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Jace gace

Sweet/Savory. Art/Food/Beer. Strnge combinations but strangely good!

Road Rash - Haleakala Cycling Summary

View of Haleakala from the Hana Hwy, just before the turnoff to Haiku. Must have been an amazing sunrise that morning; no clouds on the mountain.

We got to the Maui Cyclery bike shop right about on time, at 8am. Donnie, the owner, was there to greet us. BTW, Donnie is a great guy; lots of advice, super friendly; totally hooked us up with some Litespeeds for the ride and set me, the novice, up with pedals and a helmet. Note to self: buy a new helmet -- that rental got awfully stinky once I started sweating (and the stink wasn't from me). I'd recommend renting through this shop again.

Back to the ride...

Elevation: 512 feet
Maui Cyclery sits in the town of Haiku, Maui, Hawaii. Katie was already waiting for us, albeit at a different bike shop. We told her the shop was next to the post office. Who knew the other shop is located next to a postal center. Anyway, that other shop was a tourist shop, for riding down the volcano. Katie eventually found us and we were on our way.

First part of the climb wasn't so bad. I almost fell at a stop sign, but unclipped in time (I got distracted talking and this was only my second time riding in cleats). The 11-12% grade section up Baldwin actually didn't feel as long as it did when we scouted the route the previous day. Thank goodness. We made it to the Haleakala Highway junction in about an hour. The weather was perfect. There was a cloud covering the sun most of the way, so we didn't get baked. Yet, the rest of the sky was blue, mostly. I'd eaten a granola bar and a banana at this point. Katie had separated herself from the pack, followed by Kei, Howie, and way in the back, me. Arriving at the stop, I fell after forgetting to unclip. Note to self: practice unclipping a few more times before the next stop. Note to others: I didn't make that mistake again.

Elevation: 2500 feet
Arrive at Sunrise Market at about 10:30 AM. Howie says we left the bike shop at about 8:30 AM, so 2000 feet in 2 hours. At this rate, there's no way we'll get back in time, so I'm obviously holding Howie back. No sign of Katie, so we send Kei to chase her. See previous post. The woman working here is super nice (notice a pattern forming here?). Asks me and Howie if we are training for the Cycle to the Sun race, but we are not. I down the rest of my second water bottle, and eat an energy bar. Howie buys more water and hooks me up with more cytomax. I take a leak, which thankfully was clear, meaning I'm not dehydrated. Kei still doesn't appear, so we assume he just kept heading up.
Elevation: 3200 feet
The Crater Road (Hwy 378) begins here. Not very encouraging to see that I have 22 more miles to go.

Elevation: ~5000 feet?
We are on the switchbacks now, Howie and I. He is about half a switchback ahead of me. I hear him talking to someone. Kei? Nope. A white car approaches, and it is Alice returning from the summit. I ask her where she's heading and she says the Grand Wailea Spa. I think she is joking. After the turn, when he's in sight, I yell that I need to rest. I think I'm around mile 5 or 6 at this point. Kei phones and says he's waiting for us ahead, about 4 switchbacks up. I ask him what the route is like (i.e. does it get any easier) and he says it's pretty much the same. So much for hope. After I round the corner and approach Howie, I hear Kei yell to us. He's a small red dot up near where the para- and hang-gliders' launching pad.

Elevation: ~6000 feet
Join up with Kei. I eat some of my dried fruit, down the rest of my cytomax, and Kei refills my bottles. Kei says he talked to Alice (on the phone, she apparently didn't see him b/c she was watching the gliders launching) and she really was going to the spa. Her landlady insisted she go and take it off the rent. Why don't I have a landlady like that? ;-)

Somewhere around here, Kei gives me a few pushes up the hill. Amazing. Shortly thereafter, I tell them to leave me or else they won't summit in time. We're not quite at the park entrance, so this might be around 6800 feet elevation. I eventually catch them at the ranger kiosk. Perfect timing actually, as they just finished paying for me and all I had to do was ride by and grab my receipt from the ranger. Haha, I actually passed some cars on the ascent. Granted, they were waiting in line to pay.

Elevation: ~7000 feet
Stop at the Visitor Center. Go to the bathroom, refill the water bottles. Contemplate waiting for the guys, but decide to push on.

Elevation: ~7200-7500 feet
Mile Marker 14. It's about 2:27pm and about time to turn around, but I decide I'm going to ride until my original turnaround point, 2:30pm. Make it a little past the mile marker, then call Kei to say I'm heading down.


The Descent
Now the reward.
Elevation: ~7000 feet
Reach the Visitor Center in 9 minutes. Go to the bathroom again, top off the water. Hang out a bit at the Visitor Center, then decide I should just head down to warmer weather and find Katie.
Reach the Hwy 377/Hwy 378 junction in 25 minutes from the Visitor Center. I wonder how fast I was going. I got lucky and didn't have any cars in front or behind me the whole way down. I was even luckier I didn't crash. At one point, the wind and flapping of my jacket were so loud that I was convinced there was a car behind me. I looked, but no car. Headed into the left, outside turn faster than comfortable. Rear wheel locked up and washed out a bit, but I recovered.

Met Katie at the store a little ways below the Sunrise Market. Got some chocolate and a sports drink with her, used the restroom, then waited for the guys. After they arrived, we headed down together, Howie in the lead. Not far after the Kula lodge, I crashed. Rewind: we see a car at the intersection. We pass and the car pulls onto the road behind us. We keep to the right and then on a left, outside turn, it happens again. I go in faster than comfortable, brake, and the rear wheel locks up. I guess I hold the brake longer this time because Howie is in front of me, and I have traffic behind me (Kei, Katie, then the car). Next thing I know, I'm off the bike, land on my left butt cheek, and slide 10-20 feet. See water bottle roll down the hill. I feel fine. Kei comes to check on me and I start to stand. I feel my ass and realize I'm touching my skin, or what's left of it. My shorts have torn right through and my cheek is hanging out. The car stops and the driver comes out to check on us. She offers me a ride. At first, I'm thinking I can ride back to the shop myself, but a few seconds later I come to my senses and take her up on the offer. I don't think I want to ride with my ass hanging out of my shorts, and who knows how bad it really is. I learn the driver's name is Kachina and she's on her way to the Katchafire concert. I'm going to make her late to pick up her friend. She's had a strange day, and this tops it off. I tell her it will improve, as her good deed will be rewarded with good karma. She drops me at the shop, gives me some supplies from her first aid kit as well as the towel I'm sitting on, and I send her on her way. Surprisingly, Katie, Kei, and Howie ride up within 5 minutes. They must have been hauling ass down the hill. Once they arrive, I go to clean myself up.

Donnie was totally cool about the crash. Luckily, I didn't scratch up the frame or derailleur. Just scratched up the grip tape, pedals, and rear quick release.

WARNING: what you are about to see may be graphic and inappropriate (not). But, if you don't want to see my road rash ass, look away now.











So, now it's Tuesday, and I'm still trying to heal. I've applied some of the Johnson and Johnson Advanced Healing pads. Cool stuff. My ass actually doesn't hurt too much. My leg hurts more. I guess that's why kids get spanked on the butt, fewer nerve endings.

Oh, the most surprising thing about the ride is that I wasn't sore the next day. I thought I wouldn't be able to walk, but I was fine. I think because I drank so much fluids and ate a lot. I think I had 2 granola bars, 1 banana, 1 protein bar, 8 ounces of dried fruit, 2 clementines, at probably 6 liters of fluids, at least. Not exactly light and fast, and maybe I could have summitted without all the extra weight (I doubt it), but I'm glad I did it this way. Much less pain during and afterwards, which makes it more likely that I'll attempt something like this again.

On the ride, I got a phone call from United Airlines saying my upgrade request was approved. I was getting upgraded to first-class, using my miles. I was glad to hear, as I was expecting to be super sore on the way home. More on this later....

Stuck in Maui

I suppose there are worse places to be stranded, but it's like being
imprisoned at San Quentin or Alcatraz: you are surrounded by a
beautiful location, yet you can't enjoy, except the view from your
cell. At least I'm drinking a mai tai and it's Raining outside. Would
be worse if the weather was beautiful, but then again I wouldn't be
doing much besies nursing the road rash on my ass. Maybe this means an
extra night in paradise. Battery getting low so will write more later.

--
Kenneth Wan
Dream League
http://www.dreamleague.org

Fwd: Haleakala, descent part 1

Mile marker 14. Eight to go. I made it maybe a hundred yards beyond
this sign. With no realistic chance of summiting (would probably take
me at least 2 hours from this point), and the fact that
I'm just plain tired, I'm deciding to call it a day and descend. A

couple miles back I actually had delusions that I would make it, with
Kei, Howie, and Katie cheering me on as I entered the lot. Obviously
delusional as Katie already descended.

At least I reached my secondary goal of making it 2/3 of the way to the top. I estimate at this point the elevation is about 7200' or 7500'.

Haleakala ascent, part 2

Just inside the park entrance.

Self-portrait as Kei and Howie had to leave me if they want any hope of summiting before time expires (we have to return the bikes by 4pm).

It's pretty cold now and I'm going to don some arm warmers. Weather at the beginning of the ride was perfect. You could see the summit from sea level (first time I've been able to; the rest of the days the lower mtn has been covered by clouds).

The climbing is getting (has been) pretty brutal and Kei pushed me up a couple of steep sections. I don't realistically think I'll make the summit at this point, but will push on as far as I can. Now, it's one mile, one milestone, at a time. Just want to reach the visitors center right now, which isn't too far. After that, who knows.

Haleakala ascent, part 1

Here's Howie at the Sunrise Market, about 1.5 hours into the ride.

So far, not too tired. Haven't drank as much fluid as planned, but just downed the rest of a bottle of cytomax. Katie took off on the climb, completely missing the market. We sent Kei to chase after her, but don't know if he'll catch her. Will bring him some water.