After watching the weather since we arrived to decide on when to visit the highland rainforest we decide that today is the day. It is only 30% chance of rain and that is the best across all days. So we fortify ourselves with a good breakfast and up we go.
The road goes up and up, the forest changes to pines and after about 1/2 hour we arrive at the end of the road at the Pihea trailhead.
The parking lot for the Pihea trail is full many times according to our research so we are happy there are some parking spaces left when we arrive. We are supossed to pay the fee at the pay station but the person in front of us has huge issues and unsurprisingly so do we, the connection to the system is very slow and the process fails repeatedly. In the end we make it and finally we can start on the trail.
But before we start we check the trees and we see our first target bird, the apapane. It is quite common here but we are encouraged by how soon we have seen it and on we go.
The trail is easy in the beginning but we can see that even this section could be challenging after a rain. There are quite a few other people on this stretch but the trail is quite wide so it is easy to pass when needed.
The views on this stretch of the trail are great, you can see birds flying in the valley and secluded beaches hugging the coastline.
There is a helicopter that is flying multiple times above us scaring the birds, it seems to be carrying stuff out to the sea but we can’t make out exactly. Otherwise it is relatively quiet even though we try hard to listen for any interesting birds.
The trail continues to be scenic but the further away we go from the parking lot the muddier it gets even though it still is possible to pass most muddy spots without getting dirty.
That changes as we get towards the Pihea Vista, after a short board stretch that is very welcome it it is mud all the way that needs to be climbed and sploshed through. We make it to the vista just in time to fall on our back and get completely dirty we look like we had a mud bath with our clothes on.
We descend more carefully to continue towards the Alakai Swamp Trail and happily notice that a new section of boardwalk starts right after the Pihea Overlook detour. In fact we are so happy that we are not careful and take another fall down a few stairs, at least we fall (again) in the mud so it is not a bad fall.
There are few people on this stretch of trail which is great as the boardwalk is very narrow. It is also looking a lot more like we are walking in a tropical rainforest and we can’t wait to see any of the birds that are promised on this stretch of the trail.
Even though we barely walked a mile and a bit we are very tired and hungry from fighting against the mud so we stop and eat on the side of the trail. And then we notice something flitting around, an endemic Kauai Elepaio who is quite curious and studies us for a while before moving along.
Unfortunately besides a few more Apapane the Kauai Elepaio is the only other endemic bird we see. We enjoy the walk however as this stretch is flat and there are boardwalks that allow us to avoid most muddy spots.
On our return trip it is much more foggy but at least we have no issue passing through the muddy areas as we simply don’t care at this point how dirty we get which makes the going significantly easier.
The fog and the absence of other people makes the return stretch a lot more spooky. However we enjoy being out of the sun, the temperature is much better, even a bit chilly. And then we are back at the parking lot which is now surprisingly empty so we change clothes and shoes as fast as we can before entering the car in order to keep it clean.
