Blue Planet Journey

I admit it, I spend a lot of time in Starbucks.  When I'm in Honolulu, I tend to wake up about 6, and walk a third of a mile up the valley to the Manoa Starbucks.  There, I get a coffee and a Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper, catch up on local and global events, check out the tide tables, then get out the computer to begin with the emails and do some writing.  The clientele is primarily people of Asian descent, which makes sense, since 50%+ of the population of the valley is... people of Asian descent!   Manoa Valley consists primarily of people of Asian descent, which is similar to urban Honolulu. The majority of people of Asian descent report Japanese ancestry, with Chinese and Filipino ancestry rounding out the top three. Manoa Valley around 1900.  The primary use of the land was agriculture - taro and rice.  This photo is on display in the Manoa Library.  Manoa Valley, 1935 . The Manoa Starbucks fills in t...

Gia, Caroline, and Mike at Aihualama Falls, Lyon Arboretum. Manoa Falls in background. One of the more popular hiking trails for visitors staying in the Waikiki area is the Manoa Falls Trail .  And why not?  The trailhead is easily accessible (about 8 km from Waikiki), and the trail itself is only 1.2 km long.  The path is relatively easy to navigate (except those last 50 meters... don't try it in rubber slippers), and there is a nice waterfall at the end, although it comes out at a dribble after a week without rain.  There is lush foliage surrounding the trail, protected parking at Paradise Park ($5) as well as clean restrooms, and a few interpretive signs.  A number of ecotours consistently take groups of clients up to the falls.  The towering trees and bamboo groves, as well as the falls, are featured in many selfies. Manoa Falls What you won't see are flowers.  It's not that there are no flowering plants in the area...

Here's a taste of the run that Caroline and I do about 3 times a week.  We have a 5, a 6, a 7, and an 8 mile version.  This is the 8 mile run, annotated.  You see what we see, without the huffing and puffing!  Oh, and no cats. Mile 1.  We've been slowly climbing, then at mile 1 we have these stairs. Waikiki is on the horizon.  Mile 2.  This is close to the top of upper Manoa.  It's a 1 mile climb.  We are near the trailhead for the Puu Pia Trail.  There are no sidewalks in these neighborhoods, but drivers are pretty good at watching out for pedestrians. Mile 3.  We've dropped back into middle Manoa, mauka of the Chinese Cemetery. This is a bridge over Manoa Stream. Mile 4.  It just came out that mile 4 occurred at the trailhead for the Manoa Falls Trail .  The turn to the left goes to the UH Lyon Arboretum. Mile 5.  We are about 100 yards from the falls, but the trail is poorly maint...

Caroline about half way up the Kolowalu Trail in Manoa. I admit that I'm a creature of habit.  While Caroline has walked or run on every street in upper Manoa , I have my 1-3 routes, usually ending up on the Manoa Falls Trail , one of the most popular and accessible trails on Oahu.  When running to the falls (about a 7 mile run), we like to leave about 8 AM so that we don't have to dodge around many hikers. Running down the Manoa Falls Trail is easier than running up! Yesterday, we were considering an early evening run, so Caroline suggested that we take a hike on a couple of trails that we always pass and had never hiked, the Kolowalu Trail and the Puu Pia Trail .  Both of these trails are "short" (between 1-1.5 miles to the end) but they are STEEP!  With an eye on the weather (we anticipated rain), we took our hydration packs, snacks, and walking sticks and started up the Kolowalu Trail first, supposedly the steepest of the 2 trails (1100 feet elevat...