Hiking Trails on Oahu

Kaunala – May 13, 2012 Today was Mother’s Day, so it would seem I would celebrate the day with my mom and wife. One problem, both were working all day. I can’t just stay home right? Off it was to hike with the Hawaiian Trail & Mountain Club (HTMC) to do the Waimea Valley hike. The kids woke up late, by the time we got to Waimea; the club was off to do the valley hike. Instead of going home, I changed the plan to do the Kaunala trail. I’ve wanted to do Kaunala since we did Pupukea back in March. I guess today was the day to do it. From Waimea, we drove up the road and made a right on Pupukea road to the top. I parked in a grassy area, and we walked up the road, past the Boy Scout Camp, over a locked gate, and to the Kaunala Junction. We made the left. Immediately we hit a fork. Going straight was to what I think was the Ehukai trail. I have to do more research, but it looks like it. The Ehukai trail follows a ridge all the way down to Sunset Elementary and Ehukai Beach (a.k.a. Banza...

Pupukea Summit – March 31, 2012 Being my 32 nd  birthday, I decided to plan a birthday party at a summit. I haven’t celebrated my birthday in 20 years. My last birthday party celebration was when I was 12 years old, 6 th  grade. Over the years, my birthday just became another day. Usually a lot of 30 year olds have their parties at clubs or restaurants. A few things I hate about that, 1) Too much unwarranted attention, which I hate 2) I have to share the room with others, which I hate. While planning a birthday hike, I had to choose a non-popular trail, so we would have the summit to ourselves. Going through Stuart Ball’s book  Hiking on Oahu , there was no doubt which hike I would choose: Pupukea Summit Hike. This hike is about 9 miles round trip. It’s an easy 9 miles because the trail is graded and most of the trail is on a paved road. Although relatively easy, the trail for some reason gets little traffic, maybe because of a few complicated junctions. You can compare i...