Up The Trail We Go

Again with the late entry, but better late then never.... Last Sunday a friend of mine went hiking along with my wife and I up a trail called Wiliwilinui Trail. The trail is near the south eastern part of the island where the H1 ends. You drive up to the trial by entering a gated community. The community is very welcoming of those who wish to hike the trail, even offering a map to the trail head on the back of the guest pass.


The trail we chose to do is a 3 up, 3 down trail. We wanted to do something relatively easy because my wife had wanted to wear her Vibrams hiking for the first time.

About 15 mins from the top of the trail we stop to enjoy the view

We started off at around 12:30 PM. The trail started off pretty wide and had alot of rocks on the path. The rocks were big enough so that they were not to much of a hassle to walk on and they were not stacked next to each other like gravel is. It made for a nice trip up to the top.


Along the way the trail was covered with these fruit like things that fell on the ground making every step feel like I was crushing grapes to make wine. The fruit squeezed its way into each one of my toes, making for a interesting and unique feeling.


Going back to my wife wanting hike in her Vibrams, she has a nasty habit of rolling her ankles whenever we go hiking. I have tried for a couple months to get her to try and go barefoot or in minimalist shoes while we are hiking or running. Finally shoe broke down and got the gray and blue sprints you see in the picture.

At the top

Along the way up the trail she was moving slower then usual, which is to be expected when you are not used having no padding below your feet hiding all the elements of the ground from your feet. On the way down the trail, she was very fast and left me behind a couple times. I kept asking her how her feet felt, and she said they felt great.


Once we reach the top of the trail we had lunch on the ridge and got to view Kaneohe and Kaialua in between the passing clouds which was pretty cool. We sat up there for about 45 mins enjoying the view before we started back down the trail.


I noticed while on our journey that there are quite a few people who hike in five fingers. I seen more people hiking on this short trail in five fingers then I have seen anywhere else. Atleast one person in every group that we passed was wearing Vibrams. Of course everyone commented on myself being barefoot and my wife wearing the five fingers. Those wearing the same said things along the lines of nice shoes and things of that nature.

On the way back down, the day started getting late and the I had to put on my five fingers for the last 3/4 of a mile. The terrain was down hill and filled with rocks and we had to get back to the car before it got to dark out. 

The next day my wife was talking about how sore her calves were from the hike. Its to be expected, that's the furthest she has gone in five fingers, not to mention the steep terrain added to the workout. But she said that her feet did not hurt her at all, I was surprised at that part. As for myself, I stepped on a rock the wrong way, so I took a couple days off and went out again today (5 days later) with no problems.

US Vets 5K Patriot Run

I know this entry is about a week late, but between work and all the other things I have going on in my life, I finally found some time to write about the last race I participated in, the US Vets 5K Patriot Run/Walk


The main goal of the event was to raise money for the homeless Veterans who live in Hawaii so that those who gave some much for their country are not left with no where to turn. This is a big deal to me being a veteran myself (yeah I know that I haven.t posted a little bit about myself yet, I promise its coming soon) and of course I had to run to support the cause.


The day started off as usual, register, pick up race packet, walk around, run, finish, go home. Me being me, I ran barefoot. Once again the only barefoot runner. This time though, there were a bunch of runners in Vibrams. I would venture a guess of about maybe 15 or so runners/walkers.  Some of who even thought that I was pretty insane for running barefoot.


The race was nice and flat paced, with smooth roads for me to run on. About 1.5 miles of it were on a bike path that ran along a body of water and gave a nice scenic view along the way. Because it was a bike path though, it was pretty narrow and I had to do the vast majority of the running on the wet grass so I could get around people.


A few people along the way ran next to me and talked to me about running barefoot, the typical things like "what if you step on glass" and "you feet have got to hurt when you finish this".


It was not really all that bad of a run. The only problem that I had was because of running on the wet grass, my feet got pretty wet and soft making my feet extremely sensitive to the asphalt for the last mile or so. Other then that, it was a great race for a great cause and another barefoot run under my belt.