Extreme Hiking Hawaii

One of the earliest outer island trips I took with the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club was a short jaunt to Moloka`i sometime in the early 1960`s. We flew to Moloka`i and were driven to Halawa Valley. There we donned our packs and hiked up the jeep road that runs north, parallel to the coast, climbs into the hills above Lamaloa Head and then winds for 4 or 5 miles through the hills above the north shore of the island until it ends in range land at the edge of scrubby native forest near a small peak called Pohakuloa. Here we camped in the cow pasture. I had some difficulty in finding a place to sling my hammock, since the pasture was essentially treeless, but I finally found a small dry wash with the stumps of long dead trees at appropriate distances apart on either side, and hung my hammock across this. In all, it was not a very exciting overnighter, but what did attract my interest was the fact that this campsite seemed to offer an excellent jumping-off point for some cross...

Photo by Jason Sunada Today, Sir Ed (Gilman), Dayle Turner & I set out to climb Lanihuli via a ridge we have named "Nukohe Sister Ridge". This is a non-prominent and very steep ridge compared (from a distance) to the already done (descended long ago by Al Miller & recently by Peter Clines) "Kiss the Ground Ridge", that includes the two very precarious rockfaces. The Sister Ridge is vegetated and has no rockface. The Sister is the very next ridge makai. A "bowl" area seperates the two. They meet up at a very beautiful plateau that I think is the actual Pu'u Nukohe.Mahalo to Sir Ed for fixing the rope on our first visit, Patrick for making progress through the uluhe above the cable spot and to Peter for providing somewhat of a swath for us on the upper part.The ridge is very nice between the cable and the uluhe. The beginning of the uluhe was easy thanks to Patrick. Then we got to the end of Patrick's work, and the uluhe contin...

Hike date: 22 December 2002. Pete Clines and I did a monster day hike yesterday. For those who don't like to read long write-ups, I offer a short version of our trek followed by a longer one, filled with pertinent information. Short version: Starting from Farrington Hwy in Waialua, Pete and I climbed to the summit of Mount Ka'ala via the Dupont Trail, traversed Ka'ala, tramped along the spine of Kamaile'unu Ridge, dropped down to the floor of Makaha Valley via the ancient Hawaiian Kumaipo Trail, regained the spine of Kamaile'unu via a spur ridge some of us have dubbed "Fred Dodge Ridge" and then cruised down Kamaile'unu Ridge to Maiuu Road in Wai'anae. Total elevation gain on the day - 6,400 feet. The outing provided numerous rewards/accomplishments: we reached the highest point on O'ahu, we traversed the island of O'ahu, we enjoyed outstanding views most of the day, we had a great workout, we were exposed to a wealth of native fl...

Hike date : Sunday, February 9, 2003Ed Gilman and I had planned to do this trek a while ago, but bad weather or schedule conflicts kept it from happening until Sunday.Rendezvoused with Ed Sunday morning at the top of Pacific Palisades in Pearl City. From Palisades, we car pooled to Waiahole Valley and once at the Spencer property, continued mauka on foot at 8:15 am.Ed and I reached the base of the steep windward ridge dubbed Kipapa Windward in about 45 minutes via the graded contour Waiahole Ditch Trail. Following a quick hydration/pee break, up, up we went all the way to the Ko'olau summit. At the stacked remains of an old Army cabin near a grove of tall sugi pines, we paused to hydrate, and I switched into long pants.Upon acquiring the Kipapa summit (elev. 2786') via the graded contour Ko'olau Summit and Kipapa Ridge trails, the two of us removed our water stash from under an ohi'a tree and then loaded the bottles into our packs. Unfortunately, my water had de...

Photo via Brian Wilson's blog Mike Muench (left above) and Brian Wilson (at right) hiked/ran/walked from sea-level on one side of the Big Island (Point A on map below) up and over Mauna Loa (Map point B) then Mauna Kea (Map Point C) then down to the Kawaihae side (Map Point D) in just under four days. They started at 5:45 pm on May 19, 2010 and completed their epic journey at 4:30pm on May 23. Total Time: 94 hours and 30 minutes Total Time on Feet: 70 hours Total Distance: ~ 158 miles Average Packweight: 23# Read Wilson's account of this great feat... and Muench's account . Awesome stuff!

Hike date : Saturday, February 8, 2003Jason Sunada gave me the idea for this one.I finally worked up the courage to attempt Piliwale Ridge (the steep gnarly ridge in Maunawili Valley that connects to the taller of the Konahuanui twin peaks). After parking on Lopaka in Maunawili Estates subdivision, I started walking up a paved road leading to a water tank at 8:15 am. By 9 am I had reached a prominent notch in the ridge (elev. 1630') where I paused to hydrate and prepare myself mentally for the hazardous climb to come.After dropping down into and then scrambling out of the notch, I discovered an old grey cable and employed the climbing aid to ascend the first 15 feet. Once above the cable, I carefully negotiated a series of ledges, crawling on hands and knees to keep my center of gravity as close to the ground as possible. The ridge is wide enough here, but the steep exposed pitch is eroded and some of the rock is rotten.With the frame of an external backpack hanging on a tr...

Not long ago, August and I were on the Koolau Ridge behind Manoa Valley when we spotted a windward ridge originating from Maunawilli that we thought might be climbable. (It was essentially the “best of the worst” options in that area.) So I studied it from different angles during subsequent hikes and stared endlessly at topo maps until convincing myself that we should go for it. Then I managed to convince the others. Regulars August, Duc , and Laredo were in….along with newbie Albie Carcueva who had shown interest in joining us on our adventures. So after stashing my vehicle in Manoa, Duc and August and I rode over to the Maunawilli Falls trailhead to meet the others. We hit the trail at 8:40am, continued up the connector to the Demonstration trail, and took a left to search out the targeted ridge. We were treated to high clouds which kept us cool…but also did not obscure the ridge in question. I was aiming for a spot just to the right of the prominent puu at dead-center in the photo b...