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Equipment Suggestions and Miscellaneous Hints

This book isn’t intended to teach you how to hike. If you can walk, you can hike, especially the “very easy” hikes. Don’t forget that you can cut almost any hike down to your ability by walking only part of it. Just be sure the trips you pick are within your hiking limits.

This book is intended specifically to let you know where you can hike on Oahu, what to expect when you hike there, and how to get to the trailhead for each hike. And that, I hope, will help you decide which hikes to take.

This section contains suggestions that I hope will make your hikes even more pleasant, and perhaps better protect you and the environment. Of course, you’re the only person who lives in your body, so you’ll have to judge what’s really appropriate for you. But there are a few things you might want to know before you go—things that may be very different from the hiking you’ve done at home on the mainland. (Maybe you already know them, but it’s hard to shut me up when I think I have some good advice.)

It’s up to you

No book can substitute for, or give you, five things only you can supply: physical fitness, preparation, experience, caution, and common sense. Don’t leave the trailhead without them.

Don’t spread pest plants

As I mentioned in the chapter on geology and history, Hawaii has been overrun by introduced plants. It’s important to try to control the spread of these plants. One thing you can do to help is to wash the soil, and with it the seeds of any pest plants—you hope—off of your shoes or boots before you leave a hiking area. Or pick up a stick and scrape off your soles. Note also that you, like any other animal, can carry pest-plant seeds in your digestive tract and deposit them, ready to sprout, in your solid wastes. (Pest plants include all the guavas.) Either hold it till you get to a toilet or dig your hole deep enough to make it impossible for the seeds to sprout (one foot deep, according to a pamphlet on the subject. I’m just passing this information on. I have no idea how to carry enough equipment to dig a hole that deep when hiking). For more information, call the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture, Weed Control Section: (808) 548-7119.

What to take

Equipment for strolls and easy hikes

You don’t need to make extensive preparations for a stroll along a beach or a half-mile nature trail as long as there’s food, water, and shelter nearby—perhaps in your car. The things you must not go without are:

 Sunglasses

 Appropriate footwear

 Mosquito repellent (your mosquito repellent should be “jungle juice”—that is, have a high percentage of deet (diethyltoluamide); deet is vile stuff, but it works)

 Strong sunblock applied before you set out

Equipment for moderate and strenuous hikes

Carry at least the Ten Essentials Plus One as I’ve adapted them from the Sierra Club. They are:

 Pack (to put these good things in; could be a large fanny pack)

 Food and water (assume that all open water sources are unsafe to drink)

 Extra clothing (always take rain gear, as it can rain at any time in Hawaii)

 Map (and compass if you can use it)

 Flashlight with extra bulb and batteries

 Sunglasses and strong sunblock, applied before you set out

 Means to dig a hole 6–8 inches deep and at least 200 feet from water, in order to bury solid body wastes; tissue that you will also bury (or pack out)

 Pocket knife

 First-aid kit

 Waterproof matches and something you can keep a flame going with (such as a candle) only when necessary to start a fire in order to save a life

 Mosquito repellent

A daypack is just the thing for strolling Waikiki’s Ala Wai Canal (Trip 31).

Tennis shoes?

I’ve noted in the hike descriptions whether tennis shoes are okay or whether I think you should wear boots. I base that recommendation on the length of the hike and the difficulty of the terrain. What tennis shoes may lack that boots can provide are ankle support and soles that grip. Only you can decide how important those are to you.

Boot care

If you’re going to hike a lot, be sure your boot seams are freshly sealed and you’ve freshly waterproofed the entire boot, including the cloth part, if any. Use a heavy-duty waterproofing compound like a wax, and bring some of it along in order to renew the coating if necessary. Chances are your boots will get wet, especially in the winter. And they’ll stay wet, because things dry slowly in the tropical humidity. It’s pretty tough on the boots and, together with the abrasion of mud particles, could cause boot seams to fail.

Hiking stick

Take your hiking stick(s) if you usually hike with one (or a pair). Telescoping sticks are best: You can collapse them, put them in your luggage, and check them through. Otherwise, you may not be able to get them aboard a plane. Hawaii’s terrain can be very slippery when wet, and a hiking stick can be a big help in maintaining your footing. And it can double as a spider stick (see below).

Spider stick

There are a very few overgrown trails where you and some orb spiders may meet unexpectedly, head-on. You probably don’t like collecting spiders with your face, but these critters make it hard not to do so. Here’s one way to avoid them without killing them. Pick up and use a “spider stick”—a long, strong stick that you carefully wave up and down in front of you as you hike. You can feel the tug when the stick connects with a web. Detach the anchor strands that hold the web in your way, and lay them aside on the adjacent shrubbery. An orb spider normally rebuilds most or all of its web daily, so you’ve caused it only minor inconvenience. Your hiking stick can probably double as a spider stick.

Cautions and hazards

Hypothermia? On Hawaii?

It’s possible if you go into the mountains. Remember that going higher is equivalent to going north into colder climates, and mountains are often very windy. Please be prepared as you would be for going into any mountainous region.

Biodegradable? Ha, ha, ha!

The following things are popularly supposed to be biodegradable if you bury them: toilet tissue; facial tissue; sanitary napkins; tampons; disposable diapers. That must be a joke. They often last long enough for either running water to exhume them or animals to dig them up. It’s actually pretty easy (and much better for the environment and the scenery) to carry them out if you put them in a heavy-duty self-sealing bag like a Ziploc bag.

Companions

The standard advice is: Never hike alone and never camp alone.

Cloudy skies over Honolulu, seen from its trail system, threaten afternoon showers. Don’t forget that rain gear!

Water

Take your own drinking water for the day. No open source of water anywhere in the U.S. is safe to drink untreated. If you must drink water from a stream or spring along the trail, treat it chemically with iodine or chlorine preparations designed for the purpose. Look for such preparations in camping stores and drugstores. Filtering or bringing water to a boil works, too, except that filtering may be ineffective against the bacterium that causes leptospirosis (below).

Avoiding leptospirosis

Fresh water on Hawaii may be contaminated with the bacterium that causes leptospirosis. A pamphlet about leptospirosis is available from the Epidemiology Branch of the Hawaii State Department of Health (on Hawaii, call 808-244-4288). The following summarizes some of its contents: Muddy and clear water are both suspect. The bacterium invades through broken skin or the nose, mouth, or eyes. It enters the bloodstream and infects different organs, particularly the kidneys. Precautions that would especially apply to you here are not to go into streams if you have open cuts or abrasions and not to drink (untreated) stream water. Treat water chemically or by boiling it.

The incubation period of leptospirosis is 2–20 days. The onset is sudden, and the symptoms may resemble those of flu: fever, chills, sweating, severe headache, conjunctivitis (red eyes), muscle pains, weakness, vomiting, and diarrhea. See a physician immediately if you suspect leptospirosis! Most cases are mild, and people with mild cases usually recover in a week or two without treatment. However, severe infections may damage kidneys, liver, or heart or even cause death.