The owners of the B and B gave me a ride to a grocery store to stock up for the two day climb up Haleakala, the big shield volcano that dominates East Maui. It is substantially cooler in the Upcountry, which was a nice break from the heat down by the coast.
The next day, Christmas Eve, I headed up to 7000 ft to camp inside the National Park at Hosmer Grove.
It was quite windy and cool so most of the folks in the campground congregated around a nice campfire for most of the evening. It was a rather eclectic group with some locals from Paia and Makawao, including a semi-homeless Vietnam vet, and a big group of Canadians.
The next morning, I left most of my gear and headed for the summit. The climb was a nice gradual grade and, riding light with only a bit of food and warm clothes, I was able to comfortably climb several gears above Granny gear. The road switchbacked up and the views became more and more spectacular with some views towards the Big Island and Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in the distance.
The 1000 ft markers slowly passed by and after about three hours of steady climbing, I got to the summit at a bit over 10,000 ft. The Haleakala climb is supposedly the shortest road to this altitude in the world.
The views were fantastic as the sun was going down.
It gets dark very quickly in the tropics so after a few photos, I put on warm clothes and started the coast back down to camp. The clouds were below me, all lit up by the sunset. It felt like I was riding on the top of the world.
On my way down, a man in a red Mustang stopped me and asked if I wanted to test some high tech cycling clothes for his Swiss company. I told him I did but I needed to get down to camp before it got totally dark. On that curvy road, I was able to keep up with the cars and the Swiss guy ended up driving behind me, lighting the road for me with his brights. It was a spectacular descent, with the last of the light fading on the clouds below and my very own chase car. When I got to camp, I gave the Swiss man, Bruno, my address. He said he had seen me several times riding on the island and would send me some bike clothes to test. I hope it pans out; it would be interesting to help with gear design since I sure use my stuff pretty hard core and in some fairly rugged conditions.
Back at camp, the wind had died down and I had a nice dinner with a local couple camping on the mountain for the weekend.
I spent the next two days slowly making my way back to the coast and hanging out on the beach near Paia. Then it was back to the Banana Bungalow for my last night and a quick ride to the airport this morning. The hostel had stored my bike box and one of the employees was nice enough to drive it to the airport for me.
So, my two week adventure in paradise is over and it's time to get back to the real world.
-- Post From My iPhone
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