Hiking Trails on Oahu

Halawa-Luluku Terraces  -  April 25, 2016 I've imagined finding these hidden terraces for years. Driving on H3, coming out of the Harano tunnel, taking the Likelike exit and its there, hidden somewhere. Where exactly? I don't know. Every time I drive by the area, I seem to think its somewhere around, but I can't pinpoint it.  I put myself in a body of an ancient Hawaiian. Where would I build the Luluku terraces. Obviously!!! Right through the Luluku stream. My searched narrowed to the Luluku stream. I google earth'd it and felt I had a solid idea of where it was.  The day came to scout it out. I went to Hoomaluhia Botanical Gardens, the visitors center to park. I walked about a 1/2 mile back towards the entrance to the Luluku stream. I went upstream for only 100 feet so I could get a vantage point of the road and saw that it wasn't there. Shit I thought. Luluku stream I walked back to the access road and further up the road to a dirt road. There was no sign, but it ...

Chinaman's Hat - August 20, 2016 I never thought I could walk there, not even in my wildest dreams. Well, I dreamt about it, but it was more of a nightmare. I remember watching a video of Uncle Gary and his friends floating to the island and having a hard time. That video was not a good experience. But as things have it, when your in the presence of great people, we do great things.  I guess Darren's friend monitored the tide height throughout the month and notice that the tide was very low on this day. Darren set up an Annual Kualoa BBQ. Although we haven't done one of these before as an OAG group. I guess this is the start of some kind of tradition. *Make sure you understand the tide report and know the route before trying to walk to Chinaman's Hat, not doing so can end up in  We met at Kualoa Regional at 8:30am, but didn't get to start until 9:00am. Not only OAG's where there, other of Darren's friends and family were there as well. I'd say about 30 o...

Maunawili Moss Slides - April 17, 2016 This hike was on the agenda forever. Today the plan was to do Olomana Backside with the alternate hike, the Maunawili Moss Slides. We prepared for both situations. The Mauanwili Moss Slides is above Maunawili Falls, however getting there can be a little sketchy. Two obstacles 1) walking over a pipe with a 30 foot drop below 2) straddling an old rickety wooden bridge about 50 yards with a 50 foot drop below can scare even the most experienced hikers.  Meet up time was at 7:00 am. I picked Darren up from his house and drove to Maunawili Neighborhood Park. Waiting for us was Bernice and Aprille. We said our hellos and talked story. Sarah who was confirmed to join us, thought the meet up time was 7:45 am. We looked at Olomana as it was getting socked in pretty bad. Aprille voiced her opinion that we should bail on Olomana and do the Moss Slides. I think the plan was set as we waited for Sarah.  Sarah arrived as Darren was talking about a docu...

Likeke-Hoomaluhia - July 2, 2016 I've always wanted to do this hike, but never got to it. I even went as far as to combine this hike with the Demo hike (16 miles or so), but never got to it. Even today as I woke up, I was like, maybe no need go, but I gathered enough motivation to get out there.  HTMC created an extension of the Likeke trail. The original route stars at the Pali and ends at a lookout somewhat near Hoomaluhia. This route starts at Hoomaluhia, does most of the original route and loops back to Hoomaluhia.  Start time was at 9am, a huge crowd came. I only knew a few people. But I would hang around Daniel, David, Darrel, and Bob most of the time. We started from the second parking lot and headed toward a jeep road. From there, the trail head somewhat up the mountain near the base of the Koolaus going in and out of mini gulches. In about one hour we hit the junction to get to the Likelike Tunnels. This part of the hike was impressive, it was only a 5 minute hike to ...

Poamoho - April 3, 2016 Poamoho has always been in the Storied Category, why? Because it always which leaves the hiker wanting more. What a selfish bunch of hikers we are! When people ask me what the best hike on the island is, only one hike comes to mind ~ That's Poamoho. You ask any true hiker out there and the answer will be unanimous ~ Poamoho tops the list. If you ask someone who thinks they are a hiker and they say Makapu'u Lighthouse, they need to be schooled on hiking Oahu 101. This hike has it all, for one its short about 1 1/2 hours to the summit 2) the native plants all along the area 3) the view, considered one of the best on the island 4) landmarks Cline Memorial, one of the greatest hiking landmarks on this island 5) Poamoho cabin...there is more.  We had a big group today which needed 2 4WD trucks. Erik had one, but who had the other? Erik has a co-worker Amber if she wanted to go. She was game, so we had 80% of the crew going, me, Darren, Erik, Allison, Aprille,...