Hiking Trails on Oahu

Three Corners to King Kong - February 24, 2018 Back at it today! Baron wanted to find the correct ridge to King Kong. We expected an easier hike than last week.  It was deja vu all over as we met at Darren's house at 6am where Bernice was waiting to take Darren and I to Makaha. The only difference is that Kellie was going to catch ride with us. We waited for her to arrive.  Bernice drove us to Makaha quickly, as we got there in under 50 minutes. We checked in and met up with Baron. In Baron car was Marilou and Ryan. Gene came walking up from the street again and was going to join us only to the icy pond. Just like last week, Gene walked at a brisk pace and we got to the icy pond in under 1 hour just like last week. From there, it was some exploring to find the correct ridge today. We did some searching, eventually finding a mango tree which indicated the start of the trail (there are a lot of mango trees in Makaha, so a gps mark would help). The faint trail started about 5 min...

  Three Corners to King Kong - February 18, 2018 This hike can be considered under multiple categories. Other than a super hike, it can be under a storied hike, difficult hike, and secret hike.  This hike had all of the obstacles you'd want for exploration.  Baron initially cancelled this hike earlier in the week, but put it back on. We were to explore Makaha Valley, Baron's annual February thru March hiking schedule. His plan was to go up an unnamed ridge to Three Corners and crossover to King Kong and loop it. We were unsure what we were in for, could be overgrown terrain, sketchy rock faces, bad weather.  We met at Makaha Towers at 7am. Bernice drove Darren and I. Baron drove Ted and Denise. It would be 6 of us today. We were all prepared for a long day. As we said our hellos, we saw Gene walk uphill towards the parking lot. Baron said Gene will show us the junction to the unnamed ridge. I thought sweet, we won't have to spend the time looking for trail leading up...

Pohakea to Palikea - January 7, 2018 Baron invited OAG with him on this hike. He wanted to do a route from Pohakea to Palikea and make a loop out of it. Seemed a little ambitious, but he gave a 10 hour window for it, so there would be time to complete it.  I was excited as this would be an opportunity to do this section of the WST again and get a chance to see more native plants which is rejuvenating my passion for hiking.  Erik and Aprille picked Michelle and I at 6:15am and drove us to Walmart Kunia where we met with Baron, Darren, Kellie, Bernice, and Marilou. There would be 9 of us on today's trek. We would carpool in 2 trucks through the Kunia farmlands to the trailhead.  Baron has mastered this area and so has Darren and Erik, they easily made their way through a maze of dirt roads to the trailhead. We started hiking at about 7:15am. The initial part of the hike was on a jeep road up a steep incline. The grade was like 40%, although that is my estimate, it coul...

  Aikahi Pillboxes - September 16, 2017 After our failed Manana attempt in the morning, we took a short break to regroup and went for a hike that none of us have ever done before. It was a somewhat exciting and I got everyone to participate in the exploration.  I got some trailhead directions from online and wrote it on a post it. This is what I did back 5 years ago when I did some hiking exploration. I would write down a few words that included: directions, landmarks, street names, etc. With limited information, I would go explore and figure out the rest. It gave me great pride to put the puzzle together.  The 5 of us (Aprille, Erik, Darren, Michelle, and I) packed the Yaris and I drove us to Aikahi. The initial plan was to park at the Shopping Center, but I wanted to scout the area first, like any true hiking exploration. You need to set up points on where you enter and exit. The two points of entry were Ihihau Street and Aikahi Gardens. I read that the Aikahi Gardens t...

Luluku Trail Clearing - August 13, 2017 Baron wanted to clear the stream that led to the Luluku Terraces. I told him it would be very difficult and may take a whole day. We projected an entire day and told everyone. He was game and so were the OAG's. Joining the hike today was Baron, Erik, Darren, David, Michelle, Bernice and I. The OG -- OAG's. We met at Hoomaluhia at 9am, but it took us 15 minutes to get ready to start.  We headed towards Luluku stream and encountered the hau. The newbies like Bernice and Michelle were like woah. We chipped away. There was surprisingly not that much hau. After about 1.5 hours of clearing, we got to the private taro fields and the tunnel. I thought it was over and this is what confused all of us. We had a lot more to go. I forgot that we had to go under both the H3 and Likelike. I even think DJ and Baron who joined me on the two previous clearings forgot too.  From the tunnel, we were under the H3 and took a wrong turn and had to bushwhack....

Castle-Olympus (try) - December 28, 2014 With the year coming to a close, I got invited to do a hike with the legendary Red Baron. Earlier in the week he assembled a crew to try and find the famous Old Historic Castle-Olympus trail. This hike peaked my curiosity as its the kind of thing I'm into. I have a shitload of old trails that I want to do, but with the OAG crew doing the money hikes, lots of my projects are put on the back burner. But its all good, because sooner or later, the OAG's will be ready to join me and tackle these old trails that are in disuse.  One source of information for Castle-Olympus is found on page 38 of Stuart Ball's  Native Paths to Volunteer Trails  book. According to the book in 1910 William Castle wanted to build a trail from the top of Tantalus to Konahuanui. Today this is known as the Konahuanui route. William Castle paid HTMC founder Alexander Ford to build the trail while he and his wife left the islands to do a world tour. Ford...

Mililani-Waipio - April 10, 2014 Instead of doing our weekly run today, Erik and I decided to do a short hike near my mom’s house. The hike takes you to Kipapa Gulch and on what seems like military property. I told Erik, there are about 14 tunnels which may peak his interest. On my last scout mission, I walked on the road and passed about 14 tunnels ending up in thick California grass. I bushwhacked for about 20 minutes, but decided to turn around. The road appeared to lead under H2. I appropriately named the hike: H2 trail. While walking back I noticed another trail. After eyeballing it, it appeared to lead to Costcos. My goal today was to explore that trail, hopefully that would take us to Costcos Waipio. The trail is behind the baseball field. In Milville, (that’s what the kids call Mililani) the baseball field is referred to as Noholoa, named after some apartment development nearby. Behind the park is known as Cherry Hill. The origin of that name is unknown. For years after basebal...