Tag / Puu

While my last experience hiking from Ohikilolo ridge to three corners made me despise West Oahu ridges for quite some time, I did not want to pass up an opportunity to do a one-way route from Keaau Ridge up to Keaau Middle Ridge with Baron and many other hiking buddies (Katie, Kaiser, Laora, Darren and […]

Since we (Baron Yamamoto and I) had recently completed the section north of Puu Kaua (to Puu Kanehoa), it was only fitting that we head south to complete another section of the Waianae Summit that had been eluding us for some time. Descending from Puu Kaua to Pohakea Pass was not too difficult, however, ascending […]

Puu Kaua and it’s “Gorilla heads,” or gnarly teeth-like features have been eluding us (Baron Yamamoto and I) for almost a year now… as we failed to summit Kaua and traverse the teeth from both the northern (Kanehoa) and southern (Palikea) directions some time ago, but after reading Kaleo Lancaster’s write-up of a well-planned out, […]

Another section of the Koolau Summit Trail (KST) that I haven’t explored yet, the segment between the Waikane Trail and Waiahole Uka Trail summits, was soon to be completed after a recent invite from Pete Clines. I recently heard that the view from the summit of the Waikane Trail (Puu Kaaumakua) is one of the […]

True Manamana (Puu Manamana proper) is an advanced/extreme hike, which continues from the turnover/junction from the popular, shorter Puu Manamana or Kahekili Ridge Trail. Hiking on a cloudless day with the absence of the northeast tradewinds is a mistake I’ll never make on this hike again. We (Troy Takara, Jenelyn Castillo and Jeremy Kreis) started […]

With a questionable forecast in the Koolaus of Central Oahu, Jenelyn and I opted to bail out of doing the Kalihi Saddle (one of the more extreme hikes on Oahu) with some other hiking buddies… instead, we joined up with Baron Yamamoto, Joshua Serrano (808 Goonies) and Marvin Chandra (Exploration Hawaii) to do an advanced […]

After a failed attempt to reach the summit of Puu Kaua from the Kolekole Pass this past summer, Baron Yamamoto and I had a personal vendetta to reach the summit from an alternative route. Therefore today, we considered coming from the “Palikea direction” along the Waianae Summit Trail (WST). Along the Waianae Summit, we found […]

On a pacific island slightly north of the equator, we are surrounded by water that is moderately warm and consistent in temperature throughout the day/night. After the sun goes down, the land does not experience the dramatic cooling like that experienced by equatorial, inland regions of continents. Warm, moist air / water vapor from the […]

A while ago, I read that the Puu Manamana Trail was one of the more dangerous trails on northeast Oahu. If you had also read and done the trail before, as I have, I’m sure you’d agree that this is not true. However, it is possible the authors of those blogs may have confused this […]

It is obvious that trails don’t maintain themselves. Plants and shrubs can quickly overgrow them, trees fall, and landslides/erosion can make a path disappear anywhere from minutes/months. Trail maintenance is important to keeping hikers (hunters, researchers, resource managers, etc.) safe, as well as to help decrease the difficulty to complete a trail. State trails are […]