Residents dread reopening of popular Lanikai Pillbox trail

With the Lanikai Pillbox trail closed for repairs, residents enjoyed a two-month break from the constant noise of hikers trekking up the ridge from sunup to sundown.

But that is set to change, now that repairs are completed and the trail is set to reopen to the public Monday.

“It’s been very peaceful and very pleasant,” said Lanikai resident Marya Grambs.

Grambs once again expects the chatter from hikers to begin at 5 a.m. and continue well into the evening. She said she’s been awakened by car doors slamming, the hubbub of people putting on hiking gear and talking loudly and laughing as they walk up her street.

Airborne drones also start buzzing by, aiming to capture photos of the picturesque sunrise from above.

The volume of hikers undertaking the short but steep climb up to the World War II-era structures, which were built as observation stations, also has taken a toll on traffic and parking in the area.

“It’s exceeded the capacity of the neighborhood,” said Grambs, who has lived for 19 years on the street that leads to the trailhead.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources says the trail, officially known as the Kaiwa Ridge Trail, has garnered so much attention through social media it is being “loved to death.” DLNR hired planning consultant PBR Hawaii to work on a management plan to improve the trail for the public while reducing its impacts on the environment and the community.

PBR Hawaii held an initial community meeting in January at Kaohao Elementary School and is supposed to hold a total of three, but no date has been set for a second one. The contractor also conducted an online survey that drew 1,300 responses.

The repairs over the past two months were completed independently of the management plan. Contractor Tokunaga Masonry Inc. repaired concrete spalling, replaced rusted steel roof supports and applied roof sealant to the “pillboxes” at a cost of about $248,000.

PBR Hawaii will finish a drone topography survey and trail alignment assessment before presenting plans to the public, according to DLNR.

“I just hope when the pillbox (trail) reopens there will be some way to manage the numbers of people that go,” Grambs said. “I hope they figure out a way so it’s not unlimited access 24 hours a day.”

Thomas Cestare, president of Lanikai Association, remembers a decade ago when he would make the hike with his dog, encountering very few people on the trail. Thanks to social media, the popularity of the trail exploded in the past five years and now there’s a constant stream of hikers going up daily.

It’s not hard to see why, according to Cestare.

For a relatively short climb the reward is spectacular: a panoramic view of the Windward Oahu coast, including Kailua Bay and the Mokulua islets. A popular photo pose is to sit on the corner of the first pillbox with legs dangling against the scenic backdrop.

Cestare, a labor attorney who has lived in Lanikai since 1986, estimates about 1,200 people a day climb up the trail on weekends, including some nights when the moon is full.

“We want people to enjoy our beaches, we want people to enjoy this pillbox hike,” he said. “We want them to be safe and secure and have a great time coming here. The problem is we have so many people that come here now, we really have to manage in some fashion the numbers of people that are at Kailua Beach, Lanikai Beach, on the pillbox.”

He has seen trash and diapers strewn along local streets and witnessed people using the bushes as bathrooms. Cestare said the structures should be sealed up so people will stop using them as trash receptacles.

In addition, some people hiking up are ill-prepared, wearing slippers or bringing dogs that get overheated. The trail accounted for the second highest number of hiker rescues on Oahu last year, according to the Honolulu Fire Department.

The community park where the fire rescue helicopter lands and the rights of way to the beach are owned by Lanikai residents, Cestare said, and are cleaned and maintained by volunteers.

While the trail is on state land, it is not part of DLNR’s Na Ala Hele trails system.

Aaron Lowe, acting program manager of Na Ala Hele, said the program aims to protect, maintain and expand public access to recreational sites, so he hopes the PBR Hawaii management plan will improve the trail while lessening its impact on the community. The goal is to ultimately make it part of the Na Ala Hele inventory, he said.

PBR Hawaii pointed out that in recent years, hikers have worn new paths across private property, exposing bare soil, resulting in increased erosion and sediment on Aalapapa reef at Lanikai Beach.

“We have to have some sort of management because at some point, we’re just inundated with people, cars, trash, graffiti,” Cestare said.“The erosion is remarkable, and it just runs down into our neighbor’s yards and eventually into the water.”

He said parked cars block his driveway and he knows of on-call doctors who keep their cars parked outside of the neighborhood in case they have to respond to an emergency.

Having the city enforce no-parking rules on three-day weekends over the past few years has helped, but getting in and out of Lanikai can still be a challenge.

Kelly Quin, an avid hiker who used to live in Lanikai, moved last summer due to a new work schedule that would have been difficult to maintain with the traffic in the neighborhood.

On any given day, 20 to 50 people might be on top of the pillbox before sunrise, she said. Quin favors an off-site parking area for trail users and installation of steps at the starting point.