Maui

A week on Maui, December 2024.

The thought was in the back of my mind for some time: I wanted to go somewhere warm to do some cycling over winter break. Things were so busy at work in November that I wasn’t focused on what might be possible, given logistics with travel and holidays and needing someone to look after Woo. Finally though, over Thanksgiving break, Kyle, my tenant and default dogsitter finalized his plans for travel back to Wisconsin for Christmas and I was able to lock down a week where I’d be on break, he’d be available to look after Woo and the house I was looking to rent on Maui was available. All the pieces had fallen into place!

Unpacking the Emonda in my new digs for the week.

I finished up a week of finals, grading, meetings and Christmas parties on Friday and hastily modified my travel pack list to include everything I’d need for all I wanted to do while I was on Maui. This meant packing up the road bike of course, a process I am still dialing in. The Orucase has worked great for the past couple trips though. It’s big enough to fit a mountain bike, so a gravel bike or a road bike is no issue at all and United does not charge for oversize luggage if it’s a bike : ) Thanks United for taking good care of my baby on this trip!

Sunrise on my first morning in Haiku. It’s a three hour time difference with respect to Denver. I never fully adjusted and didn’t sleep past 5 most mornings.

Flowers flowering.

Home base in Haiku.

I brought my AeroPress to make coffee of course and bought groceries at Haiku Market on day one, along with some charcoal so I could grill up fresh fish on the patio. I basically ate the same thing every day: oatmeal with blueberries and maple syrup in the morning and some kind of fish later in the day, supplemented with numerous fig bars while I was riding or hiking. I was also given a bunch of fresh fruit and avacados by Mick (not Mick Fleetwood, though he lives on Maui too apparently) the Welsh caretaker who lives in the ohana across the way.

Bungle in the jungle: the view from the patio.

Surfboards are everywhere on Maui. These retired boards were on the camp road.

Bamboo is also everywhere.

And chickens! These are actually Red Junglefowl, a mother and chick on the entrance road to the camp.

Daddy Junglefowl.

There she is. Haleakala.

This was my first view of the volcano that makes up 75% of Maui. It looked intimidating from the plane as I contemplated what my ride to the summit would be like. Haleakala is considered sacred by some native Hawaiians and it definitely has an intense presence. It’s even more impressive when you realize that the 10,000 feet of the volcano you can see is only one third of it, with the remaining 20,000 feet underwater. If measured from the sea floor Haleakala is taller than Mt. Everest.

With my bike assembled and plenty of fig bars in my pack I started my ride on Monday with a perfect weather forecast of sunshine and low winds. I originally wanted to ride from the coast but, after scouting in the Jeep the day prior, I realized that many of the roads on Maui were not suitable for cycling, or rather they did not meet my minimum safety standards – too many curves with no lines of sight for oncoming drivers, no bike lanes, Hawaiians driving at unsafe speeds and tourists in unfamiliar rental vehicles fumbling with Google maps. Fortunately for me the bike fit easily in the back of the Jeep with the seats down. I drove inland a few miles to the town of Makawao where there is a nice bike lane on a super smooth road. The start of the ride wound through several miles of jungle and then opened up into beautiful pastures. This ride would be uphill from the start but with an average grade of only 5 or 6% it would be a day of pacing, not racing.

If you just keep pedaling…pasture turns to wide open landscape, devoid of trees. The weather also starts to change as clouds gather around the volcano.

Eventually, grasses give way to volcanic rock and the clouds solidify below. Off in the distance I could see some of the other islands in the chain. You can just make out Kaho’olawe and Lanai here.

If you just keep pedaling…

The weather held out for the whole ride. The summit was breezy and a little chilly, but not freezing cold as it often is apparently. That’s the big island of Hawai’i in the background.

This is the view of Haleakala’s massive crater at 10,023 feet, 11 miles across by 3 miles wide.

I didn’t linger long at the summit. I did my little dance on a volcano, donned my cold weather gear and started the 27 mile descent down the windy road, through the clouds and back to the humid jungle.

Back at camp, I cracked a beer, put up my feet, and watched my version of TV until the sun set. I had downloaded the database of Hawaiian birds to Merlin before I left Denver, but I was surprised to find that it only recognized a small number of species on Maui. So I don’t know half of what was out there making all the racket, but I did see myna birds, Java sparrows, Eurasian skylarks, and even a short-eared owl in addition to many waterbirds I haven’t identified yet.

Inlet at the end of the camp road

The mission for the following day was to scout the road to Hana. This would be the next bike ride but, again, I was unsure how comfortable I would be on a windy Maui road with no bike lane. Also, I had read that the road got quite rough in spots and, since I had opted to bring my lightweight road bike with skinny tires, I wasn’t going to want to tackle anything too sketchy.

Much of the road is right along the coast, some of it right on the cliff overlooking a significant drop to the sea below.

I made a stop for some Halfway to Hana banana bread : )

I couldn’t get over the amazing variety of trees on Maui, many of them towering to spectacular heights.

Made another stop at Laulima Farm where they grow all their organic produce onsite using sustainable farming practices. I got a freshly squeezed tropical fruit drink which was cold and delicious. I was very impressed to learn that they also grow and hand pick their own Kona coffee on the farm. Of course I had to have a bag of that!

Road does get a little rough in spots. And narrow too. The Jeep was a good choice for this trip.

All of a sudden you get to the south side of the island where it opens up with Haleakala to the right and the Pacific to the left and a buttery smooth road ahead with no cars to speak of. I’ve found my cycling route!

Kaho’olawe and Lanae

On the bike again the following day for an out-and-back on the backroad to Hana, this was one of the most spectacular rides of my life. The ride east was fast and scenic with rollercoaster hills and a perfectly smooth surface the whole way. It was pure road bike paradise.

I saw very few cars over the course of the day. It was mostly just me and the volcano. When I was stopped for a fig break at the turnaround spot four cyclists on fancy road bikes caught up to me and asked about the road ahead. I told them I had scouted it the day before and it was rough and twisty with too many cars on the northeast side and that’s why I wasn’t going to do the ride as a loop. They were determined to press on though. I hope you made it guys!

The wind picked up a bit on the return trip and it became clear to me that those punchy descents on the first part of the ride were now punchy climbs. Would my water and fig bars hold out?? And my legs??!! I think the total climb this day was 5000+ feet.

No ride is complete unless you see a goat sitting on top of a shed.

The next day was a water day. I drove over to the west side of the island to a spot that Mick had told me about. He had snorkeled there a couple days prior and had swam with turtles and saw all kinds of other marine life.

I had a blast hanging with the turtles and tropical fish. The water was a perfect temperature and my legs were happy to have a break from climbing hills.

The following day started out on the water too. I had reserved a kayak to go out and look for humpback whales.

I went with a small group and a guide who took us out a mile or so to where multiple humpbacks were playing in the bay. It’s illegal to paddle up to the whales but you can just hang out in their general vicinity and sometimes they will come over to check you out. At one point a humpback surfaced about 20 yards in front of my kayak, heading straight for me. That was freaky, but it just passed under my boat and went on its way. I may or may not have peed myself.

After a few hours in the kayak it was still just mid-morning so I thought I’d take a hike on the west side of the island. Our kayak tour guide recommended the Wahiee Ridge Trail and so that’s where I went. The trail was a two-mile out-and-back in Maui’s West Island Forest Reserve with views of the coast on both sides and the lush Iao Valley inland.

So much for giving my legs a break from climbing.

Iao Valley

They filmed parts of Jurassic Park on Maui.

I am best suited for arid climates.

Last day on Maui: I woke up early and went over to Pea’hi on the north coast, just a short drive from the camp in Haiku. I had spoken to a number of locals who were talking about the big swell that was hitting Maui. The Jaws surf break at Pea’hi is where some of the biggest waves in the world occur. There is a shelf under the water there and the waves come in and can reach heights of 70 feet. Surfers come from all over the world to surf here for that reason and apparently these big swells don’t happen very often. I was told the last major one was seven years ago.

I woke up early enough to get down there at high tide when the waves were supposed to be 40 feet or so. It’s hard to get scale from the picture above, but if you look closely in the lower left you can see some surfers and people on jet skis. The jet skis will pull a surfer out and onto the top of a wave and then they’ll ride it out. There’s no beach here, just rocks and reef, so only the most experienced surfers tend to surf here. It was incredible to watch and a nice way to spend my last day on the island.

Afterwards, I went back to camp, packed up the bike and my other stuff, fed the stray cat I had adopted for the week (my Maui Mowmow) and mentally prepared myself for the long flight back to Denver.

The end.