Kalalau trail day. Napali Coastline. This is a trail I have been wanting to see and do for years. I came to Kauai about 5 years ago and really did not do the trail running scene yet. So didnt even know anything about this trail. I then wanted to do it even more as Bryce wrote about it last year. I am only here for 5 days, and knew I likely did not have the full 22 mile round trip in me. Especially Bryce who is a stud runner posted that it was the hardest 22 miles he has ever done. So I ended up doing just over half. Good enough to tire me out and also see what the fuss is all about. This trail is a tough one. I started at first light and was basically the only one on the trail except for a forest dweller I passed about 5 miles in. He was wearing flip flops, hadnt had a bath or shave for a couple years and looked like he had all his belonging in a few plastic sacs tied to his waist. He was in no hurry. The first two miles are widely used and because of that there is a well worn trail. After that much of the trail is overgrown and becomes a narrow single track that is never flat. So rare to even be able to run for any consistent pace. The jungle is barely contained for most of it and while not quite bushwacking is close. THe ground is rocks and roots and for a trudger like me that means I rolled my ankles, stubbed my toes and such to many times to count and went down twice. I also ran through a million serious face covering spider webs across the trail with big freaking spiders in them. THat being said, the views are surreal and stunning and truly Jurassic parkish (i guess that is why they filmed it here). It is so unique to be in such a place, hundreds of feet up on a single track above the pounding surf with intermittent views of this jagged prehistoric coastline. Anyway, it was cool. Glad I did it. It took me almost 3.5 hours to cover those 11 miles. Especially slow the last 1.5 because the busses had unloaded and I bet I ran into about 150 people now coming on the first bit of the hike. No running for more than 50 feet before stopping to let some hikers pass. Perfect. | 