So, I've ridden in all 48 continental states of our country, so I'm really excited about this trip to Maui. After two long flights, we arrived on their last day of a good week of their winter season, sunny and dry.

The first day was a tough 50 miler to West Maui along the coast line. Cloudy and mostly dry with a couple of showers. It was an out n back to Rosanne's for some pineapple and banana bread.

We made it, although in the back of the pack and last at the last food stop at the beach. The last 3.5 miles was a long grind of 8% to our resort for the week, Lumeria. A very tough first day.

The next day was to east Maui on the road to Hana. Just one road with 65 turns on the road. A great cycling road. This is a rain forest so there were many short showers that would pop up out of nowhere. Our destination was a peninsula with a black lava beach.

By the afternoon the sun finally came out for good for the last five miles.

We wore our blue RAIN jerseys. It seemed fitting!

While the Heart Cycle group went hiking we went to Paia to do some shopping. The town is a hippie surfing town with a great bike shop to boot. This is the surfing hostel!

John Aslanian, our ride leader, promised us a great tandem ride, and the Back Side of Haleakula was the cup of tea. Here is our group (minus three in the bathroom). heartcycle.org is a non-profit vacation bike club out of Denver that I lead rides for. Check it out!

This is cattle country on the south shore. Very vast and you can see for miles. We were zooming in the 30mph's and passing everybody. The descents were mild with some great straightaways.

We saw Kaho'olawe - the one that

is uninhabited due to the ordinants of the practice bombing missions during World War II. ^^^^^^^^^^

This was our favorite spot of the day after our turn around. The Ulupalakua Ranch Store was our haven for hunger pains and they had a nice selection of souvenirs. The locals were all there on the porch, but rather shy and didn't say a thing. We split a burger and a coke and stowed away our souvenirs in our pack. The chef told me all about the island of Kaho'olawe. "Friends of the island" are clearing the ordinants. Eventually, it will be populated again. Let's hope it is properly developed.

We hop on the bike and the pay back starts. The slight descent described earlier becomes a five mile pain in the but climb,

We are now in search of Oprah's Hawaiian house. Down this very narrow road that the locals use for bicycling, jogging, and walking. We're here to photograph any glimpses of the rich and famous. We didn't see much, The white house below is the guest

house, and the main house cannot be seen from the road. She's building another house on the other side of the road closer to the coast. I hear it's going to be twice as big as her current one.

I rented a single bike on our last day of riding. It was the Mt Haleakula ride up to the 10,000 ft. Yeah, this is one of those volcanoes that most people get driven up to the national park entrance at 6500 ft and coast down. Well, we started our ride up at 1000 ft at our lodging, and climbed and climbed. The locals say that once it starts raining, turn around or you'll freeze to death. I got up to the 6500 ft sign just as it started raining and the temperature dropped ten degrees instantly. After getting my warm and dry clothes on, I turned around along with four of us that reached this mid-milestone. Three riders made it to the top, Two of those frozen riders hitched a ride down. Credos to Steve Linari, who finished the entire ride.

Just in case you're wondering, the photographer of this blog entry is my wife and stoker, Willow, aka Sylvia. Thank you and love you.