Hiking Trails on Oahu

Kaena Point Bunkers - January 7, 2017 I wanted to do this hike for a while since last year. The OAG's seemed to want to do this hike as well. Its not hard, so it seemed that almost everyone wanted to come out and do the Kaena Point bunkers. Joining the hike today was Michelle, Allison, Erik, Aprille, Darren, Janice, and Erik and Aprille's friend Christian.  We met at Erik's house at 7:40am and took two cars to Kaena Point. Daniel was already waiting for us. Yesterday I text Daniel that Erik would take his 4WD to the the gate and we would have a short walk to the point. He was ecstatic. However, when we got there, we needed a combination code to get through the gate. Unfortunately we had to walk in.  The goals today were to get to the point and then go up the ridge to the bunkers and hopefully get to the summit of Pu'u Pueo.  Its January, so this is a great time to see whales, monk seals, and albatross. I think the shearwater birds come in March. When I used to hike K...

Kaena Point Service Project (3rd Annual) - February 28, 2015 This was our third year in a row we helped DLNR with Kaena Point. Ed usually writes a grant, the purpose is to teach young kids about the land. It seems basic in thought, but the complexity of the nature system in the Hawaiian Islands is difficult to understand especially for our youth. With everything so easy to come by, kids now days don't appreciate how fragile our environment is here in Hawaii. They probably think it will repair itself overnight because everything else in their life can be fixed so easily, just press a button, right? That is not the case. Any native flora and fauna can be targeted for extinction, once destroyed, it can never come back. The hard part is taking care of our island which for some native flora and fauna can take decades to  nurture  so it can thrive again.  Ed couldn't find a bus during the week day because of the new DOE contract with the bus company. Buses are scarce now a...

Kaena Point - February 28, 2014 I had a chance to chaperone the field trip to Kaena Point again. This is our 2nd annual hike to Kaena Point sponsored by a grant Ed wrote. Today the plan was to take 87 Pearl City High School students (freshman thru seniors) up to Kaena Point. The goal was to educated the students on the preserve and even do some community work like pull weeds and plan Ohai trees. I always thought that a good plan makes a field trip run well, but the kids dictate what kind of field trip its going to be. If you have bad kids, the field trip will be shitty and vice versa. Most of the kids we had were good kids, none of the kids I teach, but good kids nonetheless. scared of mud We started hiking on the Waianae side of the trail and made our way to the fence. There, we met Michelle who works for DLNR. She gave us a long informative lecture on Kaena point. After the fence, we made our way to the section where we would pull weeds and plant Ohai trees. The funny part was seeing...

Kaena Point – March 1, 2013 What more could I have asked for. Hiking during work. Ed worked on a grant targeting awareness of our environment. He got about $750 to sponsor a field trip to Kaena Point. Almost all the money went towards getting a bus. Nonetheless, 78 students and 8 teachers signed up for the field trip. The plan today was for us to start on the westside near Yokohama Bay and proceed to Kaena Point. Before hitting the fence, we would be debriefed by DLNR, after the gate we would do some volunteer work, then eat lunch at the point. The last part of the day would be to hike the Mokuleia side and wait for bus pick up. Today my job was to be the sweeper, which I took seriously. We split up into 4 groups, each group spaced 5 minutes apart from each other and had a lead and sweep. The groups went at a quick pace and reached the fence line in no time. There, the DLNR volunteer explained to us the happenings at the point. It didn’t interest me too much. On our way to the poin...

  Kaena Point (South Access) – April 1, 2012   Les Merrell Memorial Hike   If you haven’t been to Kaena Point before (before this day I haven’t), you are missing out my friend. The hike is hot, but short – 2.5 miles one way. There are two ways to get to the western most point of the island. The first way is from the Waianae Side. The second way is from the Mokuleia Side. The Mokuleia way is a bit longer (but not by that much).   At Kaena Point, there are marine wildlife like no other on Oahu. I saw monk seals, albatross, and whales, not to mention the fish and other sea life.  The monk seals were cruising on the rocks near the shore. The albatross were flying all over, so close in fact; you have to duck your head to avoid them colliding into you. The whales are just 100-500 yards off shore spouting water into the air. shearwater albatross monk seal With all the wildlife beauty, the hike today was to honor Les Merrell. I don’t know the back story of Les...