Hiking Trails on Oahu

Makaua - December 22, 2015 It was raining, Doppler radar showed heavy showers on the windward side of the island. This seemed like an opportunity to do Makaua (Hidden Valley) Falls. I was hesitant, but went for it. I would go alone today. As I passed the fire station, I could see two tiers flowing, so I drove back to Swanzy Beach Park.  I parked at Swanzy Beach and made my way up the road past the fire station. The trail was ribboned well because HTMC just cleared it a few days ago. As the trail started to cross the stream, I put on my microspikes. In a few minutes, I notice myself slipping. I checked my spikes, it was broken. Apparently, it had been broken for a while now, I forgot to fix it.  I went on with just one spike. I then hit the lower falls, it was flowing pretty well today way more than the last time I went years ago. I had some trouble going up the falls, but focused and got through it.  The falls was pumping. It was amazing! The second tier wasn't flowing as...

Pu'u Pia - December 20, 2015 Following the Nishikida party at Aunty Pat's house, we went home and I fell asleep. In the morning, I got a bunch of text message and voicemails from Aunty Pat and Ty saying that my mom has Aunty Pat's phone.  Feeling opportunistic about the situation, I offered to take it down to Manoa with the intention to drop it off and do Pu'u Pia thereafter.  I drove down to Aunty Pat's house and drop the phone off with Byron, and then drove off to Pu'u Pia. I haven't done Pu'u Pia in 5 years. I have this urge to revisit old trails. From the cemetery, I walked all the way to the top of Pu'u Pia, it took me 30 minutes. The top of Pu'u Pia was super windy, there was a wind advisory today.  After a short break at the top, I started going down. It started to rain heavily. I had no water or backpack. I ran down as fast as I could. It took me about 20 minutes to get to me car. I was soakin' wet, but changed shirt and went back hom...

Koko Crater Arch - December 18, 2015 I wanted to do a sunrise hike, so I messaged Marvin earlier in the week. We chose to do Koko Crater Arch early to see the sunrise. Robin who is visiting from England came to join us as well. We met at the windy blowhole parking lot at 6:15am. Sunrise was at 7:00am. Two police cars were parked there making sure thieves wouldn't break into cars. It was nerve racking walking on the road in the dark. We eventually made our way to the fish shrine and the trailhead. We took the wrong trail, but merged with the correct trail in 5 minutes.  It was somewhat difficult to make our way up to the arch in the dark, but we managed it. We took some pictures and went back down. I didn't realize how steep the arch was. We could see our cars from there as the police cars left.  We took a break before heading back to the road. From afar, I seen a car pull up right beside another car. The car was there for only like 10 seconds, and then pull out ...

Opaeula - December 6, 2015 The time is now. Opaeula! I've been waiting 3 years to do this hike, now it shall be done. Kawai'iki was on the schedule for the HTMC, branching off Kawai'iki is the Opaeula trail, a short loop trail that comes back to the Kawai'iki/Opaeula junction.  The HTMC plan today was to meet at Haleiwa Beach Park at  8:30am, do the briefing and drive up the 8 mile road to the trailhead. We would do both Opaeula and Kawai'iki today and exit all together. What a treat! This was a members only hike, which is good, at least we would have good hikers turn out, not bad ones. The plan was for us to meet at Erik's at 6:30 am, and then carpool to Haleiwa Beach Park (meeting place for the hike). With the waves possibly hitting 30 feet, I got paranoid and asked Erik if we could leave early to avoid traffic. Aprille & I met at Erik's house and left towards Haleiwa Beach Park. There was no traffic and we got there at 6:50 am. Better early than late ...