Pepeopae Trail and Pelekunu Overlook, East Molokai

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]

On the second day of our (Baron, Katie, Jenny, Jenelyn, Jennifer, Josh [808 Goonies], Seth and I) Molokai Trip, we made another long off-road drive to Kamakou Preserve in mountains of East Molokai to see the Pepeopae boardwalk trail and Pelekunu overlook.

To access the preserve, we had to drive for several miles on a dirt road which was composed of very fine/dusty red dirt… kicking-up fairly easily when driven over… and hence, why we kept our distance from Baron’s jeep in front of us.

Further up in elevation, the road became less dusty and gets pretty wet as we entered the preserve.

Some hikers chose to walk into the preserve…

however, since we had 4WD vehicles, we were able to drive all the way to the trailhead.

Once on the trail, we were welcomed by a well maintained boardwalk… which kept our feet dry, as well as prevented our feet from trampling native vegetation in the bog.

There was one area where the thick rainforest canopy opened up to fields of low growing Ohia lehua (Metrosideros sp.) and Uki grass (Machaerina angustifolia)…

Being the natural science majors we are, Josh and I held back our pace to spend some time looking at the less conspicuous critters. I’ve seen succineid “Snot in the hat” snails before on Oahu, but the ones here have a distinctly different color to their shell and body. Hawaiian succineids are often called “snot in the hat” because their bodies are too large to retract/fit into their shell… making it almost vestigial, but I hear they may be called “semi-slugs?” Well, I’ll leave the descriptions and appropriate species identification to the local malacologists, haha.

What looks like a Philonesia sp. and a Partulina sp.?

There were several Megalogrion spp. flying around, but I only was able to take a photo of this red one. I think Josh was able to get a good photo of a black one.

Finally catching up to group, we were not surprised that Pelekunu lookout was socked in by the clouds.

Although waiting long enough allowed us several opportunities to see fragments of Pelekunu Valley below. I guess we’ll have to come back on clear day to get a better view!

For more information about Kamakou, Pepeopae Trail and the Pelekunu Overook and how to visit here, contact The Nature Conservancy.

Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting… Come back again soon!

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