Hours after posting "Keep Out" signs at the base of a popular Koko Crater trail yesterday, the city decided to take down the signs following public outcry at the trail's closing.

"Now I feel like I better go every day in case they do close it," Traci Hisatake, who used to do the 1,208-foot climb seven days a week, said after hearing about the reversal.

Kamilonui Valley resident Nathan Kurosawa arrived at the trail at 8:30 a.m. yesterday to find a city worker putting up the signs.

"Everyone was pretty upset," he said.

Residents soon were circulating e-mails among community members and groups that use the trail and organized a rally at the base of the trail.

In a news release issued about 5 p.m. yesterday, city Parks Director Lester Chang called the old railroad tracks up Koko Crater, of which the trail consists, "dangerous" and said the possibility of stray bullets from nearby Koko Head Shooting Complex, a city-operated rifle range, poses a safety concern.

"The issue we at the Parks Department face is to either close the shooting range or to discourage and make people aware of the significant danger they face when hiking up the abandoned railroad tracks, and we've opted for the latter," he said in the release.

Although there hasn't been a reported hazardous incident, the increased use of the trail has raised concerns, the release said.

Less than half an hour later, Chang issued a second release saying he "had acted prematurely by having (the signs) posted without consulting the community first." The signs would come down, he said.

The city's statement raises questions about whether the shooting range is a danger not only to hikers but to people in nearby residential areas, Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board chairman Greg Knudsen said yesterday.

"If it's a danger, it shouldn't be in a residential area," he said. "If it poses a danger to the trail, it poses a danger to the surrounding area ... a danger to Hanauma Bay."

The Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board, which was not consulted about the trail closure, will take up the issue at its Feb. 26 meeting and has requested that the Parks Department send a representative, Knudsen said.

The trail has become a popular hiking spot for people from across O'ahu as well as visitors. Residents estimated that hundreds of people use the trail on weekends.

"Last time I went, there were locals, there were tourists, there were adventurers — there's a real wide range," said Hawai'i Kai resident Catherine Ball, who hikes the trail frequently with her family.

Andrea Messer of Palolo said that during outrigger canoe paddling season, she and her crew run up and down the trail at least once a week.

"This is definitely something the community should be consulted about before they put up a sign saying, 'Your beautiful natural resource that you used all the time is gone for an undisclosed reason,' " she said.

Reach Kim Fassler at fassler@honoluluadvertiser.com.