Maui Cycling Day 2 (Back Road to Hana)

I started this day from my Uncle's house in Kula. The goal of this trip was to set out from here and make my way 44 miles on the back road to Hana. This was not something you were able to do for the past few years because the road was wiped out in a previous storm, but I had heard the road was now repaired and drivable all the way through.

One of the big warnings I received prior to the trip was that part of the road, just under 5 miles was unpaved. I figured it would be no big deal, and that if I had to walk next to my bike that would be no big issue for a few miles, it might set me back about an hour but I had all day anyway. Turns out the gravel was fine, but there were other paved road issues.

Here is a view of the road from the start. I was told it would be mostly downhill for more than half of the ride to Hana before I would start hitting some good uphills as I made it to some of the water falls in Kipahula. As expected, the views along the route were out of this world. The entire time from the road, I could hardly get it out of my mind that I was on an island 2,500 from the nearest land mass. Being so alone out there was a tremendous feeling that I can hardly explain.

At Mile Marker 26 I hit this stuff on the road. For about 8 miles the road was awful. It was like the road was paved with a ton of people using little paint buckets of asphalt just throwing it on the ground to make a road. It was incredibly bumpy, and so much so that I broke a spoke on my back wheel. Because of this, my wheel warped itself to drag along my rear break.

I had a dilemma, I was 20 miles downhill of home, or 24 miles of rolling hills from Hana with a broken bike, and no way to fix it till I got home. Knowing Hana, I knew there would be no bike shop and I would have to get picked up from there if i decided to finish my ride.

Well I decided that the following day would be a lost cause (Hana to Kahalui) and I might as well find a way to finish my ride into Hana and enjoy the isolation on the backside of the island.

For 24 miles I rode my bike down all the downhills, flat surfaces and as much incline as I could manage. I had spent some time trying to beat the rim straight but that made no difference. I loosened my back brakes just so my tire could spin with a little force and fought my way down the road.

The Kaupo store by MM 35. I had to take a rest from my frustration of my broken bike. At this store I had a can of Dr. Pepper for $1.55 then continued on.


A quick pull out to enjoy the view of the road and the ocean. The wind here was strong, probably blowing 25-30mph with gusts of 45, several times I almost got blown off my bike. This one lane road tightly hugged the cliff as it had a steep decent to 0 elevation.

The infamous Wailua Falls seen from the road just past Kipahula. Kipahula had a sweet little store owned by Ono farms selling all sorts of fruit. They even had a bicycle hooked to a blender so you could blend your own smoothies since there was no power. I also bought 7 ounces of their organic coffee grown right there.


I hit 100 miles finally about 4 miles from reaching Hana, had to stop to appreciate that.

The trip to Hana was one in which I will never forget. The last portion of the day destroyed me with the bike issues. Biking on flat ground was like biking up a hill, and you even had to pedal to go down hill. I probably walked carrying my bike 6 miles and fighting the brake for 18 miles. It was well worth the effort but I had passed out at my little rental place by 4:30 pm.

Thanks to Mike and Cindy, they came out and bailed me out of my ride back to Kahalui.

Day 3 March 9th 2009

Tim, Mike and I headed up to the top of Mt. Haleakala at 9am on a really cloudy/foggy morning to head down the Skyline Trail. We rented our bikes for $50 from the Haleakala Bike shop in Haiku.

The top of the ride was pretty nasty. It was very cold and there was a slight drizzle from being in a cloud. The trail was a road wide enough to drive a large 4x4 vehicle on but the ground was so soft and covered in crumbled lava. It was really hard to stay up on the bike because of how loose the ground was. I think each of us took a minor tumble while trying to maintain a decent speed on this bumpy trail. I know that if it was a nicer day we would have paused to take pictures and appreciate the view, but unfortunately we could only see 100 yards ahead of us into a hazy fog. As we descended from the top at 10,023 feet, the trail started to improve. The ground didn't seem to be quiet as loose.

After about 7 miles we took a turn onto the Mamane Trail which was a single track mountain bike/hiking/horse back trail. It was probably one of the most fun parts of the trail. It was about 2 miles long on a deeply rooted path. My uncle and Mike really got to appreciate their full suspension bikes. After we forged our way through the Mamane trail we turned Northeast down the Waipoli Rd. It first started out on gravel with lots of mud pits but eventually turned to asphalt. Halfway down this road, it starts a steep descent down the mountain with many switch backs. As we made our way down, I couldn't help but smile as we sped 30+mph down this road. Mike couldn't stop talking about how it was the fastest he'd ever gone on a bike and was worth the cloudy weather and the rental of the bike. It was such a blast. For the rest of the ride we headed down the highway and turned into Makawao. The road from the highway to Makawao was the only real decent uphill we encountered. But after 3/4 miles we were headed straight down Baldwin Rd. into Pa'ia.

The total ride took us about 4 1/2 hours. I'm sure if the weather was clear it would have taken us at least 6 with all the stops to enjoy the infamous view of the Hawaiian Islands. I believe the total mileage was right around 32 miles.

Maui

The past two weeks I got to go visit my Uncle and Aunt in Maui again. This time I set out to do some road biking around the island. I made a goal that I would ride around the entire island including from the top of the Mt. Haleakala to the Ocean on a mountain bike. It was set up to take 3 days. Day 1 would be around the West Maui mountains starting from Wailuku then heading west going towards Lahaina then all around and back to Wailuku. Day 2 would be leaving from my Uncle's house in Kula and heading the back way to Hana. I would stay in a rental place in Hana then wake up for day 3 and head back to Kahalui where I rented my bike. Total for these 3 parts would be about 150 miles. Day 4 would be going with my Uncle Tim and my best friend's dad Mike Lewandowski from the top of Mt. Haleakala to Pa'ia with mountain bikes down the Skyline Trail.

Here is google map of the full ride which i'll explain more in depth.

View Larger Map

Chalk Fire

After 9 days of staging at a station outside of Santa Maria, we just
got dispatched to the Chalk Fire on the Monterey District. This fire
was called controlled and contained a few weeks ago but over the past
2 days it blew out. After that we were called here and are just about
to head out to night shift.

Paso Robles

We've arrived to our hotel in Paso Robles for the night. The picture here is of the bull in a sweet restaurant we are eating at tonight called Big Bubbas BBQ which is a great place with a large group of guys.

As far as I know, tomorrow we will head a few hours South to Santa Maria where we will be staying for the time being. This assignment is starting to look like it could be a great one depending on what kind of fires get started if any. I'm really looking forward to taking this assignment a day at a time and enjoying as much of it as possible, starting with tonight at the BBQ house.

cheers!

Santa Annas are here

With the fall winds finally arriving down South, we have been
dispatched for coverage down in the Los Padres National Forest. This
is the time of year where the hot dry and strong winds land on the
coast of southern California due to the cooler climate in the desert
east of los angeles. This time of the year also brings out the
pyromaniacs who get joy out of setting large wildfires which has been
shown just about every year.

We are off to join many hotshot crews from all over the nation to get
a head start on these potentially devestating fires.

Sushi night with the crew

We celebrated our squad boss Joe's Birthday at Hunami Sushi in Auburn, it was a great time and a great place to have sushi and be ridiculously loud as most hotshots are. This was the flaming salmon that was excellent and served as a great candle for his birthday.