Hawaii’s Back Yard Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi

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Molokai site holds ancient natural appeal

When friends ask Grady Timmons to describe the Kamakou Preserve, he says, "It's Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs."

Kamakou Hike » Place: Meet at Molokai Airport, Hoolehua » When: The Nature Conservancy offers guided hikes into the Kamakou Preserve from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. the first Saturday every month, except Feb. 9 and July 12. » Cost: $25 per person, including transportation between the airport and the preserve. No one under age 8 is allowed on this hike. Because of the rugged drive, it is also not suitable for pregnant women and those with back problems. » Call: (808) 553-5236. Reservations required. » E-mail: hike_molokai@tnc.org » Web site: www.nature.org » Notes: Wear long pants, hiking shoes and a hat. Bring rain gear, a jacket, water and lunch. There are no restrooms or other facilities along the trail. Aside from TNC, no other organization leads tours into Kamakou. You can go there on your own, but TNC does not encourage it without the use of a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a knowledgeable local guide. A 25-page guidebook can be purchased for $6 on the hike or from TNC's office at 23 Pueo Place in Kualapuu.

Indeed, sweeping from lower-elevation scrub lands to lush rain forests high in the mountains of East Molokai, Kamakou is a 2,774-acre primordial wonderland harboring more than 250 species of native plants, at least 90 percent of which are found only in Hawaii.

Also thriving within Kamakou is an array of native insects and birds, including happy-face spiders, banded tree snails, pueo (Hawaiian owl) and apapane (a Hawaiian honeycreeper).

"It's an ancient place that remains much the same today as it did before the arrival of the first Polynesian settlers," said Timmons, director of communications for the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, which has managed the preserve for the landowner, Molokai Ranch Ltd., in partnership with the State Department of Land and Natural Resources since 1983.

Timmons first visited Kamakou a decade ago and has been back many times since then. "I love the riot of plant life and how it exists in perfect harmony," he said. "It's a magical place that fills me with a sense of awe and deep respect for nature. I always come away feeling renewed."

TNC offers a daylong monthly hike into Kamakou that is limited to eight people to minimize human impact. Getting to the Pepeopae Boardwalk Trail is an adventure in itself.

From Highway 460 it's a one-hour, 10-mile drive to the trail head on a steep, winding, unpaved road. This road is rugged, even treacherous, in many spots, especially after a heavy rain, which is frequent; Kamakou is an important source of water for Molokai.

"What's interesting about the drive is how much the landscape changes and what those changes tell you about the ecological history of the island," said Timmons. "The lower portion of the road takes you through a dry landscape of kiawe trees and alien grasses. Much of this land was once used for ranching and agriculture, and when those uses were abandoned, they were replaced by alien weeds and scrub trees that were prone to fire."

About three miles up the road, you'll enter the Molokai Forest Reserve, notable for its tall stands of ironwood, eucalyptus and pine that were planted in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps to restore the forested watershed that had been denuded by cattle and goats in the previous century.

A bit further, a stop is made at a lua moku iliahi, or sandalwood measuring pit, which dates to the early 1800s, when sandalwood trees were harvested to near extinction.

"Hawaiian sandalwood was valued for its wonderful fragrance and exported to China in large quantities," said Timmons. "Workers would cut down the trees and pile them in this pit, which was dug in the shape of a ship's hull. When the pit was full, they knew they had enough to fill a cargo hold, and they would haul the wood down the mountain and load it onto a vessel bound for China."

HALAWA, WAILAU, Pelekunu and Waikolu are the major valleys on Molokai's windward coast; the latter three are accessible only by boat. Thus isolated, their pristine beauty has been preserved. From an overlook you can admire Waikolu, cloaked in a hundred shades of green and festooned with waterfalls.

From Waikolu it's 2.2 miles to Kamakou, a native Hawaiian rain forest. Everywhere you turn are amazing shapes, colors and textures, including moss carpeting the forest floor; tangles of aerial roots; lacy ferns; bright fruits, flowers and berries; and canopies created by the gnarled trunks and limbs of trees.

To protect the fragile vegetation, TNC built a 1.5-mile boardwalk, most of which is only a foot wide, in three phases between 1985 and 1989.

"There are portions of the trail that are so surrealistic, I feel like I'm walking in a fairy tale," said Timmons. "Except for the boardwalk, there's absolutely no sign of civilization. You are truly out in the wild."

Halfway down the boardwalk, the forest abruptly ends, and you'll enter the Pepeopae Bog, a Lilliputian setting of low-growing sedges and dwarf ohia lehua trees. Peat in this 3-acre clearing dates back 10,000 years, making it one of Hawaii's oldest bogs.

From there you'll walk through dense forest again for another half-mile to the Pelekunu Valley lookout. Flanked by the world's highest sea cliffs, which soar more than 3,000 feet above the undulating Pacific, this magnificent valley is the scenic highlight of the hike.

Heavy clouds unfortunately often hover over Kamakou, obscuring the views. Sam Gon, TNC's senior scientist and cultural adviser, once accompanied famed Hawaiian musician and filmmaker Eddie Kamae into the preserve. When they stopped at the Waikolu overlook, they found the entire valley was overcast.

When Gon expressed his disappointment, Kamae said, "Well, Sam, sometimes you just need to ask," and walked to the edge of the lookout, where he had a short conversation with the valley.

According to Gon, within minutes the clouds lifted, and Waikolu in all of its splendor was revealed.