Hiking Trails on Oahu

Palehua-Palikea – June 30, 2013 Today I was invited on a hike which is known to be the home of many endemic and endangered species. But the two endemic spieces we’d be looking for today are happy face spiders and Hawaiian Land snails. I live right down the hill from Palehua road. I’ve been there twice, both times without permission. But this time, I would be joining Nate as he would be helping us find some rare bugs. In addition, we would have enough time to search the preserve for what we needed to look for. Joining the crew today were some all-stars and experienced hikers a like. They were Marcus, Thomas, Jay, Kenji, Chenay, Janice, Thessa, Dave, DJ, Aaron, and Lynne. We met at the top of Makakilo at 7am, and car pooled over to Palehua. There, Nate led a blistering pace to the enclosed reserve. According to Nate, this reserve was built because of one rare snail. Nate told me that it took him 3 years to find this rare snail, but it is not on the endangered list, go figure. Its name is...

Pohakea Pass – September 16, 2012 Believe me this was Marvin’s idea. The hike itself is not too bad; the only problem was a massive 80 foot rock face/cliff at the Palikea end of the Pohakea Pass. That one obstacle scared the shit out of me. While preparing for the hike, Marvin felt that Laredo could solo that cliff without rope. I didn't think the climb was possible, but Marvin’s friend Ahnate solo’d the cliff last week and did the entire hike by himself. The plan today was to go up Kaua, make a left on the Waianae summit, problem solve the cliff at the Pohakea Pass, make our way to Palikea, finally go down the Palehua-Palikea road. We met at the golf course on Kunia road. From there, we drove on a dirt road through some farmlands in Kunia. This paranoid me like hell because I thought we would get turned back, but we didn’t. We took the road till its end and parked in some dirt. From there we encountered some construction workers doing some work, they said hi to us. I even heard on...