| This story has been corrected. See below. |
Suzi Dominy said she found 11 young Chinese tourists one day lined up in front of an outdoor bathroom at her home near the Maunawili Falls trail in Kailua.
"When I asked what they were doing, they replied, ‘Using the bathroom,’ like what a silly question," said the 65-year-old homeowner.
"Hikers leave everything from muddy shoes, muddy clothes to babies’ diapers, bottles, cans, anything you can think of, they dump on the grass here," she said, adding many frequently knock on the door, asking, "Where’s the trail?"
The burgeoning popularity of the Maunawili Falls trail, reportedly the second most popular Oahu falls trail, has resulted in streams of hikers, which have residents at their wits’ end.
"It’s a victim of its own popularity," Dominy said.
Residents blame the Internet for the rising popularity of the Maunawili Falls Trail that has tourists tromping through its typically soggy 1.5-mile hike to the falls, and the path has degraded due to heavy use.
The short trail, easily accessible from public roads, attracts residents and visitors, who are increasingly discovering Kailua.
Residents estimate that on busy days up to 100 cars clog up residential streets of the 250-home neighborhood. Some arrive on tour buses and noisy mopeds.
Hikers — boots, legs and clothes caked in mud — come off the trail and either help themselves to garden hoses from nearby yards or are constantly knocking on doors asking to use the hoses, residents say.
Those stories and other incidents, ranging from picnicking on curbs and leaving behind bags of trash as well as car break-ins, prompted the Maunawili Estates Community Association to petition the governor, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and their legislators to make improvements, such as establishing a parking lot.
Forty-year Maunawili resident Claire Ganiku, 78, says she can’t get into her own driveway because it is often blocked by cars. She’s seen a man strip down to his underwear with car doors wide open, blocking residential traffic.
"Friends had to double-park and walk to the house," she said, adding people can be heard making "Tarzan calls in the forest at night."
Chris Nakamatsu, a board member of the Maunawili Estates Community Association, said there are many Oahu state trails, but "very few of them have these issues. Very few of them have waterfalls."
One resident counted 60 people sitting around the waterfall at one time.
Some visitors are ill-prepared for real hiking, and the Fire Department is often called to rescue individuals on the slippery trail and at the waterfall, where many love to dive into the small pool from heights of roughly 4 to 20 feet.
On Wednesday night firefighters found a couple who got lost on the falls trail and ended up deep in Maunawili Valley on a connecting trail.
Nakamatsu said fire personnel have told her the trail has gone from a roughly 7-foot-wide path to at least 20 feet wide.
She said a DLNR official told her it is the second most used falls trail on Oahu after the Manoa Falls Trail.
Resident Austin Schenk, 20, said in the last four or five years, trails have grown wider and there are more of them. "It’s so heavily foot-trafficked, people start veering off trails, pretty much zigzagging up the stream. … Roots are exposed," he said.
He said people often party at the pool area, which is often littered with water bottles, cans, food wrappers, muddy shoes and towels.
On Thursday, however, the trail was relatively clean, with the occasional sole of a shoe and slipper stuck in the mud.
Nakamatsu said the community brought awareness to state officials of the problems three to four years ago and renewed its push a year ago.
State Rep. Ken Ito (D, Kaneohe-Maunawili-Kailua) obtained $200,000 this legislative session for planning and design of a parking lot with restrooms near the trail head.
DLNR hired a consultant that came up with five options.
Nakamatsu said the cost could run $2 million to $6 million, which does not include the land.
DLNR says it is in discussion with the private landowners for the parking lot proposal.
But Nakamatsu said, "Because we know how long things take, we need some short-term relief," suggesting portable toilets, a security guard and improved signage.
She said the community believes if the state can’t afford to maintain the trail and provide parking and amenities, perhaps it is a resource that should not be open.
State Sen. Laura Thielen, former Land Board chairwoman, said, "What it comes back to is the state’s refusal to invest in the management of these public recreational places."
She said the problem lies with declining amounts of money for maintaining recreational places and at the same time putting in several hundred thousand acres of newly acquired land dedicated as park reserves and public recreational places.
DLNR said current funding for its trail system is not sufficient to cover all of its needs statewide, including at Maunawili Falls.
Its total budget for all 40 Oahu trails and seven dirt roads is $354,920, with three staffers. Of that, $70,335 goes to 22 nonmotorized trails, including Maunawili.
Thielen said she doesn’t believe the parking lot idea, requiring the state to purchase or have a long-term lease on land, is economically feasible if the state is not putting in money to maintain its recreational areas.
She suggests reducing use hours, enforcement, signage, rubbish cans and a courtesy campaign for users to pack out trash.
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CORRECTION: Chris Nakamatsu is a board member not president of Maunawili Estates Community Association as a previous version of this story reported.
