TandemHearts

This is a very big deal.  I have given up my cookie-a-day habit.  If you have eaten one of my cookies, you know they are pretty tasty. But, they are nutritionally garbage at 211 calories and 11 grams of fat.  That’s 1/4 of my fat allowance per day!  So instead of a cookie, I’m now eating a yogurt, 140 calories, only 6 grams of fat and the added bonus of 4 grams of protein. (more…)

In February of 2003 we visited the island of Hawaii for a bicycle touring vacation. The 10-day trip involved 5 days on the bike and the rest of the time as planned layovers to take in some of the sites.

Because we did not want to carry all of our gear on the tandem, we contracted with Kona Coast Cycling (KCC) for a gear transfer service. They offer a service that moves your gear from hotel to hotel. You give them your itinerary and they show up in the morning to drive your stuff to your next stop. This gives you maximum flexibility in deciding where to stay. This was a great service, because they can serve as a rolling bike store for little stuff. More on that later. Even if you want to go self-supported, we highly recommend the route sheet that you can buy from them. This is a detailed trip route for a circumnavigation of the big island. It includes elevation profiles, distances, and alternate routes that keep you off the highway without adding a lot of distance or elevation gain. The route sheet also has advice about whether certain points of interest are worth riding to, taking into account how hard they are to get to/from.

The only guidebook we used was the funny and informative “Hawaii the Big Island Revealed – the Ultimate Guidebook”. We liked it so much that we picked up their guide to Kauai in the airport on the way home.

Day 1

Arrive Kailua-Kona

We arrived at the hotel in Kona and put the bike together. Our bicycle has S & S connectors. These allow us to break the bike down into pieces so it fits into 2 airline legal, though rather large and heavy, pieces of luggage. It took us about 90 minutes to put it together. Then we had to wedge it into the hotel elevator to get it down stairs for a test ride. Everything was working fine, so we walked around Kona. Frankly we were not terribly impressed with the stores on Ali’i Drive. This is the main tourist area of Kona and some of the stores were a little tacky. We did have a nice dinner at the Kona Inn Restaurant. This side of the island gets so little rain that there were no windows in the restaurant, just an open view of a nice sunset. This no-clear-line-between-indoors-and-outdoors is even more pronounced further north on the Kohala Coast.

Day 2

Kailua-Kona -> Na’alehu

We got up early because we knew it would be a long day. Unfortunately the only place we could find that was open was Starbucks. Starbucks managed to serve us the worst coffee of the trip, along with mediocre pastries. It wasn’t until we were on our way back to the hotel room that somebody mentioned “Buns in the Sun”, a local place, that we should have gone to. Maybe next time.

This was the longest day of the trip. We covered about 55 miles, with 4,100 feet of climbing. The first 10 miles or so are a climb out of Kona. The KCC directions did a nice job of getting us off the main highway when possible. Eventually we got to our first optional side trip. We headed down Napoopoo Road to ride through Kona coffee country. Kona coffee is possibly the finest coffee in the world. We stopped at Bay View Farm to sample their drinks. Mmm, coffee. I don’t know of any place to buy pure Kona coffee, other than on Hawaii. We’ll be buying some on the web for sure.

After we had a couple of small tastes of coffee, we headed back out to see the Painted Church. This is a small Catholic Church with the interior covered in murals depicting various religious scenes. It was a nice descent on a quiet road down to the church. On both sides of the road we could see coffee bushes growing everywhere. Hawaii has two major industries – tourism and coffee. The Kona region apparently tries to squeeze bushes in where ever they can. The descent was a bit longer than we expected and I was starting to get worried that we had missed the turn. If that were the case we would have ended up back at sea level at the Place of Refuge. Even though we wanted to see the Place, we decided that adding 1,000 feet of climbing to the day would make for too long of a ride.

Prior to the introduction of Western influences, Hawaii was ruled under a system called Kapu (forbidden). There were many rules that outlined prohibited actions. A violation of the Kapu system was punishable by death. The only recourse a violator had was to race to one of the places of refuge. If they could get to a place of refuge before being captured, all was forgiven. We eventually found the turn to the Painted Church, without going all the way to the Place of Refuge. We’ll see the Place of Refuge on our next trip to Hawaii.

We took some nice shots of the outside of the church, but before we could get inside a host of tourists descended like a biblical plague and really spoiled the moment for us. It was one of the few times during the whole trip that we felt crowded. Hawaii is a good sized placed, with not too many people. Even at the most popular places, like Volcanoes National Park, we didn’t feel that it was crowded. With tourists everywhere at the church, we quickly left.

We’ve ridden quite a few long rides, so we know the importance of eating and drinking regularly. On most rides longer than 2 hours, one needs to eat almost constantly. On a day like this we each burn more than 3,500 calories during the ride. We once figured out that a typical calorie burn rate for us means we need to eat a fig newton every 9 minutes. Somehow, on vacation we forgot all about that. Usually we carry more food on the bike than we did this day. We expected to stop at a couple of specific places to eat, but one was closed, another was hard to get too and we ended up eating a very late lunch. The result was that for the hour or so before lunch, we were dragging a bit. That made the middle of the day harder than it should have been, but we still had fun.

After a lunch of bacon fried rice and a veggie stir fry, we zipped along through an area covered by 50-year-old lava flows. This area, being on the dry side of Hawaii, had no plant life at all. For miles all around there was nothing but chunky lava fields. We’ve been to Death Valley, but this place was far more desolate than that. Once we crossed the spine of the ridge we’d been climbing we were on the wetter side and the plant life sprouted everywhere. We raced down 1,000 feet to the Macadamia Meadows Bed and Breakfast.

Charlene and Cortney run Macadamia Meadows as a B&B and a functioning mac nut farm. They offer farm tours to the guests, but we were too tired to do that. This was where we found the real limitation to bike touring – at the end of a long day; nobody wants to cycle into town for dinner. We don’t have lights on the bike so that was a real problem. Happily, Charlene offered to drive us into town for dinner. It was very clear to us that Charlene and Cortney truly love having guests in their home. They made us feel very welcome and served a great breakfast too. We look forward to going back on our next trip.

Day 3

Na’alehu -> Volcano Village

This day was a great, hard ride. We started at 1,000 feet above sea level and cruised 10 miles down to Punalu’u, black sand beach. After we left there we only had one hill to climb. Of course that hill was 28 miles long and rose 4,000 feet to the top of the Kilauea volcano.

Punalu’u is one of the few black sand beaches formed when hot lava reaches the sea and shatters as it cools. Most black sand beaches are caused by ocean erosion of solidified lava. Punalu’u is famous for its sea turtles, but we didn’t see any. The weather was cloudy, the sea was a bit rough and we couldn’t stay long – we had the hill to climb and all.

The big highlight of stopping at the beach was the arrival of Kelly from KCC. We had broken a part on the bike the day before. We had a jury-rigged solution, but Kelly was able to bring us the bolt we needed. After he picked up our gear at Mac Meadows, he just kept an eye out for us as he drove it to the next place. He even went so far as to drive down to the beach, thinking that we might be there. A big thanks to Kelly for his help.

Climbing up to Volcano started with a head wind, but for most of the climb it was quite nice. As one climbs up the terrain changes as the annual rain fall amount decreases; we had descended the wet side of a ridge leaving the B&B and were now climbing the drier side of the volcano. The weather was nice and traffic wasn’t too bad. About 2 miles from the crest the mist settled in and by the time we got to the crest there was too much water in the air to take out the camera for a photo. Not a mile later it was raining/misting so hard we stopped to put on our jackets. We then coasted a couple of miles to Volcano Village and Kilauea Lodge. By the time we got there we were pretty wet.

The Lodge was very cozy. The bike was stored in their garage and we headed for our room. I didn’t have much success getting the fireplace in the room going, but the shower with twin shower heads and the heated towel warmers did a good job of warming us up. Dinner at the Lodge by the fireplace was very pleasant.

Day 4

Volcano Village -> Hilo

This was the easiest day on the bike. We only went about 30 miles and descended 4,000 feet into Hilo. While no ride is ever ALL down hill, this was pretty darn close. As we sat at the Stop sign, in the drizzle, to pull out of Volcano Village onto the highway, we saw a couple of riders with “Backroad Tours” bikes. This is a very large tour company that does a trip on Hawaii almost every week. These riders were on mountain and road bikes and were pedaling downhill at about 18 mph. We pulled out and coasted up to them at about 25 mph, whizzing by them quickly. Tandems love going down hill. This was the only day we saw another tandem. We were stopped at a flagman, waiting to pass when this tandem approached from the rear. We pulled out before they caught  up to us and they never got very close.

We arrived at Arnott’s Lodge in Hilo early in the day. Arnott’s is an unusual place to stay. They are geared toward hikers, offering dorm accommodations and a few private rooms. They even allow guests to pitch tents on the lawn. It is a very low-key place. For us, the big draw was their tours. Knowing that most guests don’t have cars, they offer van tours to the top of Mauna Kea and to the lava flows down on the coast.

After we settled in, we jumped into the van for the 6-hour tour to the highest point on Hawaii. The summit of Mauna Kea is 13,796 feet above sea level. There was no way we were going up there by bike! At 9,000 feet we stopped at the Onizuka Vistitor’s Center. We stayed there about 30 minutes to get used to the altitude. At the summit we drove by more than a dozen observatories. Only the Keck has any sort of visitor center, and they were closed because it was so late in the day. Astronomers value the summit for its clear and thin air. We found the clear and thin air to be darn cold and hard to breathe. To get from the van to the true summit you have to walk maybe 500 feet, including maybe 150 vertical feet. That is a tough stroll. Those last few steps are pretty hard, but the view is amazing. While snow is not uncommon at the summit, there wasn’t any the day we were there. We watched the sunset on the way down and then stopped at the visitor’s center again to look through some of their portable telescopes. We were treated to views of the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.

Day 5

Hilo

This was our first no-bike day of the trip. We signed up for the Arnott’s tour that would take us to the on-going lava flows in the National Park. Unfortunately, Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire, did not cooperate. For what must have been the first time in months, the road to the lava viewing was closed. There was a forest fire and then the lava forced the park service to retreat. The ranger station near the lava is relatively portable, in case the lava gets too close. This day it got too close, and we couldn’t get near the flow. The only other people signed up for the tour canceled because they wanted to see lava flows. This left us alone with the guide, to tour the parts of the National Park that were not closed. Highlights included the Kilauea Caldera, Mauna Ulu and the Thurston Lava Tube.

Mauna Ulu is a large mound that erupted in the early 1970s. The guide had wanted to visit for years, but never had a chance to go to it because the lava doesn’t flow near it these days. So, we hiked a couple of miles to up this mound to see what the top looked liked. As we approached we crossed old lava flows, skirted steaming vents and saw where rivers of lava had once poured out of the top of Mauna Ulu. When we go the top we were awe struck by the view. Mauna Ulu has a huge crater inside, with a rough, raw looking interior. We guessed that it was at least 500 feet deep, with rough, red and brown walls. The guidebook described it as the closest you’ll ever get to an eruption that isn’t actually erupting.

Lava travels around the island underground, in tubes. They are formed when a lava flow cools at the surface and forms its own tube to travel in. Eventually the lava source dries up and the lava drains from the tube. Apparently these things are all over the island. We visited the Thurston lava tube in the park. Half of this tube is strung with lights, so everyone can pass through. The other half of the tube is open to the public, but you have to bring your own flashlights. The interior has a remarkably finished look. The interior is oval shaped, usually 10 – 15 wide, and 6 – 8 feet tall. We walked down 300 gently sloping feet to the end of the tube and then turned out the flashlights. “Dark” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Since we got back from Volcano kind of late dinner that night was Stove Top Stuffing and Doritos with a processed cheese spread. Yum. J

Day 6

Hilo –> Honoka’a

Hilo is the rainiest city in the US, averaging over 210 inches of rain per year. We expected that late afternoon showers would be an issue on this side of the island. Instead we got a forecast that called for a serious winter storm to come through late in day. With this in mind we pushed off early to cover the 43 miles and 3200 feet of elevation gain as quickly as we could.

This was a day we had been looking forward to. The terrain was well suited to us and the bike – not too far, not too steep, not too high. We ensured that we had lots of energy by eating a loco moco for breakfast. Loco moco is a local thing – rice, meat patty, brown gravy and an egg. Tasty and filling, but not for anyone watching their cholesterol count. We then carried a good amount of food, and made sure we knew where we would eat lunch. The ride instructions from KCC were great today. They did a good job of keeping us on the old highway when practical. We did skip a couple of the more scenic side trips because we were racing against the impending rain. We almost made it.

We had clouds most of the day, as is common on this side of the island. The scenery was lush and we passed over many small streams with waterfalls in them. Some we could see, others we only heard. We were hoping to visit Akaka Falls, with its 420 feet drop, but it was a 3 mile, 1,000 foot climb detour and we were worried about the rain catching us. It turned out to be a good call to skip Akaka Falls. The rain started about 13 miles from the end of the day. It started light, then grew to be moderate. We put on jackets and kept going. Because we were climbing, we were putting out enough body heat to still be warm. About this time Kelly, from KCC, passed us. He pulled over to see how we were doing with the rain. We didn’t even slow down; we just waved and yelled, “We’re good!” as we zipped by his parked truck. He cruised by and about 10 minutes later the sky really opened up.

It was pouring so hard I could not see for all the rain on my glasses. We had to pull over at a store to get a warm beverage and see if the rain was going to let up. Veronica picked up some cookies and the proprietor made some coffee from their own jar of instant decaf. Yeah, it was bad coffee, though no worse than Starbucks, but it was warm. While I was waiting for Veronica to come back outside, a guy mentioned that the road was flooded about 4 miles up. That would have been bad, because I was thinking, “How flooded is flooded? Can I walk the bike across it?” We couldn’t go all the way back to Hilo and we were close to our destination. The rain let up just slightly as we headed out again. Fortunately the flood had cleared and I could mostly see where we were going. The turn off to Honoka’a was a joyous sight. Then we started coasting down into town. We couldn’t remember exactly where the B&B was – between mile markers 2 & 3 or between markers 3 & 4. We decided to go as far as 4 and then call if we didn’t find it. Since we were going down hill, we were starting to get cold. We were soaked.

Around mile 3.75 we rounded the corner to see the B&B waiting for us. As we walked up to the door, Jackie, the owner, called out “Would you like coffee or tea? Chocolate cake is on the table.” Oh yeah, we like B&Bs. We had to leave the bike under the deck because that was the driest place to store it. A couple of small parts got a little rusty, but we covered the leather saddles with plastic bags to keep them as dry as we could.

We met some great people at the B&B. Again the problem of staying 2 miles out of town raised its head. There was no good way to go to dinner in the rain, after dark. Fortunately, the kindness of strangers comes through again, and Abbey and Dave, other guests at the B&B, were gracious enough to let us tag along with them for dinner in Waimea. We had a very nice dinner with them at Merriman’s.

Day 7

Honoka’a

Today was another scheduled no-bike day. We had planned to go horseback riding in the Waipi’o Valley, but because of the rain, that was canceled. We spent most of the day holed up at the B&B reading. It was quite comfortable. Around noon the rain had let up so we walked into Honoka’a to what might be the one restaurant. Café Il Mondo was a good place to munch pizza and watch the rain. And boy was there rain to watch. After lunch we just waited for it to let up. And waited. And waited. Eventually, Jackie cruised by looking for us.

Met some more interesting people at the B&B that afternoon. We were surprised that there were 2 couples from other islands who were taking the long weekend to visit the big island. One couple, Bill and Gretchen, have a tandem, so they were interested in our experiences on the island. We hooked up with them for dinner at Café Il Mondo. The calzone and lasagna were better than the pizza.

Day 8

Honoka’a -> ‘Anaeho’omalu Bay

This was our last day on the bike. The plan was to climb 1,600 feet in 15 miles to Waimea, then fly down to the coast and rip along lava fields until we reached the resort, a total distance of 40 miles. Should make for an early day. Good plan. Didn’t work out. As we turned on to the main highway to start the climb, we got our first flat of the ride. I don’t know what we hit, but we got a pinch flat. This happens when you hit a big bump and the rim of the wheel bottoms out on the road, pinching the tube. This wasn’t a big deal because we had spares, but we were looking forward to a short day. We’d been cool for the last couple of days and were anxious to get back to the sunny, warm side of the island. We fixed that flat and started climbing.

Following our route sheet we soon jumped off the main road and onto the old highway. This gave us much less traffic and nice shade. The rain was gone and the sun was coming out. Near the summit we passed though grassy ranch land. It isn’t what I think of when I think Hawaii, but it was quite pleasant. Through this stretch, the road gets quite rough for a mile or two. Despite going very slowly and gingerly, we managed to get a second pinch flat. No problem, we carry 3 spare tubes. Changing the flat wasn’t too bad, but we decided to patch the old tire (just in case we needed it). It takes a long time for the patch cement to setup on a cool day, so we were held up almost an hour. It was a sunny day, on a country road, so we just relaxed and enjoyed the view of Mauna Kea, which did have snow because of the recent storm.

Once we got going again, we zoomed through the town of Waimea and headed down the highway to the coast. We discussed putting on jackets, in case the descent was cold. It was a good thing we didn’t bother with jackets. As we burned off nearly 3,000 feet of altitude, we screamed down this road at about 40 mph. In spite of doing no work at all, we could feel the temperature rising and by the time we got to the bottom we were sweating a little.

The last part of the trip ran about 7 miles south on the dry side of the island. Although there are no permanent streams on this side of the island (where they get 10 inches of rain per year), the recent storm ensured that some of the intermittent streams were gurgling. This is rolling terrain, with gentle hills. This is ideal tandem terrain. We saw a rider about 1/2 mile ahead of us, so we put our heads down and chased him. It took us about 3 miles to catch up. When we passed him we were doing just under 30 mph. He fell in behind us and drafted. Lucky for us, our turn was less than a mile later, because we were winded. We pulled into the Marriott Outrigger Resort and put the bike in storage for the rest of the vacation. At this point we transformed from bikers to beachcombers.

Sunday night is Luau night at the Outrigger. We hooked up with some friends from Veronica’s work, Deb and Lars, who were also on the island. We had great seats for the show and Lars even got to go on stage of a little hula lesson. The food was quite good and the show was fun.

Days 9/10

‘Anaeho’omalu Bay

The Marriott Outrigger is a great resort to stay at if you don’t have a car. The snorkeling off the beach is great and the resort is across the street from a plaza with shops and restaurants. Because of the runoff from the recent storm, the water wasn’t as clear as we would have hoped for, but we still had a great time. Our routine was eat breakfast, snorkel, shower, eat lunch, snorkel, shower, eat dinner. This was definitely an easy routine to follow. We walked up the beach to the Hilton to see what it was like. It was a great example of over the top design. It is huge, with 4 or 5 large buildings, at least half a dozen swimming pools, a lagoon and a train to get from one end to the other. We went back to the Outrigger and enjoyed the relative quiet. The best food we had while staying here was across the street at Roy’s. Make reservations for dinner or you will end up eating at the bar, like we did.

We used our digital camera to take some great under water photos. It only took a little digital magic to take the murkiness out of the water and get some good photos. The snorkeling highlight was swimming with the sea turtle, although the moray eel certainly got our attention too.

Conclusion

We’ve learned that bike touring can be great, but it imposes some limitations on your trip. We’ll make sure that we are riding through places where the scenery is the attraction. There were many places that we would like to have gone that we could not get to because we were on the bike. In the future we will make sure that we are staying at places that are close to food. We’ll tour with wider tires to reduce the risk of pinch flats. Brooks saddles are wonderful, but they don’t like a deluge. Fenders are great, because even if you get wet from the rain, you don’t get road grime on you. Our Arkel handlebar bag made a great camera bag and kept things dry even in the blinding rain.

For most of the tour, we were on highway 11 or highway 19. While these are busy roads by Hawaiian standards, we never found the traffic to be an issue. The shoulders are wide, mostly smooth and generally free of debris. Regular mile markers on both roads provide great references points.

Hawaii was wonderful. Anyone thinking about doing it by bike should check out Kona Coast Cycling’s gear service. Arnott’s tours are great, even if you don’t stay there.

Woo hoo!!!  I’ve been working with my new trainer, Shawna, for four weeks now and seriously following her recommended dietary changes.  AND IT’S WORKING!  In four weeks I’ve lost 5 pounds overall and dropped to 22.5 percent body fat.  I’ve actually lost 6 pounds of fat and gained a pound of muscle.

There’s nothing like seeing some results to recharge your batteries and keep you motivated. 

I didn’t do much this week: a couple of biking videos, some yoga and met with my trainer twice.   I stuck with my scheduled workouts through Wednesday.  Thursday morning I woke up with that tickling in the back of my throat that tells me I’m a getting a cold.  Thursday was the last day of school before Spring Break and it was a rainy day – indoor recess – twenty-nine fifth graders cooped up all day, the day before a break.  I was pretty wiped out and just ready to veg by the end of the day.    I had planned on doing a bike ride outside on Friday, but it was raining and my cold was getting worse.  I read three books instead.  Saturday I actually had a low grade fever and napping was the order of the day.  Sunday was gorgeous and Thom and I went out for a short ride on the tandem.  I tried to not work too hard since whenever I did my chest would start rattling.  We’re a little rusty as a team, but things smoothed out as the ride went on.

The time off was actually a good thing.  I had pulled or strained  a muscle in my right leg last week and the down time  gave it a chance to heal.   I’m on vacation this week.  Not having a schedule is nice.  I plan to do lots of reading and relaxing.

A few years ago, we decided that our Santana tandem wasn’t really working for us.  The biggest issue was the space for Veronica, in the stoker’s position.  On most tandems this space is significantly shorter than the comparable space on a regular road bike.  The handlebar position for the stoker also has very limited adjustability.  This leads to the stoker being folder over like a pretzel.  OK, maybe it isn’t that bad, and the  Santana is no worse than most tandems, but after riding her Rivendell Veronica found the tandem uncomfortable.  Secondary problems were the difficulty of packing 700c (road bike) sized tires in airline luggage, lack of disc brakes and the generic nature of it.  We wanted something with a little more character.