High Hopes for Hiking Hawaii — Hobbled by Hockey

I had high hopes of doing some hiking during a recent trip to O’ahu. Unfortunately, a lower leg injury from a Summer Hockey League playoff game last month left me hobbling around just enough to make the trip, but not much else. All my other plans had to be canceled as a result of this inconvenient incident: a trip to Vegas to attend Ai4 2025, another go at Borah Peak (this time with friends), and a local favorite I still haven’t done yet — Mt. Superior’s South Ridge Route! It’s been a frustrating month of healing, with likely another month to strengthen, according to ChatGPT (see backstory below).

Beach Bummin' in Hawai'i

High Hopes for Hiking Hawai’i

My hopes for hiking on Oʻahu were high as August approached. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to do everything in just one trip — with plenty of other things we wanted to do in those 10 days — I put together a Top 10 list of trails I felt were worth exploring, even if some were short.

Backway for the Stairway to Heaven (Haiku Stairs)
Three Peaks (Mt. Olomana)
Reverse Olomana Trail
Makapu’u Lighthouse Trail
Koko Crater Stairs
Koko Crater Rim Trail
Diamond Head Crater Trail
Old Pali Highway
Mt. Ka’ala (tallest peak on O’ahu)
Pūpūkea to La’ie

Here’s a map with downloadable GPX tracks if you’re interested in hiking any of these Hawaiian trails.

What We Did Instead

Since I could only manage a labored limp upon arrival, here are the highlights of what we did instead:

From Waikīkī to Makapuʻu
- Pearl Harbor National Memorial
- Halekulani Bakery
- Waikīkī Beach
- Halona Blowhole Lookout
- Makapu’u Lighthouse
From La’ie to Hale’iwa
- tba

Hobbled by Hockey — The Backstory

During the first playoff game of my team’s Summer Hockey League, I lost an edge on the ice and slid into the boards feet first. My right foot hit without consequence, but then I heard — and felt — a SNAP when my left foot hit a split second later. I immediately got up and skated over to the bench. Since this was a playoff game, I decided to take a minute to skate it off and ended up finishing the game — but very cautiously. My lower left leg was extremely tender as I went to bend that night, and could barely support my own weight the next morning.

There was no way I could hop on a plane to Vegas that same afternoon and get myself around the Ai4 conference for the next five days. Instead, I got on the phone and started canceling all my reservations.

Then I made an appointment with my virtual care provider and began explaining the whole situation.

It started by me asking ChatGPT:

dr. chat

After a series of back-and-forth exchanges, this was Dr. Chat’s summary of my situation:

Given that you can still bear weight and the pain isn’t concentrated in the ankle joint itself but rather up the front/side of your shin when lifting your toes (dorsiflexion), that’s classic for a tibialis anterior strain (or possibly one of its neighboring dorsiflexor muscles).

Here’s what’s going on:

Those muscles run from the upper/mid tibia and fibula down to the top of your foot

When your ankle was forced into extreme dorsiflexion, they were either overstretched or contracted suddenly against resistance.

The “snap” you felt could have been a small tear in the muscle fibers or the fascia around them.

The fact you can still lift your toes means the tendon is likely intact — this is almost certainly a muscle belly injury rather than a full tendon rupture.

Typical symptoms for this type of injury:

Pain higher up the shin, just off-center, along the outer edge of the tibia

Tenderness in the muscle belly

Pain when actively lifting the toes or foot upward

Sometimes mild swelling in the front of the shin

What to expect for recovery:

Most mild strains: heal in 2-4 weeks

Moderate strains/partial tears: 4-8 weeks

I was so relieved to learn I hadn’t ruptured my Achilles tendon. As Dr. Chat explained, the Achilles is especially vulnerable when the ankle is forced the other way — into sudden plantarflexion (pointing the toes down hard, like pushing off or landing from a jump). Thank goodness!

Advanced Muscle Integration Technique (AMIT)

Luckily, I was already going through muscle reactivation treatments for some lingering lower back issues. Shifting that focus to my lower leg definitely helped the healing process. Here are the muscles involved, listed in the order they were treated: