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The ''Trail to Heaven''01-28-14 | News
The ''Trail to Heaven''





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The Haʻikū Trail on Oahu, overlooking the valley by the same name, was closed to public use in June 1987. Some people still trek up the 30-degree slopes via the steel galvanized steps that begin at 480 feet elevation and climb to the 2,800 ft. Puʻu Keahiakahoe peak, but it's "illegal trespass."


After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy built a radio communication station on a high point on the island of Oahu. A 2,800-foot peak above the Haʻikū Valley on the windward side of the island was optimal for a transmission station, and to string antenna cable across the valley between ridges. To get to the top of the ridges, it was necessary to install wooden ladders, which were later replaced with wooden stairs, and finally a cable car.

The military stretched a new antenna across the valley in 1971, and the Coast Guard moved into the station in 1972. The station became part of the global OMEGA Navigation system, the radio navigation system for aircraft operated by the U.S. and six other countries. The Coast Guard gave permission to a certain number of civilians to hike the trail. After a "Magnum P.I." episode featured the trail in April 1981, requests to hike the trail grew tremendously, but settled in at around 20,000 a year.

The stairs were closed in June 1987, after an act of major vandalism. Friends of Haʻikū Stairs formed to organize support to transfer the stair path to the city or state, and to reopen it to hikers. That effort became mute when the area was closed for highway construction.

The radio transmission station was shut down in 1997. Today, the Friends of Haʻikū Stairs are still petitioning to reopen the trail for public use www.ipetitions.com/petition/haikustairs. What's keeping the trail from going public? City officials say it would be too expensive to keep the stairs safe. A fee to use the trail could mitigate that expense, but no decision has been made.

From a historic landscape perspective, the Haʻikū Valley's natural environment used to include ohia and koa trees, native loulu palms and an understory of kolea, alani and hoawa. These species no longer inhabit the valley; in their place are such nonnatives as guavas, mango, bamboo and octopus trees. Stands of native hau still exist, and the kukui tree, introduced by the Polynesians, still thrive, say the Friends of the Haʻikū Stairs.








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