Healy-Guttman Blog

A trip to the Love Shack in June wouldn’t be complete with some adventure trips. Many of these trips were with neighbor and good friend David Bever and usually involved a motorcycle or two. However, one trip could only be accomplished with a dual sport bike like Dusty, so one sunny Father’s Day morning (aren’t they all at Kealekekua Bay) I headed North for the beginning of an all day tour that included the summit of Mauna Loa (well, almost), a trip to Hilo to see the gun club and a return that included the scenic Kaalaiki Road between Pahala and Naalehu at South Point. This trip covered about 275 miles and compared to the trip on R1 around Mauna Kea earlier in the year, it was a cakewalk!

Here is my favorite photo from the trip. This was at about 10,000 feet elevation with Mauna Kea in the background:

By around 10 AM, I had reached Saddle Road and headed towards Hilo. First stop prior to heading towards the summit of Mauna Loa was a hike up Pu’u Huluhulu in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Pu’u means “hill” and Huluhulu means “hairy” or “furry”. …and that’s exactly what it looks like - a tree covered cone about 200′ high off to the right of Saddle Road and near the entrance of the loop up to the summit of Mauna Loa. Here is Dusty parked near the entrance of the trail:

The hike was far better than I had anticipated. This short hike through a native wooded forest was fascinating with vista views, an abundance of wildlife - especially the birds - and an amazing assortment of trees and plants. It seems to grow out of a surrounding sea of lava. Here is the entrance:

And some of what you will see on the hike:

Some of what you will see from the top at around 6700 feet in elevation:

It’s just a speck, but you can just see Dusty at the entrance of the park in this photo:

This short hike was a great way to acclimate to the higher elevation. From here, the summit of Mauna Loa was about 20 miles away. I was already on the road at the entrance to the hike. Before I set off, I snapped this photo of the beginning of the road up to the observatory:

The road to the summit of Mauna Loa is quite different than the road up to the summit of Mauna Kea. Instead of a continual climb, it is a series of small hills and summits - and much more fun for a motorcycle with multiple twists and turns along with some crests that had me slightly airborn (uhh, not that I was going that fast…). Along the way, I stopped and took this shot of Dusty:

…and this one up the road:

After about 17 miles, I hit the parking lot for the Mauna Loa Observatory complex. This is the end of the paved road and looking up, you see this from the parking lot:

And a sign on the lone “restrooms” at around 11,100 feet:

After a brief walk around the “complex”, I decided to attempt the trail to the summit. Most people hike this trail, but I had things to do and Dusty needed a dusting, so I set off on two wheels. After about a mile of slogging through fine rock and sand that required a steady pace or you would get stuck, I had had enough. I figured I had reached about 12,000 feet in elevation and left the summit for another day. I turned around (no easy feat) and headed back. Once I hit the paved road portion, I had an exhilerating ride down a roller coaster like straight. At the end of this stretch there was a gravel road heading off the paved portion so I decided to explore. It culminated in a small caldera and I stopped and took this photo:

After a short lunch break, I happened to look at my mobile and was surprised to see that I had a very strong signal (I was still at around 9,000 feet…). I called my Dad (it was Father’s Day) and tried to explain where I was calling from. …this picture should say a thousand words…

After getting back to Saddle Road I headed toward Hilo and the Gun Club where I hope to shoot skeet and sporting clays this winter. The club is owned by the county and you wind through one of the largest garbage dumps I have ever seen to get to it. ….The range is actually quite nice, but lacks much in the way of facilities. You bring your own clays, ammo, etc. It looked like a great place to shoot, but such a long ways from the Love Shack… (1.5 hours).

I filled up on some fuel and headed South on Highway 11 and wound my way through the Volcano National Park area towards Pahala (near South Point). I had heard of a scenic bypass around this area called Kaalaiki Road up on the Pali about 2000′ above sea level that ran parallel to the Highway and culminated at Naalehu. I had some rough directions and headed into Pahala finding the left onto Kaalaiki Road which is actually an old agricultural road that is really wide to accomodate equipment. Apparently there used to be sugar cane cultivated in this area, but what I saw was a lot of coffee plants and cows. The road wound through a small forest and then opened up to beautiful vista views of the ocean and grassland. It’s amazing the difference a few thousand feet in elevation makes. …in fact during my ride today, I must have been through a dozen different climate zones. This was a great road but the final mile of gravel would rule this out for my friends on their street bikes. …too bad as it’s a great alternative to the highway…

Finally, I have to post one more picture from a few days later and a fishing trip with two friends. David’s sunglasses are classic!