Since a lot of us had plans over the weekend with Muthas’ Day and all (don’t give me no jibber-jabber, fool!), We came up with the idea of a Friday after-work evening-into-night ride. Jeff and I had talked about just such a ride earlier in the week, and when Chris mentioned plans on both weekend days, the idea came to fruition. The calls and emails went out on Thursday afternoon and on Friday after work we met up in Pohakupu by the fountain. Chris sadly had to back out at the last moment, but Jeff, Sara, JT, and I arrived for the evening torture-fest. JT was sporting new Shimano XT cranks, Hope bottom bracket, and stiff new shoes. I had my new Hope bottom bracket installed too. Root called and said he was running late and suggested we begin without him, but we had already moved the meeting time back half-an-hour to accommodate his quitting time, so by Heck we were going to wait for him! Root showed up around sunset, and we rolled out. The twilight climb up Kalanianaole was a good warm-up for the instant intensity once we turned off the old highway into the trail network.
We zigzagged through the Formosa koa forest and dropped into a ravine only to have to climb back out up a rooty, loose uphill. Some of the trails elicited faint memories, but the growing darkness made even vaguely familiar trails less and less so. We ended up going up a long, steady climb that briefly descended by a switchback into a dry streambed, then turned sharply upward up a finger ridge. In the darkness, it was unclear what was at the top, and where we were in left-to-right orientation on the mountainside. Were we near the top of the inner loop? I pushed up the increasing slope to the top to see what was there, but I only found a clearing with an unused, debris-littered singletrack continuing upward. I was pretty sure we were well above anything we normally ride. We backtracked down to the next right junction, and descended toward the old highway. After a few up and down oscillations, we found ourselves in more recognizable territory, climbing out of the Formosa koa to the concrete block hilltop where we stopped for a rest. Night had fully closed in and the clear night sky was full of Westbound planes on their approach path into HNL.
After the rest, we descended the powdery groove toward the climb out to the big tree. We turned into the flailing fat guy drop-in to the upper trail. The run down Ditch trail into Waimanalo was fast and fluid, with one interruption when a huge stray tan dog went bounding across the trail, sending Jeff and I into super-drift nose-wheelie slides as we came around a right corner. If it wasn’t Waimanalo, I would have thought it was a deer from the color and size. At the trailhead, we headed down the road and spun back to Kalanianaole. The ride back was fairly evil, with a strong headwind at the chicane near the golf course, and two long climbs.
Back at the cars, we descended into Kailua town for dinner. We tried Maui Tacos and Teddy’s Burgers, but both were closed – it was 21:00 after all. The fall-back was Taco Bell. On the way out, Jeff mentioned that Chris had said that he might be able to make time for a ride on Saturday afternoon. Another ride in less than a day? WTF?!
More pictures here.
D = 17.54 km (10.90 miles), Vavr = 13.2 km/h (8.2 mph), Vmax = 53.6 km/h (33.3 mph), T = 1-hour, 19-minutes (total ride time approximately 2-hours)
You forgot to use the adjective “Heinous” in your description of the uphill climb on the road back to the cars. The word is “Heinous”!
And I frickin’ missed it. Y’all aren’t allowed to have ‘henious’ rides without me.