Hiking Trails on Oahu

  Kamaile’unu – November 13, 2011 I’m not going to sugar coat this hike. One word describes it - brutal. Starting at sea level on an exposed ridge takes you 3200 feet in less than 3.5 miles. Get the picture. One provisional thing you need for the hike, plenty of water, which all of us ran out of today. Kamaile’unu is the ridge that separates Waianae and Makaha valleys. It is also the ridge that you hike to Mount Ka’ala (the highest peak on the island). I arrived in Waianae at 7:45 am, low and behold I seen Nate and Will. All right, I told myself, I get to hike with two really good hikers. We waited for everyone to arrive, but no one came. So I called Arnold who was the coordinator for the hike. He said he was on the street, so we hopped in our cars and drove down the street to find him. We did. At about 8:15 am we had our HTMC group. Leading us was Arnold, and the HTMC crew consisted of me, Nate, Will, Jennie, and Bob. They are all experienced hikers and we would need a great deal ...

  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 ...

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 ...