Richard "Dick" Harding Davis, called the "Duke Kahanamoku of hiking on Oahu," died Sunday at Castle Hospital. He was 84.
Richard Davis: His knowledge of trails made the hiker an asset in search-and-rescue efforts
One of the former Army civil service worker's nicknames was "Mountain Goat." He built and maintained miles of Oahu mountain trails including Kaneohe's Likeke Trail, which was named for him using the Hawaiian word for "Richard."
Among his exploits was descending the sides of mountains so steep that he scraped off all his fingernails clinging to rocks and brush.
Because he knew Oahu mountain trails so well, he was often called on to help search-and-rescue parties, said his oldest daughter, Joyce Jacobson.
Meanwhile, his own survival stories, from the time he moved to Oahu in the mid-1940s until he stopped hiking a few years ago, were legend.
In 1950 while hiking on Mount Kaala, Oahu's highest point, he fell 400 feet and broke his back. Doctors said he would not walk again, but within six months he was hiking again, Jacobson said.
http://starbulletin.com/2004/09/24/news/story14.html
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