Tour de Hawai'i - Stages 13 thru 17

Act III

Hawai'i Belt Road, several miles south of Captain Cook. Light to moderate rain. Motor vehicles and their passengers wheeling about with the obvious intent that they had somewhere important to be. Two riders on bicycles, oblivious to the rain but otherwise wholly preoccupied with the act of riding.

Thunk. I both saw and viscerally heard Vitali's back wheel as it rolled over a large object, jumping about 6" and Vitali barely retaining control.

"What was it?!" I exclaimed.

"A coconut!" We dissolved into laughter. Only are drupes road hazards in the far flung tropical places of this planet.

Welcome to the final post of our Tour de Hawai'i! We are picking up in Ocean View, at the southern end of the Big Island, and taking it all the way back up the west coast to Waikaloa.

What a long, strange ride it's been.

The Hele-on bus bound for Ocean View departed Punalu'u Beach Park at 8:30AM. Like many other routes on the Big Island, there is only one departure per day. As a result we had quite a bit of time to kill before we could check in to our next place at 12PM. We also feel like riding the bus is cheating... so we disembarked as soon as we could and started to ride.

We stopped at a grocery store (which had an excellent gluten-free section!) to pick up some snacks. We loitered for a bit outside and had a conversation with an employee about riding. He asked us our opinion on e-bikes, were they sacrilege? We readily admitted we would only do the ride we were on under our own power, so we supposed so.

Eventually we left and decided to see if we could stop at Manukā State Wayside, a county picnic area along the road which the website said was closed. We had a few hours to kill and nowhere else to go, so away we went.

We rolled up and to our surprise the park was open! We went over to one of the pavilions to observe the passage of time. We read a few of the park exhibits and learned that this park contains native and exotic plants originally planted in the mid 19th century.

We also learned that the restrooms were composting -- which we've never seen on a scale larger than one or two fixtures... and conditions were beyond the pale. Out of all the vault toilets, pit toilets, and outhouses we've seen this summer this smelled by far, the worst.

We watched as a few people came and went, picnicking and visiting the nature trail. There was a person playing the guitar who had a pretty good voice too.

We saw some peacocks and a huge flock of saffron finches pecking about for lunch.

Eventually we were close enough to 12PM to depart and we continued the last few miles to our hipcamp. We stopped by a fruit stand on the side of the road that was unmanned. We wanted to buy a pineapple but it was $5 and we only had $4.85... So, we bought a few apple bananas with our quarters and left.

We got off the main highway and back on to the Old Mamalahoa Highway and climbed a few rolling hills and finally arrived at our hipcamp. We went around back and were greeted by a herd of sheep! They seemed very curious about what we were doing.

We waited for our host to greet us before setting up and admired the property. Tons of fruiting tropical plants all over the place.

Our host Barbara came out shortly and said hello, and told us we could set up under her home church tent if we wanted. We took her up on her offer -- leaving the fly off our tent means it is infinitely more comfortable inside. There also wasn't any sheep poop under there.

She gave us a tour of her property as she told us about her medical missionary work -- she had a backyard tennis court (she was a National Champion), and an extremely beautiful dry-set lava wall surrounding it that her husband built for her. She had bananas, guava, macadamia, avocado, and pineapples growing.

There was a large screened in structure further up the property where she hosts farm stays. Nearby was a man-made swimming pond that his since grown over. She offered us a farm stay too, if in the future we were interested -- this apparently entailed about two hours of pulling weeds a day (the sheep won't eat weeds).

She's been doing medical missions around the world for decades, and was even leaving for Albania the day after we left. She also volunteers at Ironman every year as a medic.

She gave us some unopened macadamia nuts and told us the story about when she was going to sell one of her male sheep and he was misbehaving -- the sire of the sheep came over and butted him, but also knocked her over in the process. She hit her head on the rock we were using to crack open the macadamias. Somehow she walked away uninjured.

Once she learned we were Architects eventually looking to buy a home she gave us a tour inside -- she was selling the property for $500,000. The lower level consisted of sleeping quarters and a camp kitchen, and the upper level was a beautiful vaulted space with a living area and kitchen, and her home office off to the side.

Part of what makes her hipcamp unique is she will make guests guacamole and you can eat it watching the sun set from her deck. The weather didn't cooperate but she still fed us snacks and a smoothie, and we met one of her chickens who apparently was hanging out upstairs. Upon closer inspection, Vitali realized the poor chicken was missing an eye! That's probably why she was hiding.

We also met the friendliest of the sheep, Patches, and Barbara gave us some cookie to feed him by hand. He was very cute.

Evening settled in and we bid Barbara good night. In the morning we ate some more rice and spam, and leftover guacamole, and hit the road. We had a long ride today -- 20 something miles to the Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park, and then another 10 to where we would stay for the night.

Barbara sent us off with directions and away we rode.

This was the first time in the trip where the shoulders got uncomfortably narrow. 12"-18" wide, often overgrown with vegetation, moss, and littered with gravel.

The ride to the NHP was sunny and dry though, which was a welcome change. We passed some interesting statues...

And a car that was returning to nature. We saw quite a few abandoned cars on side roads.

Near to the turn to the NHP we spied a smoothie stand and decided to stop. We had a conversation with someone who was wearing an in-n-out burger tee shirt from Oregon -- he owned the same bikes we did! I'm not sure if he worked for in-n-out or not but he knew that they were having a company wide retreat at a resort right now -- all of the store managers got to attend! I wonder what they ate.

We ordered a next level mango-pineapple smoothie that was probably the tastiest smoothie I've ever had, and also bought some mangoes. Interestingly -- the woman ringing us up was a mango farmer and wearing gloves -- turns out she was allergic to mangoes! I told her my last name meant wheat and I too, was allergic. We laughed.

Once we ran out of smoothie we made the turn down to the coast. Aided by gravity we rolled all the way down, and pushed the thought of climbing back up the hill to the back of our minds. For now, we'd visit and enjoy.

Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park was the most unique site we visited on the Big Island. A Pu'uhonua is a place of refuge -- if you had broken a kapu (a sacred law punishable by death), or were defeated in battle, if you could make it to this place, no harm would come to you. The Pu'uhonua is protected by Lono, the god of fertility, rainfall and peace.

The park had a really great re-enactment film of a defeated warrior who had an epic journey through jungle, ocean, and lava to reach this place... and once here, he was guided by the spiritual leaders of the Pu'uhonua in healing his spirit. Once he was whole again he was able to leave.

We rode down a gravel access road and visited the beautiful coastline first, wading in the warm waters and watching fish swim by.

We rode back and walked around outside the refuge -- powerful chiefs once resided here, and a temple was built by one in honor of his father -- whose entombed remains lent mana to the protection of this place. The temple we could see was a reconstruction but was beautiful nonetheless.

Kii (statues) near the temple provide additional protection to this sacred place.

Then we spent some time walking around inside the 20' thick walls of the refuge itself. It was very peaceful.

We met three people who had spied us earlier with our bikes and came to talk. They too were riding around the island! But we came to learn they had not accepted Rain as their Lord and Savior. They had started in Hilo but it was so rainy that they hopped on the bus and rode the saddle road over the island to the west side, where it was drier.

We turned our minds to the next task at hand -- hauling ourselves and our 70 pounds of food and gear back up the hill and on to the belt road. It was just after noon, sunny, and hot.

We began our assault... which petered out pretty quickly. We pulled over at a scenic overlook which smelled awful and Vitali found a dead cow behind the fence. We continued on... and rested... and continued on... As we ascended higher Lono came to our aid and hid us from the sun. Eventually it started to drizzle, which was about what we were expecting; at least it cooled down a bit.

Eventually we reached the top of the hill and the belt road, and continued on our way, the fatigue in our muscles slowly receding.

It started to rain, and the road started to roll aggressively. Up and down up and down up and down and up up up... etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum... This is where we encountered the coconut road hazard... to date we had also rolled over quite a bit of slick guava, whole avocados, and occasionally a flattened mongoose.

My bike had difficulty shifting between 2 and 4 since the beginning but Vitali completely lost his lower gears during this ride -- and was limited to something like 5-8 only, which made this ride all the better.

When we thought we could almost make it no further... we made it up the hill and to the Manago Hotel. I didn't realize there was a big climb to get up here until after the fact.

I hadn't nailed down where we were staying that night because of our changed plans back from Punalu'u Beach. I looked and looked and looked but couldn't secure an affordable spot until I found the Manago Hotel by looking at google maps and looking up the names of guesthouses I could see. This place wasn't on any booking sites, had a simple website, and listed first floor rooms as only $81. Sold!

For $81 I wasn't expecting much but when we pulled up we were surprised to see an adorable historic hotel. Our room was clean, simple, and had an ocean view. Sometimes the chance finds are the best finds.

We were glad to have a real shower and relax a little bit. We watched the sun set and rain clouds come in and then went to dinner at the hotel restaurant -- the oldest restaurant on the island (over 100 years!).

Vitali ordered ono (some type of fish) and I ordered a new york strip steak. It came family style with rice, cabbage, beans, and cole slaw. It was excellent. We were so psyched to be ordering food and having it brought to us. I did get glutened though.

The next morning we ate rice and spam for breakfast, and a mango, and was treated to a rainbow over the ocean.

Today, we had a short and sweet ride to the airbnb we'd stay at for our final three days on the island -- just outside of Kailua-Kona. We were so glad after yesterday's hellacious rolling hills.

Our gladness dissolved abruptly as we checked out and stood outside waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for the pouring rain to stop... but it didn't, so we set off, once again, in the rain.

Traffic picked up steadily as we approached Kailua-Kona while the shoulders remained narrow. We were soaked within 10 minutes, dodging puddles, giant semis, and regular vehicles. But as we got to the outskirts of the city the shoulders became wider and the rain ceased. The last half mile to the AirBnB was the Very Steepest Hill we encountered on the island. I couldn't make it up without stopping.

Our AirBnB was a sectioned off ground level master suite with an entrance off the side of a house. It was the nicest accommodations of our trip, our small reward for making it through three weeks of being rubber tramps.

Once we got unpacked we rode down to Kailua-Kona to get groceries and do laundry. It was downhill all the way to town...

We got our laundry going and happened to see a sushi restaurant next door and went and ordered some at the window. Not a lot of variety but we got some shrimp nigiri, a Kona roll, and a Philadelphia roll. The rolls were twice the size of a normal roll, and they were delicious. Somehow, I was glutened.

We picked up our laundry and some groceries and found ourselves in the predicament of not having enough space to transport our food. We had to strap the loaf of bread to the outside of our pack...

We rode back up the hill to our AirBnB and were finally able to sit around and relax. I saw that Twilight was trending on Netflix so we decided to indulge. Once you accept that these movies are ridiculous they are pretty entertaining!

The next day we were going to explore the coast here a bit. I had read Magic Sands beach park was beautiful as well as the next beach down, Kahalu'u beach.

We rode down the Very Steep Hill to the coast, and pulled up to Magic Sands. It's one of the few white sand beaches in the area and it was packed. We rolled right on by.

Kahalu'u was a little better, but still very busy. We had ridden all this way carrying snorkeling gear so we got off and went in. The water was turquoise and crystal clear.

There were some sort of reef conservancy staff in the water directing people where to enter and how to behave in the water -- which I've never seen before but thought was excellent. Finally! Public outreach on how to behave outdoors!

We saw quite a few fish, some similar and some different than the fish we are used to seeing in the Mesoamerican reef. Not a lot of unique coral though, it sounded like this area was recovering from overuse.

We laid around in the sun for awhile and then decided to head back. We stopped by another roadside fruit stand to get some more mangoes and some passionfruit. The ladies asked us -- are you here for Ironman? We were extremely flattered but said no.

Back at the AirBnB we continued with our Twilight saga...

I looked at the window halfway through Breaking Dawn and saw bright orange... we walked outside and were shocked by the color of the sky. This was probably one of the most spectacular sunsets I had ever seen.

We couldn't get a perfectly clear view of the ocean but we still got quite a show.

The next morning, we left bright and early so we could visit the Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park and then ride the rest of the way to BikeWorks to return our bikes. This NHP preserves and protects native Hawaiian activities and culture.

We were riding on the Ironman route now with lovely wide shoulders and gentle grades.

We arrived before the gate to the NHP was open... but we walked around it and parked our bikes and walked along a series of trails to get a taste of the park.

We walked along the lava portion of the trail first since I read that it can get quite hot. Loose lava is not the most enjoyable trail surface.

Then we strode past a traditional fishpond, coastal area, a beach, and religious sites.

We made it back to the Visitor Center just in time for it to open and we picked up our coin, stamp, and sticker, and got back in the saddle for our final ride.

We had just 22 miles left between the NHP and Waikaloa. We'd come full circle and the feeling of our final ride was one of building triumph.

We got behind a pair of what looked like actual cyclists who knew what they were doing; they had the right outfits at least. We kept up with them for awhile.

As we got closer and closer to Waikaloa and the resorts we passed quite a few more riders who all waved at us like we were a part of their club. We supposed they were training for Ironman or perhaps avid cyclists like coming here for vacation so they can ride the route.

We passed through fields of dark lava and dry grass, and more rolling hills... until we crested the last hill and only had generally downhill left. Before we knew it, we were making the left turn back into the Queen's Marketplace and to BikeWorks.

We had made it! What was an offhand comment by my Dad turned into a full-blown odyssey.

Before we started I wondered were our plans even feasible? While we were doing it I wondered if I would smell like mildew forever. After we completed it, there was no more wondering. Only the joyful knowledge that we had accomplished something great, together.

It was bittersweet returning the bikes... and we walked away feeling extremely bereft. We said goodbye to Midnight and Forestry and walked over to Starbucks. It took a few hours to stop thinking about where our bikes were.

We drank our iced coffee in the nicely manicured courtyard in the mall and then headed over to Foster's Kitchen. This place was highly rated on find me gluten free. We ordered a celebratory meal -- ribs and fish tacos, which were BOMB! This was the only meal I ate on the island that I didn't get glutened...

It was so great to eat something that wasn't rice and spam. The tally of the food we carried and prepared was something like 20 cans of spam, 8 cans of ham or turkey, 2 cans of chili, 5 lbs of rice, 30 tortillas, a whole jar of peanut butter, countless chocolate bars, and other miscellaneous snack items.

We were planning on riding the bus back to the airport to pick up a Turo but had a few hours to kill, so we walked down to Waikaloa beach. This area has several resorts so it was landscaped very nicely. Luckily there was public access to the beach for us plebs...

And as we walked we noticed for the first time a whiff of something burning. Once we got to the beach we could see that there was definitely smoke coming from somewhere. We googled it and it turns out two brush fires had started on the island the day before -- near Punalu'u, and then right near where we were -- between Waimea and Waikaloa Village. Yikes!

We laid out in the not-quite-sun for awhile and watched the windsurfers. After awhile we left to go look for the bus stop, which we eventually found and sat down to wait.

Once we got on the bus and started cruising at motorized speeds we noticed just how smoky it was... it was pretty unreal, the air was filled with smoke.

We got off at the airport, found our Turo, and drove back to our AirBnB. We had planned on taking the car up to the Mauna Kea visitor center the next morning so we could hike to the summit.

The next morning dawned early and we packed our things and hit the road (in a vehicle! with an engine!) to head up towards the interior of the island. Our flight back home was leaving at 10:30 PM that night so we wanted to make sure we had enough time to summit and come back.

As we ascended from sea level to 8,000 feet it got smokier and smokier until we couldn't even open the windows without coughing. We were worried about being able to hike at all, certainly not with the air this thick with smoke.

As we turned off the main road towards the Visitor Center we passed what looked like some sort of encampment, with signs like Tourist Go Home.

Some googling revealed that a group was protesting the construction of a new telescope -- the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), and had created an encampment at the base of the mountain in 2019. The TMT project has since been put on hold but it looks like a hardcore group of the protestors were still living there. The issue came down to building on state owned land (questionably acquired) without the consent of the Indigenous people.

As we continued on the access road the smoke had started to clear and by the time we hit 9,000' -- it was clear enough to hike safely. There is a road that goes all the way up to the summit -- but it requires 4wd. We did not have that capability (most rental places also explicitly forbid taking the car up there), plus, we wanted to hike the mountain.

We would take the Humu'ula Trail from the Visitor Center up to the summit. There was one other vehicle at the trailhead when we arrived around 6:15 AM. We filled out a hiker form at the start and left it in the box. I had planned the time it would take on the worst case of having to hike back down -- but, I was really hoping to hitch a ride at the top in the back of someones truck.

A few hundred yards up the road we were stopped by a ranger who checked who we were and that we were prepared for the undertaking. We assured him we were prepared and then continued to the trailhead, and as we started to ascend we could see the smoke lingering on the west side of the mountain. We were above the clouds already.

The trail was steep. And even worse, sandy. After a mile or so we caught up to the other hikers -- two buddies, one from California, one from Boston, and we talked to them for awhile while we walked -- they were high pointers. Eventually we continued onwards by ourselves. Over the first three miles we gained nearly 3,000' feet, at about a 17% average grade, although Strava shows that there were portions up to 37%.

Multitasking -- critical while hiking.

Eventually Mauna Loa revealed herself to us, half hidden in smoke, half in clouds. Smaller craters and volcanic cones dotted the landscape.

The landscape became more and more Martian -- literally, some of the rocks were red. We eventually came to a portion of the trail that was less straight up and more straight up mixed with meanderings around large rock piles, which at least, was more visually interesting.

Eventually we reached the only freshwater lake on the Big Island, a sacred lake, Lake Waiau. Scientists are not sure how the lake even exists -- usually volcanic slopes are very permeable. Theories include a permafrost liner or a welded ash liner from steam. The lake almost disappeared in 2013 but has since collected more water.

We passed the lake and continued towards the summit. And eventually we turned around a cinder cone and saw the multitude of telescopes dotting the summit! Many different countries have telescopes here, taking advantage of the very low humidity, almost non-existent light pollution, and extraordinarily clear skies.

The trail ended shortly thereafter and hooked up with the access road and we walked along it to the final push to the summit. It was steep and windy.

After a pretty slow walk (we were feeling the altitude), we topped out and had a fine view of all of the observatories. It was interesting how differently shaped they all were. You'd think there would be an ideal telescope enclosure but I suppose budgets played a role.

We could see Maui in the distance.

Much wow!

The summit of Mauna Kea, like many other prominent mountains around the world, is sacred to the indigenous people. You could clearly see a trail to the actual summit where people disregarded this which was sad.

Just when we were about done we saw a couple in a truck pull up... and I jumped on our chance. I walked up and asked if we could pay them for a ride down in the back of their truck. And bless their souls they were the friendliest people and gave us a ride down for free. But only after the wife did a handstand on top of their new truck, in legit 35 mph winds. She's a retired gymnast, and he works in construction.

They dropped us off at the visitor center and we thanked them for saving our knees. We picked up a Mauna Kea benchmark keychain for Numa and let the rangers know we made it back okay. Our friends with the truck had suggested we drive over to the Mauna Loa road so we took their suggestion and drove over.

It was through more lava field, but had an excellent view of Mauna Kea itself.

We were getting pretty tired of looking at lava by this point so we decided to head back to the coast. We were shocked to see how smoky it had become. The fire was still burning.

It was earlier in the afternoon because we had gotten that free ride so we decided to hang out at Kohanaiki Beach until it was time to go to the airport. Here we were back where it all began, mostly because we could shower before getting on the plane!

Goodbye goat.

So we hung around for a few hours, packed up our bags, and got ready to say goodbye to this beautiful island. We drove over to the airport around 7, dropped off our Turo, and went and sat outside and waited before we could get our bags scanned through the agricultural check and sit on the secure side of the airport.

We contemplated our trip. Everyone on the island was so friendly and welcoming. Nowhere on the mainland were people so open and warm. All of our worries about our safety were completely unfounded. Several natives we met referred to this as the aloha spirit. And so we will carry the aloha spirit with us, as we continue our travels to other parts of the world.

Once we were through security we opened up our laptop...and lo and behold, it started up. After three weeks of refusing to start, here, at the airport, it came back to life. Amazing.

We had an uneventful flight back -- I was able to sleep a few hours, and when we landed we picked up some free food with our Priority Pass, and then it was just the matter of a 12 hour drive to Glacier National Park. We were so excited to see Numa.

Mahalo, and aloha!