Hawaii 2022, 3/4: Mauna Haleakalā
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 74.44 mi
- Elevation gain
- 10,453 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Difficult
- Elevation loss
- 10,453 ft
- Max elevation
- 10,023 ft
- TrailRank
- 32
- Min elevation
- 1 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- 9 hours 36 minutes
- Coordinates
- 6121
- Uploaded
- October 8, 2022
- Recorded
- June 2022
near Haliimaile, Hawaii (United States)
Viewed 89 times, downloaded 0 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
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Ascent of Mauna Haleakalā
Made with Bob's gravel: 100% asphalt
Preamble : After Big Island , here is another itinerary "from the sea to the stars" (another volcano, of course), this time on the eastern part of the island of Maui, which I had already seen from Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
🏁 It's a good start: even before getting back to Baldwin Avenue, I realize that I forgot to re-inflate the tires after getting the bike back together 🙃 (following its passage in the hold, in Mokulele 's small plane ✈️ Airlines that took me from Big Island to Maui). Fortunately I manage to find some shade under a tree for this pumping session. I then go down to Pā'ia beach to start the ascent from sea level ("single-dip"?): no question of cheating! 😇 There is traffic on the coast, but things are much quieter as soon as you get away from it.
So I go back up what I just went down. The weather is pretty good at the moment, but it won't be long before the clouds arrive. At the Makawao crossroads, I continue straight ahead to have less traffic, but I take the wrong road ~2km further on: not really the least steep place for such a mistake, but nothing serious! For a while, the road will alternate between wooded and open passages, offering a beautiful view of the coast until the clouds take over. After taking route 377, then 378, I begin to pay for the accumulated fatigue 🥱 due to clearly insufficient sleep for more than ten days (observation of rays in the evening, nocturnal contemplation of the lava lake of Kīlauea , late – and sluggish – 🔧😒⚙️ return to the bike on Maui, online lessons given the same morning before going to ride, etc.) and this depressing cloud cover which hides the landscape doesn't help anything. Very tired, I feel that I risk falling asleep on the way up, while I am in the middle of a series of around twenty large bends! First time this has happened to me... it's time to take a little nap of 15 minutes in the grass! 😴
I finally emerge, first from my nap... then from the clouds! ☁️ It's immediately good for my morale after this little break: I appreciate the landscape even better. 😎 At the park ranger station, I rummage through my belongings to find the ticket paid the day before at Kipahulu (another entrance to the park on the Road to Hana, explored by car), unfortunately without success. Resigned to buying a new ticket, I still try, without much conviction, the Kīlauea ticket: surprise! “This one works!” , tells me to put it away while letting me pass. 😃👌 ~2km further, WC break at the park HQ and filling of the container 💦 (cycling principle of communicating vessels?) before starting the final part.
The view becomes more and more fantastic as you rise above the sea of clouds. In the last bends, vegetation becomes scarce, and I spot the famous and astonishing " silverswords ", ⚔️ scattered on the barren summit slopes where almost nothing grows in the debris of volcanic rocks, and whose silvery leaves (similar to small sabers?) form a sort of ball a few tens of cm in diameter contrasting with the dark red hues of the ground. It is a species (endemic to Maui, with cousins on Big Island) of succulent plants (capable of storing a lot of water) and monocarpic (flowering 🌺 only once, in this case developing a flower stem that can reach up to 2m high).
After passing the Visitor Center, the view opens onto the main crater, a sort of vast mineral setting dotted with small volcanic cones. The date of the last eruption does not seem to be known with certainty, 🌋 but is probably somewhere between 1400 and 1750. I continue my climb towards the final parking lot, then on the short (cycle) path which leads to the summit hut of Haleakalā (3055m) ("house of the sun" 🌞 in Hawaiian), which I reach at the same time as another cyclist, with whom we chat a little (Michael is in his garden: he lives in Maui!). The view is superb: in the distance, Big Island pierces the clouds doubly, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa poking the tips of their respective noses above this sea of cotton. And to think that I was "there" only a few days before... 😊
I'll take a look at the Haleakalā Observatory , 🪐 located on a nearby peak at almost the same altitude and hosting various facilities. I notice that an impressive crowd is massing on the main summit, where I come from, to prepare to admire the sunset. I'm tempted to do the same, but I'm a little afraid of then finding myself in traffic... at night and on the way down! It is more reasonable not to wait to go back down, even if I still take a little break at the Visitor Center panorama, to enjoy the view of the monumental crater...
During this long descent, I found myself again in that infamous mist which had contributed to knocking me out on the way up. With the light fading, it's time to turn on my lights. 💡 Another problem: the brakes seem well worn! 😬 They still work, but I have to press the handles all the way down (their travel even goes "beyond" the curved and flared gravel handlebars!). In short, I, who already tend to be tense when going downhill, am served (and I will have to find a way to remedy the problem before my last Hawaiian outing ). The flow of cars coming from the summit begins to catch up with me at the start of the series of bends: I did well not to hang around too much at the top, even if the end will be quieter. It will be quite dark when I return to my starting point, after having passed under the layer of clouds, which will allow me to guess the outline of the coast, drawn by the night lights of Maui. ✨
Hawaiian Bike Adventures :
🚩 Hawaii 2022, 1/4: Mauna Kea & Mauna Loa
🚩 Hawaii 2022, 2/4: Chain of Craters road (Kīlauea)
🚩 Hawaii 2022, 3/4: Mauna Haleakalā
🚩 Hawaii 2022, 4/4: Waimea canyon
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