October 2011

A tribute to the famous children's book and epic movie, "Where The Wild Things Are..." The night Max wore his wolf suit... and made mischief of one kind and another... ...his mother called him "WILD THING!" and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!" ...so he was sent to bed without eating anything. That very night in Max's room a forest grew, ...and grew until his ceiling hung with vines, ...and the walls became the world all around, ...and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through the night and day, ...and in and out of weeks...

I've always enjoyed night hikes, particularly during the full moon. There are a few trails that are friendly to hiking in the dark, one of them being Kamehame Ridge, or the ridgeline at the end of Kamehame Drive in Hawaii Kai. The road ends near the NIKE station, and joins with the Makapuu Tomtom Trail. The views from this ridgeline are amazing, where you can often see Diamond head to Manana (Rabbit) Island to Kailua. The moon will often rise between Rabbit Island and the Kaiwi Coastline, depending on the moon phase and time of year you visit. Despite being the day after the new moon,...

In addition to being an an aquatic biologist, part of my occupation is to deploy/maintain wireless sensor networks throughout the State of Hawaii. The weather station shown in the above is located at an elevation of ~6000 ft on Hualalai, a mountain range in Kona which peaks at ~ 8300 ft. These stations are often both weather and water quality stations in remote areas, and can be used by agencies to make more informed decisions about their management practices. For instance, does native plant restoration / weed removal have an impact on water quality by decreasing runoff? The figure...

Anyone who has been to Koolina Resort (Aulani, Ihilani, and/or Beach Villas) has likely been to the four artificial lagoons along the coastline. Depending on the specific resort/lagoon, there will different amenities (drink service, cabanas and reclining beach chairs) and numbers of people at each. However, there are a couple of natural lagoons (at least compared to the others), that may be less crowded... like the one shown above. Despite the compact size of the beach and lagoon volume, there are still several fish and turtles swimming about... and of course, sunsets from the beaches/lagoons...

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit 3 hidden treasures in Nuuanu Valley, all of which are a short walk from the end of the Old Pali Road / Pali Highway junction. Joined by several Lost Trailblazers and guests, we set out for Lulumahu Falls, Luakaha Falls and Kaniakapupu (King Kamehameha III's summer palace). The first destination, Lulumahu Falls, was probably only 20 minutes from where we parked. Above the main ~ 40 foot falls, there appeared to be one or two smaller ones. Since the pool at the bottom of the falls was too shallow to swim, we basically just took and group picture...

One of our first advanced hikes as the "Lost Trailblazers," Puu Kawiwi to No Name to Tiki Ridge was a very memorable adventure for all of us. Last weekend we were fortunate enough to receive in an invite from the 808 Caveman himself (Marcus Griego) to revisit Puu Kawiwi, but this time traverse the Kamaileunu Ridgeline in the opposite direction and descend "Knife Ridge." The hike starts at the end of Waianae Valley Road and ends in Makaha Valley, where we staged our cars earlier that morning. Today's crew consisted of several Lost Trailblazers (Troy Takara, Reanne Solomon, Jenelyn Castillo...

After watching an episode of Hawaii Goes Fishing on "Kayak Fishing," I was quite eager to take my fishing-rigged kayak offshore on the Waianae Coast. If you saw that episode with the "AquaHunters", I'm sure you'd have done the same... Packing ~ 20 frozen Halalu's (juvenile Akule / Big-eye Scad) we caught a few weeks earlier from the summer run at Waianae Boat Harbor, Luke and I thought we would have a decent chance of success in catching some bigger game / pelagic fish. After mounting the kayak on my car, we launched from Waianae Boat Harbor on a sunny Saturday morning. The kayak...

The write-up isn't that long... it's just that I took way too many damn pictures, haha. Skip to the "Photo Gallery" if you'd like. Konahuanui is the highest point in the Koolau Mountain Range on the island of Oahu. The peak can accessed from almost any ridge trail in the Koolaus that intersect the Koolau Summit Trail (KST), which extends from Makapuu to Pupukea... but realistically, you'd start somewhere near the Pali Lookout. The KST near the Pali Lookout, approximately from Puu Lanihuli to Puu Konahuanui, is shown above. Today; Lost Trailblazers David Chatsuthiphan (Unreal Hawaii), Reanne,...