According to state officials, about 78% of people using Hawaii hiking trails are tourists who tend to be more adventurous and outdoors-oriented than ever before. But Hawaii's beauty has proven to be very deceiving, more and more people believe that hiking in Hawaii is just an light stroll in the mountains but the number of inexperienced or unprepared hikers who have accidents or get lost on Oahu every year is shocking.

People venture into the woods on trails that they know nothing about. They don't know where they are going, what to expect, and most of the time don't know the difficulty level/ratings of their selected path.
Most accidents happen when people disregard warning signs and local advice. They wander off established trails, start their hikes too late and then get disorientated in the darkness.
Hawaii has a mild climate, but at night, if a hiker becomes stranded on the trail without proper clothing, they can easily die from loss of body-heat (hypothermia).

Visitors don't know our vast, heavily forested mountains and trails. Most areas are rugged with crumbly loose rocks, crisscrossed by false trails forged by wild pigs and streams that flow through steep cliffs that end at steep waterfalls.
Even local officials admit that our trails are nothing like the well-maintained and well-marked trails on the mainland.

Sunny one minute pouring rain the next. Sunny and clear mornings are sometimes followed by rain and wind later in the day, exposure can quickly overcome a person stranded in the mountains. Flash Flooding. Heavy rain conditions along the mountain top or ridges can suddenly raise the water level in streams. Several hikers have been killed in recent years because they were not aware of the fact that even if it rained miles away from them it could cause flash-flooding. Dangerous Trails. Hawaii's volcanic rock is highly crumbly and has an unusually porous nature. Trails are often muddy, and slippery. Conceal dropoffs are hidden by brush. Open ridge lines are often buffetted by high winds and heavy downpours. Untreated Stream water. Drinking untreated stream water, or if you swim/play in streams you can contract the potentially fatal disease, leptospirosis. Most people don't realize that open cuts or scratches is a common avenue for this disease to infect people. Leptospirosis causes flu-like symptoms about two weeks after exposure it is treatable at this stage, but most people confuse the symptoms and don't tell their doctor that they've been to an area that contains the Leptospirosis bug. Left untreated, this disease is fatal in about 10% of cases.

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