This past weekend Justin (Volcanic Rock Gym) organized a beach cleanup at Waimea. Just as surfers take care of the sand and sea, climbers take care of the rock and surrounding area. At Waimea though, it’s not really the climbers you have to worry about when it comes to trash, it’s the folks that drink and barbeque and let’s face it, the crack-heads and homeless. But while it’s not our responsibility to clean up after them, we want to take care of this beautiful place and make it a safer climbing environment. As an added bonus, the beach looks cleaner and the trash won’t blow into the ocean. It’s a win-win situation for all. Even for the crack-heads.

A good crowd showed up. We picked up a bunch of rubbish and then hit the rock. It was a productive morning.

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Sometimes I feel like I live in a Corona commercial. We spent last weekend at a beach house in Haleiwa, a town on Oahu’s North Shore, to celebrate Justin’s birthday. It wasn’t a house by the beach, it was a house on the beach and being there was beyond relaxing. For anyone looking to get away from town for the weekend, you can’t go wrong renting a house on this strand.

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This is the sky over Chun’s Reef, a surf break and beach named after former Kawailoa resident John Chun. If you’re driving up to Waimea from Honolulu, it’ll be the second beach you see off Kamehameha Hwy (the first is Lanikea, where the turtles are).

We were at a beach house for the weekend just up the strand from here and when the sun started setting I had to take a break from the Sunday Night Football game and check out the view. It was unreal.

See also:

• Chun’s Reef on a map
• Chun’s Reef page on the Hawaii Beach Safety website

Do you like the colors blue, green and blue-green? If you answered “Yes,” then this is the hike for you. The Makapu’u-TomTom trail starts at the Makapu’u lookout and follows the ridgeline all the way to Waimanalo. And for the entire 4 miles you get to enjoy a bird’s eye view of the our beautiful coastline and feel the refreshing, yet sometimes forceful, trade winds.

On this hike you’re connecting two trails. You’ll hike the Makapu’u Ridge to the TomTom trail that leads you down to Waimanalo. The TomTom trail is an ancient Hawaiian trail that’s named after the two Toms that discovered it: Tom McGuire and Tom Cadle (I learned this from Nathan Yuen’s HawaiianForest.com). It’s a one way hike so most people park a car in Waimanalo, then drive back to the trailhead in another car.

Reanne and I hiked this trail last weekend. It took us about 5 hours. We had intended on just doing the Makapu’u Ridge and turning around but once we could see Waimanalo, we had to keep going. If you view the full post you’ll see why.

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