Tour de Hawai'i - Stages 1 thru 6

"Are we having fun yet?" I inquired, with a note of desperation in my voice. It was our first eve on the island and Vitali had felt compelled to show me a giant centipede he found under a rock. I was deeply unsettled by his urge to share this discovery. I wondered if we would wake up to find them crawling over us and what other oversized arthropod horrors awaited.

"Fun is happening at this very moment!" Vitali gleefully replied.

Below is a map showing where we stayed, rode, and visited while on the island. This post covers from Kona International Airport (magenta dot) clockwise to north of Hilo. We travelled mostly on the belt road: highway 11, the Mamalahoa highway, which circles the entire island.

We arrived at Kona International Airport around 11:30 in the morning, proceeded to deplane, and walked right through the terminal and out to the bus stop without anyone asking to see our covid pre-clear information or bracelet. Alrighty then!

We sat down at the bus stop and met an older couple from Pittsburgh -- the gentleman was a climber and a talker -- and his wife seemed exasperated with him as he jabbered away with us. I told him I was from PA as well and learned he owned a Ford Fiesta too. I told him we'd be in Pittsburgh in September to see a show -- and he asked, "It wouldn't happen to be the Pennsylvania Polka Festival would it?" I told him it would not be, but we quickly learned his son, bless his heart, is the biggest Pennsylvania Polka fan in the world, plays the piano accordion, and is trying to revive the genre amongst the younger generation.

The Hele-on bus soon arrived and we let the driver know we'd be getting off at the courthouse, which was the closest stop to Wal-Mart, the only shop on the island that we were sure had propane.

We arrived, disembarked, and strapped on our packs. We had our two 42 liter packs and our 13 liter daypacks with us (they zip together) -- my pack weighed maybe 22 lbs while Vitali's weighed 39 lbs. As we turned to face the direction we were headed we saw that it was raining in the distance... we weren't expecting to get out our rain covers so quickly...

Wal-Mart was about a mile away and soon we were sweating heavily.

Once inside, our bags loaded into the shopping cart, we picked up a snorkel, propane, 8 cans of spam, 5 lbs of rice, 25 tortillas, a bag of M&Ms and a jar of peanut butter. The food added about 10 lbs to our touring weight.

I opened up lyft to get a ride to where we would be staying the night, and was alarmed to see that there weren't many drivers in the area... How were we going to get to the beach? A few seconds of panic ensued while lyft looked for a driver. Very fortunately, someone took the ride and we were on our way. Apparently not many people drive for ridesharing here.

We arrived at Kohanaiki Beach Park and started walking down the beach road, looking for a camping spot. It was Monday night, and it was poppin'. Everyone and their mother seemed to be at this beach enjoying what appeared to be festivities more normally reserved for a Friday or Saturday night. The normal workweek seemed to have less relation to everyday life here. We found a spot as far away from everyone as we could, and set up our tent. It was about this time that we had the encounter of which I will not speak again.

Now to dinner -- we had heard that Hawaiians love Spam, so after seeing the protein content of a single can decided that we would be eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We popped the can open, poked at the spam curiously, and attempted to fry it up. I'm not sure I've ever had it before and Vitali had had it maybe once. We had our little backpacking pot that doesn't have a lot of weight to it -- so to get a proper sear is next to impossible.

Despite that, it was pretty good! It was hot, filling, and had all the calories we'd need. I prognosticated that soon we'd be so sick of it that we would never eat it again.

I set up a lyft for the next morning hoping to avoid the dearth of drivers and prepared to crawl into our very tiny backpacking tent and attempt to sleep. It's a 2-person and it is just enough space for two sleeping pads and our two packs; extra room is nonexistent and elbows take on lethal capabilities.

We only brought our silk sleeping bag liners for the trip -- there didn't seem to be a need for anything more when overnight lows were in the upper 60s or 70s, and they served us well. We didn't seem to have any issue adjusting to the time change either (3 hours earlier than Seattle).

Just before we zipped up for the night we were treated to a spectacular sunset.

The next morning dawned, we made breakfast (rice and spam), and waited for the lyft driver to show up. We watched the drivers location on the app and couldn't figure out what the heck she was doing. Driving the other direction, stopping at other places, and finally stopping a mile away and not moving. I called her multiple times and texted, and she did not respond. She cancelled and we were assigned someone else. About an hour had passed at this point and we couldn't believe it... never had an issue like that on the mainland. The other person eventually showed up and we headed to pick up our bikes at Bike Works Beach & Sports in Waikaloa.

We were beginning to learn that like many other diminutive landmasses surrounded by water, we were on Island Time. We stood in line at the bike shop for quite some time as the staff took care of another customer renting bikes. These other customers spent about 20 minutes waffling about what to rent and picking out a bib.

Eventually it was our turn and we got the paperwork sorted out only to realize that oops! the staff had forgotten to install the cargo racks on our bikes... and away we went to wait some more outside. We finally got the bikes and then spent another hour figuring out how to best strap our gear. We also had the added challenge of no water source at the campsite that night, so we had an extra 6L we had to attach somewhere. We did some test rides with our gear and ended up with the below configuration. It felt awkward and heavy, but after a few rides we got used to it and it was fine. I carried the tent and soft goods, while Vitali carried everything else. The extra black bag on top of the green bike was the extra water, which Vitali ended up wearing on his back to ride.

We spent several hours at the bike shop when all was said and done and finally took off around 12:15. I had on my new padded shorts and had the urge to whoop with joy as we set out up towards the main highway. Only 15 miles later would my excitement start to fade.

Our first ride would be about 24 miles, split into two as we would stop at the Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site about halfway to get a passport stamp. We knew it was ambitious for our first foray into distance riding but hey, go big or... no other option?

We were so busy sweating bullets on the first part of the ride that I didn't even take any pictures. The landscape was mostly black lava and dry grass. I was surprised to see how much lava was around as we flew in and this portion of the Hawai'i belt road was more of the same. We were traveling on the Ironman route and the shoulders were generous.

Pu'ukohola Heiau NHS, like literally any other attraction on the coast, is downhill from the belt road. The landmass of the island is simple and consistent -- basically a squat cone -- one long slope from the sea to the summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea and the other older volcanoes. This meant that we would always have an awesome climb awaiting us whenever we would make an excursion to the coast.

We rolled down to the NHS and watched the park movie which described the formation of the Hawaiian kingdom, but were disappointed to see the trail to the temple built by King Kamehameha was closed for repair, so we got our stamp and headed a few hundred yards towards the ocean to Spencer Beach Park to make lunch before we continued on.

We walked our bikes back up the hill and we must have not looked good because a nice old lady stopped and asked if we needed help. 😂

We got back in the saddle and continued north, to our final destination for the day, Mahukona Beach Park.

As we rode, conditions deteriorated. The sun was beating down on us at the height of the afternoon, it was very hot, and we had an epic crosswind. My chain fell off twice and Vitali's fell off once, all while everything in contact with my saddle was alternating between being on fire and going completely numb. We were still getting used to the handling of the bikes with the touring weight too. From driving a car you can visualize and feel (a bit) the flow of air around tractor trailers (and other vehicles) -- but until one passes you on a bike a few feet away, or even worse, from the opposite direction! At least when they passed in the same direction you got a half second boost as you got sucked in to the draft, but oncoming... woof, like bouncing off a mattress.

About halfway to Mahukona we took a break and decided we should probably purchase some electrolytes. We did not anticipate how much we would be sweating... Vitali decided to do his run for the day and run back down to the store we had just passed.

I didn't see the store but he said it was close... 5 miles later he returned, somehow even sweatier than I could believe possible, and carrying precious electrolytes. After refueling we continued on our way and rolled into the beach park, and looked for where to set up our tent.

We guessed and set up our tent near a picnic table and grill. There was no one else camping here, and about 50 feral cats. Hmmm. All the cats had a funny look to their faces, like they had something wrong genetically.

We still weren't sure of the safety of camping at these parks. I had read some negative things online about the county beach campgrounds and had yet to be proven either way.

Dusk settled, and the light pole next to our tent came on. It was sodium yellow, casting it's brilliance across a very large area and fully illuminating our tent. We looked at the light and decided to just deal with it.

We watched a dude come by with a drone and fishing rod and chatted with him -- he would carry out bait with his drone and then drop it when he saw a fish. We're really living in the future.

After another sticky night, the morning greeted us with the sound a cat horking. Reminded me of home!

We went snorkeling off of the pier in the park which belonged to an old sugarcane plantation depot, served by the Hawai'i Railway Company. Various equipment could be seen above and underwater.

We also walked along a social trail to an overlook with what appeared to be a small lighthouse, that coincidentally, had been tagged by Vitali's friend who we'd be staying with on the island!

We strapped our packs to our bikes and started the climb back up to the main road. We only had a short ride today to Kapaau, where Vitali's friends from the SCAD swim team live.

It was a beautiful ride -- the landscape changed from lava and dry grass to a more rural and agricultural landscape. My dad told me to take pictures of the wildlife on the island -- turns out most of the wildlife isn't so wild!

As the landscape changed, the shoulders narrowed but every car that passed us gave us a very wide berth (even moving into the other lane!), and we were very appreciative of it. Nobody does that where we've biked. The shoulders remained between 24"-36" wide for the majority of the tour. We also started to experience the epic headwind that would accompany us all the way to Hilo. The prevailing winds are from east to west here...

We passed a lot of cows on this trip, and beef is fairly inexpensive on the island as a result. We had one new york strip steak and it was definitely gamier than the full-fat versions on the mainland. It was good though!

After a few more miles we started riding through a more developed area, and the cute town of Hawi, where we stopped for coffee.

The town quickly became more residential, with our first taste of the rolling hills that would come to plague us the entire trip.

Eventually we made it, saddle sore, to our destination, where we spent two days visiting, relaxing, and enjoying Sam and Kelsey's hospitality. They took us down to some tide pools along the coast which were beautiful, and to a local restaurant which was celebrating their anniversary and ended up getting free fish tacos that were delicious.

Sam dropped us off at a trailhead the next morning, where we'd hike down into the Pololū Valley, up the next spit of land, and to the overlook of Honokane Nui. Not before almost being killed in a head-on collision by a distracted driver though!

It was a short and steep descent down to the valley and black sand beach, and a short and steep ascent up the other side. I placed 4th on a climb segment!

The trail was rocky, and in some places, muddy and slick.

We spent a few hours at the beach in Pololū, which was very windy, although we did have an hour or two of sunshine. I would be cleaning black sand out of my ears for weeks...

We decided to walk back to the house as it was only a few miles. This gave us the opportunity to stop and enjoy the sights. There was a dude selling $10(!) coconuts at the trailhead and giving away free slices of white pineapple. We passed on the overpriced drupes but tasted the pineapple and were blown away by how sweet (but not overly!) this exotic pineapple cultivar was.

We passed some donkeys and a curious collection of street reflectors. We'd later realize these things pop off all the time after rolling by hundreds of them scattered across shoulders around the island.

We stopped for shaved ice too. We got mango-coconut-passionfruit, and somehow, I got glutened. It was good though! Hard to mess up liquid sugar. Once we got back we rode (Stage 3, time trial) to the small grocery store that amazingly had gluten-free frozen pizza, the one thing I'd been craving almost all summer and unable to find. We managed to get that ride in right in between rain storms.

The rest of our stay with Sam and Kelsey was uneventful, and we enjoyed being able to sleep indoors on a bed. Sam kindly took us up to Waimea in the morning so we'd avoid a giant climb up and over the old volcano on that spit of land where they live. Vitali also adjusted my saddle and that helped with the discomfort quite a bit, although the damage had already been done...

We stocked up on some electrolytes, snacks, and fresh poke at the grocery store and got ready to ride. Except... it was lightly raining. Little did we know that this would be the theme and backdrop for the next two weeks. We sat under the open air structure at the strip mall eating our poke and waited. And waited. And waited some more. It was windy, foggy, and raining... Eventually we called it and decided to just go, rain be damned.

Hooo boy. The shoulders were narrow in town and it started to rain heavily. We had waterproof jackets on but they don't breathe very well... so while it kept the rain off of our torsos, we were also soaked on the inside with sweat. The rain caused the sunscreen on my face to slide into my eyes, which burned, and all the extra water made my contacts float around. It was miserable.

Eventually... we turned off of the belt road and onto the Old Mamalahoa Highway towards our next stay, a spot I had found on hipcamp. The rain finally let up to a very fine mist and we travelled through a stunning agricultural area with rolling green fields. It looked not unlike the Microsoft Windows background, although decidedly less sunny. The ride had ups and downs but was overall downhill, so it was great fun to ride. No traffic either.

We rolled into the hipcamp and were greeted by the brightest eyed hippie we've ever met. The stay was kind of generically described on hipcamp: a big yard to pitch your tent, a communal space, and a meditation room. Based on the last clue I kind of guessed it was a wellness type retreat but the depth of that was not apparent until we arrived.

The communal area. Upstairs were dorm style accommodations.

Our host had the habit of staring into the eyes of whomever he was talking to with long silences while he carefully chose his words. It lent him the air of being really intentional with the words he put out into the universe... or, having spent a lot of time with mind-altering substances. But really, he was a very kind person who welcomed us to the community that he was building there. He and another person who live there full time were both from Colorado. They were all trying to form a spiritual community while living in harmony with the environment. Our arrival was the universe sending designers and architects to this place until one decided to stay to help expand it. We had some interesting conversations...

The property itself was beautiful. There were fruit and vegetable gardens that we were welcome to, a raft of ducks that would follow us around looking for food, and a dog named Aries. When we arrived there were four baby ducks. When we left, there were only three... Our host placed his hand on his heart and looked towards the sky when we told him what we noticed.

Our host also kindly offered us to sleep in the permanent tent under a greenhouse structure instead of our backpacking tent. It was much more spacious and protected from the deluge of rain we'd receive on our second day there.

We went for a short walk to a nearby nature preserve which was a dense forest. It rained.

"Will it ever stop raining?!" Vitali asked, gesticulating wildly towards the sky, "I hate fucking rain!!" Earlier in the day our host looked at us intensely, and smiled knowingly, "I think that today there will be sun, I can feel it."

It continued to rain the rest of the day.

The nature preserve was beautiful and quiet... until we accidentally stumbled across a man shitting in the woods... who later passed us in his truck on the road back.... He gave us a friendly wave.

It was amazing seeing full size versions of the plants I keep at home. I was constantly fighting with mist on my camera lens though... We learned that the north and east sides of the island were the wet sides pretty quickly.

After two nights our time at the Whispering Winds of Mana had come to an end... we got to see another way of living -- with intention, with nature, with a community of people, together. It was attractive in some ways.

Our next ride would take us to the coast, to Laupāhoehoe Beach Park. This was another beautiful ride, and another ride with rain. The first 5 miles were steep downhill, and we flew down it. This was the first ride that we started to feel really comfortable riding and fully rested after each night.

We got into the habit of stopping at gas stations to shove calories into our face without having to haul them with us.

A little further along the road we passed through a dense eucalyptus(?) forest. The tall trees completely lined the highway.

Then we came upon a part of the road that crossed gulches over concrete bridges. The bridges were beautiful but not fun to ride -- the shoulders shrank down to maybe 12", with periodic expansion joints and drains that were hazards to ride on, as well an elevated sidewalk for pedestrians, about 36" wide. We tried both the shoulders and sidewalks (preferring neither). I went up one sidewalk that inexplicably had no ramp to get down on the other side, only a 12" drop. Our hybrid bikes did not have struts and I was able to skid to a stop on the mossy surface...

Speaking of mossy surfaces, some parts of the asphalt on the road even had moss growing on it, which was easy to lose traction on. All that rain...

We got closer to the coast and were rewarded with beautiful views of the ocean, having missed it for the past few days. We had our first encounter with the road hugging gulches -- an enjoyable descent around a sharp curve and then a steep climb up the other side... this one was right at the end of the ride too... At least the sun had come out!

We arrived to the beach park before long and once again, rode down a steep access road to the water. We groaned going down knowing we'd have to climb back up. But -- the trees were overgrown with vining philodendrons and were extraordinarily beautiful.

The park was filled with merry makers, and we rolled up to an empty picnic table and set up camp and made lunch. A shaved ice truck also came by -- Vitali asked the person to make us their favorite -- and they gave us a blue flavor covered with cream. It was delicious. Yet, I was glutened.

We learned that Laupāhoehoe beach has the unfortunate history of having been hit by the 1946 tsunami, where 25 schoolchildren and their teacher were killed. It was triggered by an 8.6 magnitude earthquake in Alaska.

The coastline was beautiful though. Sharp lava cleaved the turquoise ocean waters.

We laid in the sun for awhile (we were starting to get substantial cyclist tans), made dinner, and went to sleep.

In the morning, we walked our bikes back up the hill (and still placed 10th overall for the climb 😂) and set off. We had originally planned to spend two nights at the beach but I realized that we'd get bored, so I found a cute spot on airbnb for the night further down the coast.

Similar riding conditions from the day before -- rolling hills, lush forest and drizzly rain. We were starting to accept the fact that we would be wet for most of our rides. It's a bit of a psychological hurdle to get over, but once you do, the weather becomes immaterial. Mildew coursed through our veins.

Near the end of the ride we turned off the highway and on to a side road. This side road was so steep that I had to stop riding and Vitali sent his handlebar right into my glute, which left quite a mark.

It was here that we started to get acquainted with how google maps classified the cycling directions. That hill was a "Very steep hill", with an exclamation point. "Moderate hills" were manageable, and "Steep hill" was manageable if it was short and you could get a running start. Google maps would also occasionally call a route "Mostly flat", of which I will have comments about later...

We walked up the Very steep hill and rode through the small town of Honomu, stopped and got a fresh papaya and iced coffee, and continued to our final destination.

The final two miles of this ride was our first encounter with the really lush jungle type rainforest that I think most people would associate with being typically Hawaiian. Also, more gulches! There was squished guava on the road which was slippery and fragrant.

The foliage was spectacular, and we found the biggest avocado we'd ever seen on the ground and took it with us.

We turned off onto a gravel road towards the airbnb and walked up the driveway, it being about 12PM. I had messaged the host early that morning and asked if they allowed early check-in or if we could lock our bikes and bags somewhere. I got no response, and no one seemed to be around on the property. I called the host -- who gave me some attitude about it and told me to knock on the door inside the house. The girl there was super nice and helped us, but we weren't allowed to go inside our cabana until after 3 (even though it was already cleaned...).

Whatever... we left our bags and locked our bikes to our cabana and decided to walk to Akaka Falls State Park, 5 miles away. We had a few hours to kill so we figured why not. We filled out our water bladders from the sink in the bathroom and were on our way.

Famous last words... we stuck our thumbs out during the first mile but no one had a truck and we figured tourists weren't about to let strangers into their cars during covid.

It was hot, and somehow the sun decided to come out for today to bake us into oblivion. We passed more agricultural areas and wondered why we were here.

After what seemed like an eternity, we made it to the top of the hill. We stopped at a coconut stand but passed due to price ($10!), but not before meeting some rich Albanians. The father bought his son an Omega!

A little further up the road and we were in the park. It was kind of expensive to get in, even as the ticket was labeled for "parking" and we had no car.

A short trail took us to an overlook of the falls, which were stunning, and full of people who had no awareness of their body in space. We snapped some photos and quickly left.

Fortunately the walk back down was much better than the walk up, and there was a nice view.

Back at the cabana, it was already past 3 and we were able to open the sliding screen door and walk in. We had a hammock each, a safe, a cooler, and some blankets and towels. The walls were all screened in and there were heavier shades to keep weather out. I was able to sleep okay in the hammock but after a few hours Vitali pulled out a sleeping pad and slept on the ground. It definitely took getting used to.

It ended up pouring overnight, so much that the drops hitting the roof kept us awake. It was nice having a roof over our heads though, if nothing else.

There was also a guesthouse with private rooms and dorms on the property, as well as a camp kitchen and a shared bathroom that was open air and had a rainfall showerhead with a beautiful view. Outdoor showers are the best.

The camp kitchen had a spigot that was labeled drinking water, and one that was labeled do not drink. Uh oh... the faucet upstairs had no label, were we going to die? I messaged the host who didn't respond immediately and then Vitali asked the girls who lived here and they assured us it was treated rainwater, and okay to drink.

There was also a cat and cute kitten on the property who let us pet them. I spent some time talking to an older couple from Portland who had seen us riding on the highway the day before.

The next morning we packed up and hit the road for Hilo, the other major city on the Big Island.

See the next post for part two!