HALEAKALA, Maui (AP) — Braving October rain and rugged terrain, a group of 15 hikers led by the Sierra Club Maui hiked a section of the old Haleakala Trail that had been closed to the public for decades.
In April 2014, a court ruled that the 3.3-mile section of the trail that crosses through Haleakala Ranch land actually belongs to the state, not the ranch. After a six-week trial, jurors decided that the trail that exists today is the successor to an ancient route that is a public highway under the Highways Act of 1892, The Maui News (http://bit.ly/1VZrBeT ) reported Sunday.
“What I think is very exciting for people when they walk on this is they get a chance to be a part of a history which was very important to Maui in olden times in how you got up there,” said attorney Tom Pierce, who represented Public Access Trails Hawaii in the trial to get the historic route reopened.
“They get a chance to revisit the original way that was used to get into Haleakala,” he said.
Native Hawaiians in ancient times used a similar route to reach the summit, but it is not exactly the same as the current trail, Pierce said. According to historic records, the current trail was built in 1905 by the Territory of Hawaii.
“It will be of general interest to the people of the Islands to learn that the Haleakala trail is now completed to the top of the crater,” according to an article in The Maui News published Nov. 4, 1905. “And what has hither to been a somewhat difficult trip is now made easy to anyone who can ride horseback.”
The trail was marked by finger posts every one-fifth of a mile, remnants of which are still visible today.
During last week’s hike, Pierce pointed out ahu (rock cairn) and old wooden finger posts along the trail, evidence that it was once a public roadway.
The current road to the summit — Crater Road — wasn’t built until 1935.
That means that historic figures like writers Jack London and Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, most likely used the old Haleakala Trail and an ancient route to reach the summit. London visited the island in 1907 and Twain in 1866, according to historical accounts.
State officials say the trail is not fit for unguided hikes.
“The trail is currently not constructed and maintained to state Na Ala Hele (state trail access program) standards, and significant planning, design, environmental review, regulatory compliance and construction are needed before it would be safe and feasible to consider unguided public use of the trail,” Scott Fretz, Division of Forestry and Wildlife Maui manager, said in an email May 18.
DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the status of the trail.
State Parks Administrator Curt Cottrell said in an interview that aired on “Insights on PBS Hawaii” in July that the state is not liable for hikers that might get hurt on state-owned “unencumbered” lands.
“DLNR has about 2 million acres of public land. We only have to place signs on state parks and along Na Ala Hele trails because we invite people in. We have no duty to warn on the rest of our property, so our liability is absolved if you are on an unencumbered land up in the middle of the mountain and you fall off a cliff … the state has no liability,” Cottrell told show host Mahealani Richardson.
Whether the state will invest funds to reopen or manage the trail remains to be seen, but Sierra Club Maui members said that they intend to organize more hikes in the future.
“It is our hope that in the future, intrepid hikers will once more be able to follow in the footsteps of Mark Twain and Jack London all the way up to the crater and then down the other side to Kaupo,” Weltman said.
