I was wondering what is the fastest someone has done this trail unsupported? I have not found any times for trying to do this for time online.
I hiked/ran this trail yesterday in 5:54:07, this included starting my Garmin at the trail head and going to the middle point of the Kalalau Beach. The time above reflects total time including all stopped time at the beach and the few moments I took along the way. As far as third party verification, my wife knows I was out there as well as others I passed along the trail. I passed one group of people who appeared to be doing a trail running photo shoot of some sort but did not stop to get names as this was in the most dangerous section of trail.
If anyone is interested in doing this trail in the future let me know. Also if anyone with any speed wanted to attempt this I am sure they could knock a bunch of time off. The Garmin indicated there was 10,160ft of climbing and loss.
I tried to find anything on someone doing it for time but did not find anything. I was lucky enough to be on the island for 2 months so thats why I was able to go for time. If it was anyones first time on the trail I would take the time to camp at the end like everyone else does as it is by far one of the most beautiful trails I have ever seen.
It is an out and back, and the way back is a lot faster. The key for this hike if doing it in one go is making sure you have enough water.
Next time I will go to the waterfall I guess [vs. "middle of the beach"], turned into camps with hippies. I figured the naked guy making a hat out of grass was a good enough place to turn around and since I had a GPS recording did not really think much of it. FKT have an inherent margin of error so I figured if someone goes to a different position then that would then become the place and time to beat.
I started at 8am, I am a late riser and I have started this trail in darkness and found it would probably slow someone down in the end. If you are fine with heat then start at daylight. As far as water, I have a Salomon advanced pack bladder full with water with amino acid mix, and two full handhelds in the pockets that the vest has. I think it is beneficial to have your hands free for this trail due to the nature of it. I ran out of water with about 1.5 miles left but by that point you are weaving around tourist doing the 2 mile hike in so it worked out.
In all honesty if you have not done this trail hike it first. Its to beautiful not to experience it this way first. I was fortunate enough to be on island for a couple months and will be back in the future so I thought it would be fun to set something to set a standard for faster people to beat. Just be safe, this trail requires a lot of concentration.