The History of Why the Kalalau Trail.

I took my wife and 3 daughters (18,18 and 12) to Kauai in April 2010. We were on a 2-week spring break trip from my daughters' school in Telluride, Colorado. We hiked the first 2 mile section of the trail to Hanakapi`ai beach and then the 2 mile hike up the valley to the Hanakapi'ai falls. The round trip was 8 miles and when we finished (which I barely did), I felt like I had been an a car wreck. I am 6' tall and at the time was 280lbs. I was so embarrassed at how poorly conditioned and FAT I was, that I made a promise to myself that I was going to come back and do the entire 22 mile trail at some point in the near future. A picture of me is inserted in this post. This was taken near the beach on the way in and you can see just how disgustingly out of shape I was. Over the next 6 months, I began to live a healthier life and lost over 40 lbs with the thought of hiking the Kalalau Trail as one of the driving forces. My wife, 12 year old daughter and I decided to travel to Kauai again and bought permits to hike the trail on November 12th, 13th and 14th. This blog takes a look at this process, from start to finish.