Hiking Trails on Oahu

Laie-Malaekahana - February 13, 2016 It's February 2016 and this is my first hike of the year. With Jared's baseball and Malia's dance, weekends have been busy. I was invited by Kikaida (Kenji) to Laie-Malaekahana. He hasn't done it before and wanted to check it off the list. He invited his usual hiking partners and I invited Bernice from OAG's. Start time was at 7am. I got there 5 minutes late because I had to go to the bathroom. The only bathroom before Laie field that I know of is Malaekahana Beach Park. I stopped there to pee, then headed off to Laie field. I was the last one there and met the crew for the day. Joining us was Kenji, Glen, Justin, Thessa, Dale, Bernice, and I. We started at 9:10am on the Laie trail.  Since I haven't hiked in a while, my cardio was weak. I could run uphills with no problem, but try hike uphills when your not in hiking shape, its a difficult thing to do. After 2.5 hours, Bernice, Dale, Thessa, Glen and I got to the foxhole of L...

Manana-Waimano - December 26, 2014 This hike was the original HTMC super hike. About 14 years ago, HTMC, created a super hike which connected two of the longest state trails. Now days strong hikers seem to make the super hike a regularity. Although the crossover is short, the length of both Manana and Waimano can be grueling and time consuming. In any case, we wanted to see Pu'u Eleao in all its glory.  Because Thursday was a super clear day and most likely the same weather today, it became a no brainer and we had to do it. Joining the hike was OAG's Bernice, Darren, Erik, & Aprille. Our goal today was to see Eleao in what I claimed the 'best view on the island'. It would not disappoint.  Staging of the cars was simple ~ meet at end of Waimano Road before the guard shack, stage Erik's car there, and then Bernice would shuttle us over to the end of Komo Mai Drive near the Manana trailhead. I remember starting my backcountry app at 6:49am. Every time I do a waypoi...

True Kea'au - September 1, 2014 (Labor Day) I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Since I've been focusing on marathon training, hiking and even doing research for hikes have gone by the waste side. Will L. usually hikes on holidays, probably something him and his wife worked out a while back. I know I can only hike twice and month and get frowned upon by my wife if I go back to back weekends, so I completely understand the married couple hiking thing. I've done Kea'au Middle twice, one time I even connected to Ohikilolo. But I haven't done True Kea'au. I got word of a route a few years ago from hiking icon Baron Y., but I didn't pay too much attention to him. On that hike he took Darren and Ahnate on the switchback trail. Before the hike, like weeks ago doing Kawiwi, Darren shared some info on the True Kea'au route with me which I apparently didn't listen too carefully. I remember telling him that looks ridiculously steep and I would never d...

Kawiwi to Tiki - August 15, 2014 Today was my second time doing Kawiwi and it was with the "overnight crew" minus Aprille. Last time we hiked together, we had to spend the night on the Waimalu Ridge trail. Hopefully today would yield better results...it did. With Sarah leaving in a few weeks back to college in the mainland, the OAG's needed to do a hike. Recently, choosing a group hike has been difficult. Our group has hikers with varying skills and abilities making it harder to choose certain hikes. Long story short, we chose to do Mt. Ka'ala in Waianae. The plan was simple, meet at Waianae Valley Road at 7:45am, go up Ka'ala, and go back. I picked up Darren at 7:00am and got to the trailhead at 7:50am. It seems like it takes longer and longer to get to Waianae from Mililani. Erik and Bernice got there at 7:48am. And Sarah, lets just say she got there at Hawaiian Time. As we got ready, Darren was eyeing Pu'u Kawiwi. We came across two University of Hawaii res...

Laie-Papali - June 18, 2014 Initially this was suppose to be Laie to Kawailoa. The goal was to hike the Kawailoa trail to the spot where Erik and I turned around in April 2014. By doing this, we could connect the blue lines on our gpx file. However since Erik had the whole day off and I'm in summer mode, we decided to tackle Laie-Papali. If I remembered correctly, I did this route with DGC and hiking crew and it took us 16 hours to complete, albeit we did get lost multiple times. Erik asked me during the week if we could do it faster. I hesitated, but threw out a number of 12 hours. What made this more crazy was that we started late 8am and we were going to go down Kawailoa to the spot.  To do this hike within 12 hours, I told Erik we have to be efficient which means minimal breaks and quickly problem solve the difficult twist and turns of the KST. We staged a car at Daniel's house. He has always been helpful when we plan these hikes and should very well be appreciated for his ...

Dupont-Ka'ala - June 9, 2014 Probably one of the best hikes I've done since Koloa Gulch in November of 2013. This hike had it all - exploration, views, danger, bushwhacking, cardio, more views, prayer, hiking out in the dark with critters, and ending with 10 Pueo owls. It all starts with Aprille, she went on a church retreat to the St. Benedictine Monastery awhile back. There, she met wonderful nuns or sisters who told her about a trail to a cross. That cross is on a ridge which connects to Dupont.  Dupont is off limits. The start of the trail is well within farmland boundaries with owners who do not want hikers there. There are even signs that say no hikers allowed. Security patrols the area and keeps a tight grip on loiterers.   To connect the two stories, Aprille asked one of the sisters if she could hike on the cross trail. After an approval, we did some quick research on a Friday night. We saw that the cross trail connects to Dupont. Based on that information, we felt tha...

Kulana'ahane to Red Hill - May 10, 2014 This hike was dedicated to Kenji who author’s a popular Oahu hiking blog called Trying Not to Fall Off the Edge ( http://kenjisaito.com/ ). Kenji has completed almost all sections of the Koolau Summit. He only needed the section known as Moanalua Saddle to Red Hill to finish up. Today was his final crossover to complete the entire Koolau Summit. It’s a short crossover about 1 ½ hours or so. The plan was to hike on Kamananui road, take the junction to Kulana'ahane up to the Moanalua Saddle, make the left toward Red Hill, go down Red Hill and take a side ridge known as Godek soon to rejoin the road. I hoped the entire hike wouldn't take more than 9 hours, but packed my bivy, lighter, and extra food just in case. Forgot my steripen though. Meet up time was 8am to a hot, humid day. I met Bob at the parking lot as he mentioned to me that it was his birthday and asked if I would have a drink with him after, I said sure. Though a lot of peop...