Hi mike , i arrived home yesterday after a 36h-journey and still feel a little bit tired .

The seven miles from kahului to the start have been a fine "warm-up"-ride . Unfortunately we were not allowed to do the downhill from haleakala to paia so we had to go with the shuttle . While waiting for our bikes (came down not until 3pm ) we walked to paia (barefooted - for saving our pedal-plates ) , but then we were too tired to wait another hour until the steak-party began so we rode back to kahului ( supported by very much tailwind ) .

Next day we went to hilo by plane (and rental car) , and on thursday i tried to ride to the summit of Mauna Kea . Saddle-Road was really amazing , but from the turnoff to mauna-kea-road it became very fascinating . Unfortunately the gravel-section was unrideable (don't know if the condition is the same all over the year , but i dare to bet my life that nobody has done this section on a roadbike on this surface before . )
The main problem has not been the gravel by itself , but the tires digged into deep sand even on the flatter areas....and furthermore the surface was ripply like a corrugated sheet roof .
Now i can understand why no rental-car-service allows to drive up to mauna kea ... we had to rent another (4x4) car for this day .
So i put me and my bike into the supporting-car (driven by my team-mate) and began riding again at the end of gravel for the rest of the climb til obervatory-center .
Luckily the weather was realy nice (nearly cloudless and only few wind) on this day (all days before there were many clouds in the vulcano-area ) , so i was able to enjoy this trip and the panorama .
When looking across to Mauna Loa i descried a road up to the weather-station , so i had no alternative than deciding to trying this climb anytime later .
On sunday the weather was nice again so i drove to the turnoff from saddle-road and rode up the mauna-loa road . The fresh paved single-lane-road in the beginning fooled me : 7km later the road became rough and bumpy , but i decided to ride on . The descent from the observatory nearly took as long as the ascent and i arrived on saddle-road well-shaked , but i had another great day on my bike .

I hope meanwhile your wounds are healed and wish you all the best for the future !
Cu Camelfred

Hey CF.... Nice, cool that you got to ride Mauna Kea. You got two of the Hawaiian monsters complete huh! I've only ever ridden to 9130ft up Mauna Kea, because as you found out, the gravel (deep gravel) isn't road bike friendly. Saddle road is kinda dangerous, but a FAST ride back to Hilo. After the race there this year I rode back and averaged well over 30mph. Haven't done Mauna Loa, but my Czech friend tried it in 2006... Crappy road up there. On Maui, there's another potential climb up to the windfarm... just now sure if it's legal to ride there, or where the ride would start... or if it's worth doing Nice to meet you (check out the race website - you're in some photos)

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