Hiking Trails on Oahu

Lanihuli – September 11, 2011 Today was the 10 th  anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Many hiking groups honored the fallen by hiking. Most notable was the Koko Crater Memorial hike where people went in teams to hike up Koko Crater. With all that being said, I decided to do a hike that only a few years ago was highly coveted. The Lanihuli trail once lay in a watershed area. Even today, you have to go on private property to gain access. Access to the trailhead is on land owned by Kamehameha Schools. Of course, some hard work by the HTMC in recent years made this hike a yearly thing. Coordinating the hike was Grant. For those of you who don’t know, he is a long time member of the HTMC and is stuff of legends. He emailed me that there will be two groups: early bird at 7:30 am and regular start time group which started at 8:00 am. He also provided some directions. Lanihuli is the massive peak between the Pali and Likelilke Highways. Although vegetation blocks the view most of t...

  Halawa Ridge – August 14, 2011 *Halawa ridge is in disuse and the trialhead is on Board of Water Supply land.  Fourteen miles felt so short. This hike is in the HTMC advanced category for sheer distance. But it only took less than 6 hours to complete. You know you’ve seen Halawa Ridge before. While driving on H3 to Kaneohe, it’s that long ridge to your right. Sure it looks overloaded with vegetation, but behind all that vegetation is a wide trail. I hiked with the HTMC again. I met some hikers at Iolani Palace. The person providing the trailhead directions was John Hall. This guy is in his 80s and can still hike with the best of them. Directions to Halawa Ridge were unknown to me until John Hall gave his explanation. In Stuart Ball’s book, Halawa Ridge is a forbidden hike; maybe it intersects a private road or something.      It took a little while to get to Iwaena Street in Halawa; I parked at the end of the road and met the club members. The trail ...

  Mount Ka’ala via Waianae-Ka’ala trail – August 7, 2011 The Waianae-Ka’ala hike is not really an advanced hike; it is actually a really high end intermediate hike. With that being said, since Ka’ala is the highest peak on Oahu, it should get some credit and so I pushed it into the advanced category. Mount Ka’ala is the highest peak on the island of Oahu standing at 4,025 feet. While driving on Kam. Hwy heading towards the North Shore look left and you will see Ka’ala. Its summit is flat top and wide. The military has an FAA station up there for aviation purposes. There are many ways to get to Ka'ala, however the two most common routes are through Waianae-Ka'ala and Dupont. Today we took the Waianae-Ka’ala trail. I met Kahele at the trailhead at the end of the Waianae Valley Road at about 8:30 am. We started going up the concrete road. The concrete road is about 1 mile long, disenchanting, and leads to the trailhead of many Waianae hikes. The Ka’ala trail is marked with purple ...

  Kahana Valley Hike a.k.a. Nakoa Trail - July 31, 2011 Summer is over. This will be considered my last hike of the summer, a summer filled with the best hiking of my life. On the HTMC schedule today was Kahana Valley. This hike is considered a favorite hike by many hiking enthusiast because of its variety of plants, interaction with the stream, musical forest, and its pleasant non-strenuous double loop. Even Stuart Ball mentions in his book that, "...the stream loop is perhaps the most beautiful valley walk on the island...There are few things better in life than spending a sunny afternoon by Kahana Stream" (Ball, p.214). So, I was off to Kahana Valley to see it for myself. First, I met some HTMC members at Iolani Palace. I was curious to see where the meeting spot was for most of the hikes. But most hikers just meet at the trailhead. After a short meeting in back of Iolani Palace, we convoyed to Kahana Valley State Park. There were at least 50 hikers waiting in the parking ...

Briefing trailhead flowing today   Kalauao Falls  -  July 23, 2011                                                                                                 Isn't it ironic! Now Kalauao falls has become lore in my hiking adventures. Today's trip was no exception. Kalauao could be considered as one of the reasons for my weight lost in 2009. It could also be considered as a reason that re- started my passion for hiking in 2010. In 2011, Kalauao will be considered the hike that got me into the HTMC. You need three hikes to get into the HTMC. Over the past two weeks, I've done Schofield-Waikane & Waianae Kai with the HTMC. I wanted to obtain membership as quickly as possible and guess what the third hike in as many weeks with...

Waianae Kai - July 17, 2011 It was my second hike with the HTMC in as many weeks. On the schedule was Waianae Kai. I thought this trail would be easy and well marked. The second part holds true, it is well marked, but the trail is not defined, though there is a trail. In addition, I didn't realize that there were a network of trails in Waianae Valley. A club member said it reminded him of the Tantalus network of trails. Although not as elaborate as the Tantalus network of trails, the Waianae trails can still get complicated and confusing. The day started off at 7-11 in Kapolei. I bought a turkey sandwich, starburst, and Gatorade . Starburst is a good energy boost because of the straight sugar. The meeting place was at Steve's house. I thought it would be a quick drive to Waianae, but it took the same amount of time as driving to Mililani, 20 minutes. We met at Steve's house at about 8:30 am and were debrief about the hike for the day. At about 8:45 am we headed towards the ...

  Makapu'u Ridge to Kamehame Drive - July 3, 2011 We were suppose to do Makapu'u Ridge and descend down the Tom-Tom trail, but the bottom line was we didn't complete the hike. So now this becomes a lore hike. There is going to be a revisit to the Makapu'u Tom-Tom trail sometime in the future. But for now, this experience was mostly good and sad. The initial plan was to do this hike with Erik, Blaze, Blaze's wife Jenny, my wife Michelle, and I. Blaze and Jenny went to Turtle Bay for the 4th of July weekend and Erik had to do something.  It was just Michelle and I, just like the old days. It took us over an hour to get to Makapu'u. And I do say, it felt like a while. We parked on Makapu'u Lighhouse Road and walked up to the Lookout. I wasn't sure where the trailhead was for the Makapu'u Ridge hike, all I knew that it was adjacent to the Lookout, so we scouted the place for about 5 minutes. Our assessment came up with two results. There was a faint trai...