re: Kauai- 10 days

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How intense would Kalalau trail be to do in a day? light pack and sufficient food/ supplies? I see its over 6k in elevation. I am used to alpine country at high elevation.

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Do you mean to go and come back in the same day? All 22 miles of trail? I did see a trail runner doing that, but you have to really be into ultramarathons to want to try. I also saw some hunters (goats have gone wild on the island, but these are not native, and there is a bowhunting season) who went about seven miles in and were hoping to shoot a goat and carry it back out the same day.

I've done the full Kalalau Trail, and there was a recent post on this board (search) from someone else who did it with his fiance. I am in good health and enjoy hiking, and Kalalau was very hard. My left quad muscle starting cramping on me at about mile 8, and it made the last three miles very hard. I camped two nights at Kalalau Beach, and the day in-between was mainly a day I spent lying in the tent and recovering.

The trail is up a few hundred feet, and then back down to a beach, and then up a few hundred feet again, and then back down again, etc. It's never level for long.

But it is stunningly beautiful. I've hiked in some amazing places like Patagonia, like the Southern Alps in New Zealand ... and I wouldn't trade any of them for the Kalalau Trail.

But, yeah, pack light. The good news is that you don't need to pack water; just take one of those filtering straws (goat poop can sometimes have bacteria), since there are streams every few hundred feet or so.