Some of the best advice can be found at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~turner/hikes.html, a hiking site tramped over by Dayle Turner.
He is a Language Arts Instructor at Leeward Community College but is such an avid hiker and enthusiastic writer that his Web page makes even the most devoted couch potato want to walk through Hawaii's scenery.
Turner modestly suggests "for thorough, well-written descriptions of Oahu's trails, I recommend Stuart Ball's 'The Hikers Guide to Oahu'" but you will learn a lot if Turner is leading the cyber-hike.
One of his recent sojourns, for instance, was triggered by a bit of history. He located a 1910 Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club map showing trails in the area between Ka'au Crater in Palolo and Kalihi Valley, plus a 1916 article titled "Lost on Lanihuli" describing a couple of hairy hiking adventures to the peak on the Ewa side of Nuuanu Valley.
The ensuing hike to the opening of a long forgotten water tunnel in the Koolaus could be the beginning of an Indiana Jones adventure.
Even if your travels are no further than the reaches of your computer screen, Turner's accounts will make you feel like you spent a day in the bush.