make the long hike up to the Ko’olau Summit, then to Waiahole Uka, crossover to Waikane, and then all the way to the Poamoho Cabin where we would set up camp. In the morning, we would make the long traverse to Papali Uka. The plan seemed ambitious, it was. But with ambition comes character building and gained experience which makes us into better hikers. To be a good hiker, you have to pus...
Read more

Getting to the Waimalu Meadow

-
Image
Waimano-Meadow - February 4, 2017 This hike was going to be a grinder no matter what way you cut it up. The overall goal was to hike Waimano-Aiea with backup plan #1 Waimano-Meadow back to Waimano or backup plan #2 Waimano-Waimalu Middle. After doing Waimalu Ditch last week, I had a feeling that the Middle Ridge trail would be in bad condition to hike. This led me to the assumption that going down Waimalu Middle would be a bad idea and we would only  go down as a last resort.  I predicted a 12-13 hour hike. Sarah wanted to invite her boyfriend Uhi and friend from Japan Jena. I said ok, but they probably wouldn't be her friend after the hike. Going on the hike today was the overnight crew; Darren, Erik, Aprille, Bernice, and Sarah. Also Darren's girlfriend Jana would be coming.  I met Erik & Aprille in front of the Aiea gate at about 4:30am to stage a car. From there, I drove us to the Waimano trailhead. A lot of hunting trucks were in the area. We started the hike a l...
Read more