Some search and rescue debts can’t be repaid : But in Hawaii and other states, officials are finding ways to recover the steep cost of fishing lost, reckless hikers out of the wild.

After 23-year-old hiker Wade Johnson disappeared into the misty, fern-choked wilderness of the Koolau mountains, rescuers searched the jagged ridges by helicopter and on foot.

They set off full of hope. In the end, three men made the ultimate sacrifice. Enveloped in swirling clouds, their fire department helicopter crashed and burned, killing the pilot and two police officers. Each man left behind a young family.

Johnson, a college student, was never found. But the tragic cost of his rescue effort is raising tough questions about risks and responsibility, and just how far authorities should go in pursuing wayward hikers in Hawaii.

The islands’ natural splendor attracts people from around the world, but this seemingly benign tropical paradise contains hidden dangers, from slippery, overgrown cliff trails to flash floods. Johnson was the third hiker to disappear on the island of Oahu in a three-week period this summer. The two who were not recovered had hiking experience, but not in Hawaii.

“This is dangerous terrain if you’re not sure where you’re going,” said Attilio Leonardi, Honolulu deputy fire chief, whose territory covers the island of Oahu. “Our rocks are very brittle, our mountains have very steep drops.”

Fire department statistics show a sharp rise in search and rescue operations on Oahu starting last year, on land and at sea. From 1990 to 1993, the number of searches ranged from 83 to 94 annually. In 1994, there were 147. This year, there have already been 130.

“There seem to be more and more people who are not experienced who want to get out of the city and hit the trails,” said Curt Cottrell, manager of the state’s trails program, Na Ala Hele. In the last three years, four guidebooks have been published on hiking in Hawaii.

Concerned about the cost of errant adventurers, one Honolulu City Council member has proposed billing the families of hikers and swimmers who ignore warning signs for the costs of their rescue. Helicopter-assisted searches run up bills of $1,000 an hour, and fire department policy is to search for three days.

A similar bill, allowing the county to recover rescue costs in cases of “gross negligence,” was passed on the island of Hawaii after a Paramount Pictures helicopter went down inside a smoking vent of Kilauea Volcano in 1992. Rescuers risked their lives and spent well over $100,000 in a successful effort to retrieve the film crew. The law has yet to be enforced, however, because no one has shown such blatant recklessness since then, said Hawaii County Fire Chief Nelson Tsuji.

Authorities across the country are grappling with the same question as the popularity of adventure sports soars. In Colorado, a 25-cent fee on fishing, hunting and boating licenses goes into a search-and-rescue fund. Grand Canyon National Park now recovers costs for medical evacuations by helicopter and other emergency medical services in the field.

The National Park Service considered requiring climbers scaling Alaska’s Mt. McKinley to buy rescue insurance, as is common in the Swiss Alps, or even charging for rescues. Instead, it assesses climbers a flat $150 administrative fee to help offset the cost of its mountaineering program, according to spokesman John Quinley. Starting last July, climbers who ventured above 9,000 feet at Washington’s Mt. Rainier had to pay $15 each.

In Honolulu, the rescue cost-recovery bill has met strong opposition. For now, authorities are focusing on better educating hikers through brochures, trail signs and possibly a video aimed at visitors. Unlike in the national parks, reaching hikers before they hit the trails can be difficult on Oahu, where the mountains are everyone’s back yard.

“You can enter the mountains from any one of a thousand locations,” Leonardi noted.

And the hikers most likely to get into trouble are “cowboys” not inclined to seek advice. “It’s the young immortal male syndrome,” said Atomman Kimm, a veteran Sierra Club hike leader. “They think nothing will ever happen to them, they go for it, and get in trouble.”

Hikers in Hawaii are often fooled into following trails forged by wild pigs that wind up nowhere. They aren’t prepared for the dense foliage, lava tubes, mud-slicked rain forest and rapid weather changes. Applying hiking techniques from elsewhere can backfire too. Following a stream from the summit ridges toward the ocean is “a sure formula for disaster in Hawaii,” Kimm noted. “The streams go to steep waterfalls, and then you’re stuck.”

Kimm and other veterans urge would-be hikers to consult local experts; file a hike plan with friends; not to underestimate Hawaii’s mountains or weather; bring emergency supplies; stay on the main trail, and never hike alone.

The anguish of the Johnson case was compounded by the knowledge that he--and his rescuers--would still be alive if Johnson had stayed with his partner. The partner, who had informed friends of their route, stayed put once they got into trouble and was quickly rescued.

“He [Johnson] broke one of the cardinal rules of hiking, and that is to stick together,” Cottrell said. “The guy went off the trail, thinking he could find a fast way down, thinking he knew where he was, and he perished.”