Extreme Hiking Hawaii

There are moments in extreme hiking when participants say to themselves,"Is this more than I can handle? Am I pushing the envelope too far?" On the other hand healthy growth can only take place when an individual's limit is stretched. Such was the case for three men on Sunday, February 22, 1998. After picking up Laredo Murray at his home in Haiku Valley I drove the two of us to a well-known windward Oahu ranch. Dayle Turner and FWH had already arrived and were waiting for us just inside the main entrance. FWH went to confirm that we had permission to do the hike. She returned a few minutes later and we drove our cars to an area not far from the trailhead. It was a high overcast day with nice breezes. At 8:16 a.m. the four of us began bushwacking thru a small forest of mostly haole koa and tall grass working our way toward the foot of the fourth ridge (the first ridge being the one that goes directly to the prominent peak Kanehoalani (elev. 1,900 ft)). We essent

Have you noticed that in this new age of hiking, trail reports are increasingly presented in pictures and videos more than words?  Of special interest to me are the HD videos being shot which led me to investigate the hardware being used to capture the footage. One particularly thorough review was put out by The Hike Guy , who discussed the pros and cons of the GoPro HD Hero camera.  Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get one of these cameras for Christmas!

On Saturday, Jan. 10, 1998 Laredo Murray (blonde hair) and I took advantage of the incredible weather conditions (light and variable winds resulting in a crystal clear Ko'olau summit crest) and went for an all day hike (aka "Super" hike or Xtreme hike). We met at Anna Miller's in Aiea around 7:40 a.m. It was a chilly (for Oahu) morning but the mountains were completely cloudless and the two of us were psyched. Laredo followed me as we drove to the top of Onikiniki. He left his truck there and I then drove us to Keaiwa Heiau State Rec Area. I parked in the lot near the Aiea Loop trailhead. At 8:12 a.m. we started up the trail. I had to constantly wipe/blow my nose and it didn't take Laredo very long to realize that I was sick. I told him it was only post nasal drip and a minor problem. Although my nose was running I felt fine because Mike Adams recommended I take a certain 24 hour cold medicine the night before. Laredo and I worked our way along the loop

With all the recent activity on True Manamana, Piliwale, and Bear Claw Ridge which all require above-average climbing ability, when I saw this clip I thought the climbers among us (and the many of us who are climber-wannabes or climbers-in-training) would love this:

Man Friday in 2008 via this link In honor of Thanksgiving Day 2010, here is the story of an extreme hike completed on Thanksgiving Day, 2001 by R.B. aka Man Friday. Awesome accomplishment. ------ There was talk within the HTMC member ranks about doing a day hike the length of the Pali. So on this beautiful Thanksgiving Day, man-Friday decided to take the leisure stroll on his own. It should be known he attempted to solicit other HTMC members to participate, but alas there were no takers.Arriving at the hunter sign in on Pali highway man-Friday made the final preparations for the hike. At 6:05 am he did not expect to see anyone else there but to his surprise two hunters where signing in at the check in. Five minutes to gear up, lock the doors and say aloha to the hunters and MF was ready to head down the pitch-dark old Pali road towards the Nuuanu Judd trail. On the way MF felt ice cold water dripping down his back on into his board shorts, but shrugged it off figuring i

Nate Rubio, Kale Tulang, and Albert Carcueva have become the 5th, 6th, and 7th to summit True Manamana, following the lead of previous summit conquerors Pete Clines, Laredo Murray, Jeremy Kreis, and Dave Concepcion. See their accomplishment on youtube.

Wing Ng has made mention, to those who care to listen, of HTMC members of yore who used to descend to the windward side from Mount Olympus as a daredevil initiation ritual. More recently, some daredevil wannabes have tried to climb to Olympus (aka Awa'awaloa) from the Maunawili by two different routes, only to be stymied by steep, dangerous conditions.On Saturday 10/26/02, Ed Gilman and I try a third route, and after a taxing and at times nerve testing seven-hour effort, we achieve the goal.We drive in my car to the Maunawili Falls starting point on Kelewina Street and shove off at just past 8 a.m. under partly cloudy skies. With just a tad of dampness underfoot, Ed and I hike up past the junction with the falls trail and onward up the connector trail that eventually merges with the Demonstration Trail at about the 2 to 2.5 mile mark.At that point, we head left (east) on the demo trail to get to the base of our target ridge. We see the object of our attention at various