Mountain bike trails / Good hikes

[alisonT]

Hi,

We will be visiting Oahu next week, staying in Honolulu, and want to find a good place to go mountain biking away from the crowds. Does anyone have any recommendations? Are there places where you can hire a bike without having to sign up for a guided tour? We would also like to hear about any good hiking trails too.

Thanks in advance,
Alison

[Eric]

I'm not a mountain-biker, but I do hike a bit. There are a lot of different hikes on O'ahu. What are you looking for in a hike, and how in shape are you?

I generally separate hikes out by the type of terrain they're in: ridge, forest, and coastal. Ridge hikes are my favorite, as you can get spectacular views, but they're also probably the most challenging to do. Forest hikes are great for plant and bird lovers, but you just don't get the sweeping panoramas that you do on ridge trails. And coastal hikes are, well, near the ocean. :D

Backyard Oahu (http://www.backyardoahu.com/) is a pretty good listing of O'ahu trails; you should check it out.