Sewage spills and runoff may have driven some O'ahu residents and visitors out of the water, but mountain trails held up pretty well after the near-biblical rains of March, and outdoorsmen and women are happily putting their feet on solid — or at least semi-solid — ground.

"Muddy, but well worth it," Mark Geoghegan said as he and hiking buddy Lisa Evans, both of London, made their way up the Manoa Falls trail on Wednesday. The pair took in Manoa Cliff trail two days earlier.

"We had a lot of washing up to do afterward," Geoghegan said.

More than 40 days of rain, much of it torrential, didn't leave the trails untouched.

Water cascading down mountainsides takes its toll, said Jason Misaki, O'ahu trails and access technician for Na Ala Hele, which oversees most of the state's trails. But for the most part, the damage was minor or easily correctable.

"(No rain damage) made our trails impassable or real bad," Misaki said. "We did a lot of preventive measures on them in anticipation of the rain, and they held up pretty good."

The trails are muddy, the rocks can be slippery and exposed tree roots can create tripping hazards, Misaki said, but hikers who step cautiously and prepare carefully will find the trails worth the effort.

"We had a few downed trees on the Honolulu Mauka trails, which are all in the Makiki area," he said. "Kanealole trail (near Makiki Heights Drive) was really washed out. There was a lot of water on the trail and it rutted out a few sections, but it is a really wide trail, so people can avoid the ruts by just stepping around them."

Misaki is the only state employee who does trail maintenance, but he is assisted by a group of four low-risk inmates from O'ahu Community Correctional Center who are learning a lot about maintaining Hawai'i's wild areas.

Volunteer groups, including regulars such as Hawai'i Trail and Mountain Club and Sierra Club as well as other groups that sign up through Na Ala Hele, also do a lot of the work, he said.

Problems that block the trails and force hikers off the paths or into dangerous situations, such as downed trees, are reported by eco-tour guides — who pay a fee to the state for using the trails as commerce — or by other hikers. Those situations are repaired quickly, he said. Ruts that can be easily bypassed by hikers can wait for the services of larger groups of volunteers.

David Wiig, a former Hawai'i resident now living in California, was part of a volunteer group that worked on Manoa Falls trail last year. The group met at the foot of the trail, where a small mountain of pebbles had been dumped for the project.

"There was this sort of mini-tractor," he said, "and everyone else used backpacks. We each carried about 80 pounds of gravel up the trail, and then we came back down and did it again."

Wiig and his son, Alan, hiked Manoa Falls Trail on Wednesday.

"It looks good," Wiig said. "It held together in amazing fashion."

When warranted, overseers do close the trails.

'Aiea Loop Trail, located off 'Aiea Heights Drive, is part of the Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area and is overseen by the state's parks division.

The state closed that trail, which is used by mountain bikers, campers and joggers as well as hikers, at the end of March because of damage caused by the storms.

Clifford Inn, a spokesman for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the trail is now open and the signs were removed Wednesday.

Poamoho Trail, a rugged trek to the top of the summit of the Ko'olau Range, has been closed since 2002 because access through Dole Hawai'i property was shut off for liability reasons. The state is still trying to work out the issues to reopen the trail, Misaki said, but for now it remains closed.

Sky Chamberlain, a guide with O'ahu Nature Tours, a popular eco-tourism group, led hikers up Manoa Falls trail on Wednesday. Rain was falling as the group came down, and the hikers looked a little ghostly in pale plastic ponchos.

Chamberlain talked about the dangers of heavy rain on mountain trails.

"When it is raining seriously," Chamberlain said, "the trail becomes a stream. We were spared that today."

Erosion and landslides can create precarious situations, he said. So can trees.

"You see those trees up there?" he said, motioning toward the dark greenery along the mountain ridges. "The ones with that sort of sweeping, bonsai look? Those are fast-growing trees imported in the late 1800s as part of a reforestation effort. They grow fast, and they can fall. Those are the widow makers."

The group avoided widow making, as did Shawn Glinkerman, a heating and air conditioning technician from Brookville, Pa., who said he had hiked a number of trails last week.

Glinkerman did fall victim to a wilderness hazard that arises when puddles form in muddy footprints and platter-sized leaves hold tiny pools: mosquitoes. He was scratching the insect bites as he made his way down from Manoa Falls on Wednesday.

"I don't know if it is the rain, or what," he said.

Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.