Guidebook for Maui Is Criticized

A Tennessee woman says she and her husband were washed away in a flash flood because they had relied on a guidebook that directs tourists to remote areas of the island.

“We had no idea we were somewhere we should not be,” Beth Pickel told the Maui News on Tuesday from her home in Nashville.

The Pickels said they got into trouble last Sunday when, following the guidebook “Maui Revealed,” they drove to Nahiku to visit the Blue Pool.

The couple crossed a stream to get to the pool, but when they tried to get back, the stream had turned from a trickle into a torrent because of rains in the mountains.

The Pickels tried to swim across, but were swept to the sea, where they became separated.

Kirk Pickel made it back to the pool, while his wife climbed out on the opposite shore, where she could run for help.

A fire crew arrived on the scene, but was unable to reach Kirk Pickel, who had to be lifted to safety by a rescue helicopter.

Beth Pickel said she was upset that the book did not specifically mention that rain in the mountains could cause flash flooding downstream, even in areas where the weather was clear, as it was Sunday at the pool.

Lisa Williamson, director of marketing at the guide’s publisher, Kauai-based Wizard Publications, said the book addressed flash floods and other hazards.

She noted that the book said: “Flash floods can occur in any fresh water stream anywhere in the world, even paradise. Be alert for them.”

“It would be redundant to mention this hazard for every single stream on Maui,” Williamson said.

Beth Pickel also complained that there were “no trespassing” signs at the pool, saying she and her husband wouldn’t have gone had they known it was on private property.

But Williamson said Maui County had informed the publisher before the guide was published that the land at the Blue Pool is public, and no landowner has ever said anything to the contrary.

Meanwhile, Peter Young, chairman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, has asked guidebook co-author Andrew Doughty to revise future editions of “Maui Revealed” when describing the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve and surrounding sensitive places.

“We believe that with the recommended changes, visitors using your book will be safer and have a better quality experience, and at the same time, the natural and cultural resources of the area will receive less direct human impact,” Young said in a letter to Doughty on Monday.

Doughty and co-author Harriett Friedman moved to Kauai about 10 years ago and formed Wizard Publications.

They wrote “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook,” followed by “Hawaii the Big Island Revealed” and then “Maui Revealed.”

The books are popular with tourists, but have been criticized by landowners, public safety authorities and business owners.

Critics say the books encourage tourists to go on private property, despoil formerly hidden places with crowds, and too bluntly review restaurants, visitor-oriented businesses and tourist attractions.