Oahu Hike Tales

After spending most of the day lounging around at home (I'm on vacation), I decided a workout hike was in order to balance the calorie consumption/burn scale somewhat. Yesterday, my buddy Bill Melemai and I spent a couple of hours in the late afternoon doing some saw and machete work on the Kapalama Loop Trail. We also ran into some access problems with Kamehameha security afterward, of which I won't elaborate except to say all ended well after a confusing interrogation. Anyway, wanting to continue to do some work on that same trail but looking to avoid hassles, I figured I'd try a different access route than through Kamehameha Schools. About a year ago, Mae Moriwaki mentioned hiking with friends on a route that started at DeCorte Playground, a small community park on Perry Street in lower Kalihi Valley. Behind DeCorte is a ridge that eventually intersects with the main Kapalama Ridge that continues all the way to Lanihuli and also which the Kapalama Loop trail is situ...

My hiking buddy Bill Melemai and I completed an afternoon jaunt of the Kapalama Loop trail on a recent May afternoon. The traihead can be accessed by driving to the highest part of the Kamehameha Schools or via the top of Alewa Drive. Since Bill and I are alums of KS and can get on campus without being questioned, we start from the former. We meet at just past 3pm in the parking lot above one of the dorms and begin hiking at 3:20. We have hiked the loop several times in the past and the traverse time has usually been 2.5 hours, give or take. That being the case, I figure we will be pau by 6. We follow a chained-off gravel road for about a 100 yards and then veer left on a trail through a forest of mostly ironwoods. Twenty yards to the right (Diamond Head direction) of the trail is a new paved access road built by KS. This road extends upslope for a quarter mile and ends abrubtly at a turnaround circle. What the Kamehameha folks plan to do up in this area is a mystery to me (an...

Rising up in the middle of Kalihi Valley is a prominent ridge called Kamanaiki. I hiked the trail atop Kamanaiki for the first time with the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club in the latter part of 1996. The trail begins off of Kalihi Street at the top of steeply sloping Manaiki Place. About 30 hikers gathered at the foot of a concrete stairwell at the apex of the road awaiting the go-ahead from hike leader Joe Bussen. Then we were off, a friendly resident greeting us as we climbed the stairs past his home. I began counting the steps as we ascended but my mind drifted from that task as the more vital chore of summoning enough oxygen to my lungs took precedence. If I recall correctly, in all, about 150 steps needed to negotiated before we hit the actual trail. The trail passes through a pleasant stand of ironwoods and to the right of a large water tank. Cool wisps of wind sighed through the trees and seemingly dozens of roosters trumpeted their calls to one another from the backyar...

I joined Bill Gorst, Richard McMahon, Rich Jacobsen, Fred Boll, and John Hall for yesterday's WEHOT hike. Bill and I carpooled from Kaneohe and met the others at Kenny's Burgerhouse at the Kam Shopping Center in Kalihi at 9:00. We spent a few minutes talking story at Kenny's and I enjoyed an order of pancakes and drank a large-sized drink. At 9:20, we made the short drive over to Perry Street , at the end of which is DeCorte Park. The city has just completed a new parking lot at the park and our vehicles were the only ones there when we started hiking around 9:30. To get to the trailhead, we had to skirt around the left (mauka) end of a large, high fence that borders the park's basketball court and ballfield. There are a couple gates thru the fence but both were locked hence the left side skirt-around. Once around the fence, we walked along it for maybe 50 meters and picked up a trail that heads up a rocky segment of the hillside. Just above the trailhead, a hug...