The first time I set foot in Hawaii I walked from the airport to Schofield Barracks.

I have walked all over my island home, but I have never walked around Oahu. Until now.

By the time this newspaper hits its first driveway, I will be cruising down the railroad tracks past the printing plant on my way to Nanakuli and beyond.

If all goes right, less than a week later I will be tackling Welo Street back in Makakilo having covered the 127 miles along the shoreline of the Gathering Place.

It might be crazy but it’s not a new idea. The job has been done dozens of times, most recently by three bored Devil Dogs on YouTube or some other poor soul who did it anonymously. It seems every time I drive to Kahuku Golf Course, I see at least one huge backpack bobbing up and down on the side of the road. They always decline a ride.

The route is more than a footpath thanks to the 13 hardy Chinese souls who built a wagon road over 78 miles of it in 1869 just months after their countrymen finished the transcontinental railroad. I might end up wishing it was still a footpath.

The first time an English language newspaper mentioned a walk around Oahu was a four-day jaunt in 1893 by Arthur O. Wood. Wood’s motivation for the exercise seems to be to find employment. He visited every single plantation and struck out, but eventually latched on with the Hawaiian Guard.

The march has been done for a variety of reasons, including to raise awareness of diabetes, homelessness and meth use. It can even pay tribute to both sides of an issue.

In 1895 staunch annexationist John Effinger explored his country’s new dreamland in six days and more than a hundred years later 250 people joined a torch march to show opposition for the overthrow that he supported.

I don’t have a cause other than it being something I have always wanted to do and staying at cruiserweight. I weighed in at 198 on Saturday after tipping the scales at 222 in April.

Jumbo the mule didn’t have a cause, either.

The 30-year-old animal served in the Army for 20 years before being condemned and sold to a rancher for $1.

Jumbo was destined to be dog food until 1955, when Honolulu Advertiser columnist Bob Krauss enlisted him to carry cameras and food on a trip around Oahu with radio personality Dr. Kini Popo.

It took the trio eight days and was covered extensively on radio and television and in the newspaper, with large crowds lining the street all the way around the island to see them pass.

Their famous journey began at ‘Iolani Palace with the governor firing a starter’s pistol and the sheriff providing an escort out of town. Unlike his two biped companions, Jumbo got stronger during the eight days of the trip. His celebrity exceeded that of his companions and it actually saved his life.

“When he came back he looked better than when he started,” his owner, Jack Arnold, told Krauss. “Besides, he was so famous I couldn’t put him away. I’d have been lynched.”

Jumbo was even stolen in Waikiki during an appearance with Bozo the Clown before being recovered. Adding to the theme of “anyone can do it,” another edition of the famous clown walked the perimeter for KHON and the Easter Seals in 1970. Robert Channels made it an annual thing, and some Radford students made it a sort of intramural sport in 1962.

I remember walking the 13 miles between my parents’ houses before I was a young man and ambled the 20 miles to the office a few times back when we went to work. I think the longest I have trekked, not counting my military days, which are a blur now, was when Cindy Luis tricked me into covering 26.2 for a $10 tee shirt.

For all of the people who have made the walk, I probably have more in common with Jumbo. Just take one step a time until it is done, stopping every once in a while to munch on wild edibles.

And if my knees start to hurt too much, I will just stubbornly sit on the side of the road until I am good and ready to move again.

I won’t know until next week, but I suspect Tom Coffman put it best when he did it for the Star-Bulletin in 1973: “I wasn’t really going anywhere very fast. I was already there.”

Reach Jerry Campany at jcampany@staradvertiser.com