Hawaiian Walkways - Big Island Hawaii Hikes and Tours

We enjoy and believe in what we do and will use this space to provide some "deeper" information about our company and its activities and practices.

Since you reach this place through the Hawaiian Walkways website, you have the opportunity to see the way we present ourselves there; this weblog is intended to be more personal, more "behind the scenes," and to give glimpses of the often quirky and engaging events associated with operating an ecotour hiking company on the Island of Hawai`i.

One thing most people wouldn't think about, for instance, is the need for trail maintenance. We invest on a regular basis a good amount of time and energy on the trail for our Waipi`o Waterfall Adventure, which traverses several historic trails as well as trails we've built ourselves. Coming up in a few weeks, though, all of our guides will travel together to another of our itineraries, the Kona Cloud Forest Botanical Walk. This walk takes place in the Cloud Forest Sanctuary, on the west-facing flank of Hualalai, the volcano that rears above Kailua-Kona. There, we`ll trim back the plants that, in the words of the I Ching, "without haste and without rest," grow into the walking paths winding through this lush area. We'll spread cinders harvested from prehistoric volcanic vents to even out the surfaces covered with roots that cannot penetrate the lava rock beneath. We'll place markers to identify some of the plants we don't want anyone to miss, and we will explore some of the hitherto obscure parts of the Sanctuary to assess their potential for further trail development.

None of our guides is required to do this work, but everyone has signed on for it -- an index of their drive to make everything work better for us all, as well as their pleasure at spending another day working in the out-of-doors.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it. Trail work is always terrifically satisfying for me in a variety of ways. Guests seldom notice what workers have done -- it should, of course, be consonant with the natural setting through which they're passing -- but the quiet satisfaction of cleaning up and otherwise improving a trail is great. And with eight of us putting our hearts and minds together on these trails, I know it's going to be a wonderful day.