{"id":390,"date":"2010-06-01T20:05:56","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T04:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=390"},"modified":"2010-06-01T23:14:19","modified_gmt":"2010-06-02T07:14:19","slug":"haleakala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/?p=390","title":{"rendered":"Haleakala"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bryan Shaner<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big volcano: Haleakala is visible from most of Maui; in fact, it is<\/strong> most of Maui. What the heck do I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing: why am I going to sit on a bicycle for most of the day when there are so many cool things to do and see? And then there are the two guys in front of me at the as-yet-unopened bicycle shop in Paia.\u00c2\u00a0 They are probably 10-20 years younger and obviously in much better shape than I am. Plus they are in front of me. And when the door finally opens just after 8am, they seem to have all the time in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to get my rented bike fitted and be on my way. The shop closes at 6pm and who knows how long it will take to climb and descend this 10,000 foot monster. But these two guys are having a great time talking about all their biking accomplishments, and the guys in the shop are taking a lot of time cleaning up their bikes and getting them fitted just right. Finally, I ask another employee about how long it will take to climb and descend (he says 5-6 hours up and 1.5-2 hours down) thus letting him know that I would like to get started. He brings my bike out, and although it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t receive quite the same loving care as those of the young duo, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to go by 8:45.<\/p>\n

The bike feels pretty good although I try not to think about the fact that it has the same cheap rims that blew three front tires out on my Sequoia, and the fact that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a compact with a 39-34 low gear as opposed to my triple 30-28.\u00c2\u00a0 But the guy at the shop says the grade isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that steep and that I should have no problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, I know that he has no idea whatsoever of my climbing ability or lack thereof.\u00c2\u00a0 But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to get going and after filling up my water bottles and adding a packet of Perpetuum to one of them, I head out the door.<\/p>\n

I weave through the traffic in Paia and head up Baldwin Avenue trying to settle into this unfamiliar aluminum-you-can-feel-every-little-bump bike.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful morning with the temperature in the low 70s with a slight headwind.\u00c2\u00a0 After a few miles I wish I had spent more time adjusting the seat as the nose is just a smidge high.\u00c2\u00a0 And as the grade increases I try to shift down into a lower gear, and of course, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m already in my lowest gear.\u00c2\u00a0 I stop in Makawao for water and head up Olinda Road which is probably the steepest part of the ride.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really wishing I had that extra gear, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a relief when I come to the right turn on Hanamu Road for a few miles of rolling hills before the left on Haleakala Highway.\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see many cyclists, but I do pass a couple and as part of my greeting mention what a great day it is to climb the mountain.\u00c2\u00a0 They look at me like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m crazy and say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re climbing that thing?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 And of course that same question has been bouncing around in my head every now and then as I look up and see how much of it there is.<\/p>\n

I try to break the trip up into segments \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 1000 foot segments \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not think of the whole 10000 feet all at once.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got my Garmin in my pocket and pull it out now and then to check my progress.\u00c2\u00a0 And it becomes increasingly clear that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at 6+ hours for the assent and who knows how long for the descent.\u00c2\u00a0 The guy at the shop said 1 \u00c2\u00bd – 2 hours but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read that it sometimes takes up to three.\u00c2\u00a0 So far, it looks like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll still get back before 6pm, but as the air gets thinner, I become less sure.<\/p>\n

I read that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to stop at the Sunrise Market to get water, so I do along with a dozen or so Japanese tourists who arrive at the same time.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a small (tiny) market, so getting to the bottled water is not an easy task.\u00c2\u00a0 When I ask how much it is, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m aghast:\u00c2\u00a0 $2.75 for a little bottle of water!\u00c2\u00a0 The cashier tries to be helpful by mentioning that I can get a big bottle for only $2.95.\u00c2\u00a0 But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want a big bottle, so I get some tap water from the bathroom (after waiting for several Japanese tourists).\u00c2\u00a0 This should tell me that perhaps the altitude is starting to affect my brain.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m spending over $40 on this rental bike and over $2000 on this vacation, so maybe I could spring for the $3.\u00c2\u00a0 But no, I settle for some so-so tap water.<\/p>\n

At about 5000 feet, I see a car pulled off to the side of the road and a young couple taking pictures.\u00c2\u00a0 This seems like a great opportunity to gather photographic evidence of this event, so we take each others picture and then spend 20 minutes talking about this ride and other rides and answering all sorts of questions about cycling.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m enjoying the questions and the break, but when I get back on the bike, lots of body parts don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to work as well as before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But then I enter the cloud layer that seems to inhabit Haleakala most of the day, and the coolness feels good.\u00c2\u00a0 At 7500 feet I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m feeling less happy about the lack of sun, but then at 8000 feet I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m cloud free and I feel great.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, my butt hurts so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been standing a lot, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going slower with the lack of oxygen, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not entirely convinced that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to be able to keep peddling to the top, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really not sure I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be back before the store closes.\u00c2\u00a0 But endorphins are a great drug, and I feel great.<\/p>\n

About half an hour later I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still feeling pretty pooped, when five guys come screaming down the mountain in their road bikes.\u00c2\u00a0 And they are screaming, literally, at the top of their lungs.\u00c2\u00a0 Included in their screams are some comments to me such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Way to go\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can do it\u00e2\u20ac\u009d etc.\u00c2\u00a0 And strangely, it helps.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m feeling really happy about these guys and the lift they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve given me.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, when the last one yells \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Way to go\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, I reply \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You too\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0 Right about then this van shows up, and I realize that these guys didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bike up the mountain.\u00c2\u00a0 They had someone let them off at the top.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, if my brain wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so oxygen deprived, I would have realized that these guys would have passed me somewhere along the way if they had actually gone up.<\/p>\n

The endorphins wear out about 9000 feet, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real grind the last 1000 feet.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of those so-close-yet-so-far summits that tease you.\u00c2\u00a0 But then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m at the look out just below the summit where everyone comes to watch the sunrise.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cold and windy with just a few mid day tourists.\u00c2\u00a0 The clouds have just begun to fill the crater, so the view is still great, and everyone wants to know about the ride up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not quite to the summit.\u00c2\u00a0 There is another 300 feet that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steeper than anything up to this point.\u00c2\u00a0 So in what seems like slow motion, I weave my way to the summit at 3:35pm (later I figure from my Garmin that I was in the saddle just over six hours).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After some pictures and more questions about the climb I head on down.\u00c2\u00a0 And it is heaven.\u00c2\u00a0 My butt is extremely grateful for the rest and my legs are pretty pleased also.\u00c2\u00a0 Like many slow climbers, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned to descend quickly and confidently.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit slippery back through the clouds, but after that the road is dry and smooth, and the 5-6% grade is just perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 The corners aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t banked too well at the top, but once you get out of the National Park, you hardly need your brakes.\u00c2\u00a0 I was back in Paia just under one hour and twenty minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 The total distance was 71 miles, so my average speed up was about six miles per hour (saddle time) and just less than 27 miles per hour going down.\u00c2\u00a0 During the summer you might need a camelback, but my two bottles were just fine.\u00c2\u00a0 I filled them up in Makawao, the Sunrise Market and at the visitor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s center.\u00c2\u00a0 The Perpetuum plus 4-5 energy bars were fine for fuel.\u00c2\u00a0 Be sure to bring $5 to enter the national park unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re over 62 (as I have been for a few years) and have your National Parks Senior Pass (which I did) and your ID (which I also did fortunately, since the ranger asked to see it;\u00c2\u00a0 maybe she thought that having a National Parks Senior Pass and climbing Haleakala on a bike were mutually exclusive).<\/p>\n

Oh yes, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you who showed up at the bike shop a few minutes after me:\u00c2\u00a0 our young duo.\u00c2\u00a0 They drove their car up the mountain about 10 miles, then biked up to the top and back to their car.\u00c2\u00a0 I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why I never saw them on the ride or why they took longer than I did, but they looked a bit flabbergasted to see me.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think climbing Haleakala was the hardest ride I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever done, but it was one of the most challenging mentally. \u00c2\u00a0That volcano may not be steep but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relentless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bryan Shaner It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a big volcano: Haleakala is visible from most of Maui; in fact, it is most of Maui. What the heck do I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing: why am I going to sit on a bicycle for most of the day when there are so many cool things to do and see? And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ride-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rides.actc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}