Healy-Guttman Blog

The weather here in West Hawaii has been really incredible these past few weeks and I have had a few opportunities to get “Dusty” (KLR-650 motorcycle) out for a few long rides.   Last week, inspired by a similar trek by sister Kathleen and her friend Peter, I headed North to “the end of the road” where the coastal highway ends at the Pololu overlook.  This is quite a panoramic view of the valley, ocean and Kohala Mountains.

 

My route North avoided the coastal highway.  Instead I took the “upper road” through Holualoa and then Hwy 190 past Saddle Road and into Waimea.  I then took the Hwy 250 which rises up to 3500′ in a spectacular ride towards Hawi (pronounced “Hah - Vee”).  In Hawi, I turn North on the highway through the birthplace of King Kemehameha in Kapa’au town ending up in a small parking lot at the end of the road at the Pololu overlook.

 

 It was a little windy but that is common in this area.  I took the trail from this overlook down to the valley floor and beach.  It’s not a difficult trail and offers some decent views:

This picture was taken by a couple here from Germany.  …I guess the exchange rate makes travel here relatively cheap these days…

 The beach here is pretty wild and has some great hiking.  Views of the Pali in either direction and a black sand beach with some lava rock.  For a few moments I thought I was on the Oregon Coast.

The hike back up takes a bit longer but I took my time.  On the way back I stopped at Sammy D’s in Kapa’au town for the best Mahi Mahi burger on the island.  These guys had expanded since I was there earlier in the year (for good reason!) and their simple but mouthwatering food had not changed.

This week, I went on an off-road excursion on the opposite end of the island at South Point with friends David Bever, his son Daniel and Cliff Ahrens.  This was dubbed “Daniels Birthday ride” (he’s turning 15) and we were blessed with one of the best days I have ever had at South Point.  The wind usually howls down here, but this day it was moderate along with sunny skies and relatively calm seas.   For this adventure, Dusty hitched a ride with David’s bike in his trailer:

Normally I would have rode down but after this ride, I was glad we had taken the easier route..   Before the ride when everything was clean:

I quickly learned that these guys are serious about the gear!  …sort of like “Mad Max Kona Style”:

After what seemed like an hour as David, Daniel and Cliff strapped on every piece of armor known in the world of motorcycling, we set off down an obscure 4-wheel drive only road towards Ka Lae (South Point) where it is believed the first Polynesian settlers arrived when Hawaii was an undisturbed tropical ecosystem.  This is also the southernmost point in the United States. 

Once we hit the coast, we headed North towards Papakolea (Green Sands Beach) at Mahana Bay.  This is a windswept area that is wild and rugged and has multiple hiking trails.  It is also open to a motley crew like ours in our freakish garb.  Past Green Sands beach, we finally arrived at South Point:

Out of the frame is a two foot rock Daniel stood on to tower over me - well, maybe a foot…

All but Daniel spent an hour swimming, eating and chatting with fisherman and other visitors.  Daniel spent his time wringing out his boots and socks from a misguided trip into a muddy “lake” at one of the low points in the trail.  It had rained about 5 days earlier and this one area had refused to drain.  Daniel was much more careful on the way back to stay out of these motorcycle sucking traps. 

It was such a great day at South Point that many locals were jumping off the cliffs with varying degrees of difficulty:

Caught up in the enthusiasm (along with the lure of bakini clad young ladies), Cliff jumped off his namesake - the cliff - and cooled off:

On the way back, we stopped off near Green Sands beach for some kodak moments:

We took a different route back that extended our coast run and challenged us with much more difficult terrain and sandy beaches.  The most difficult riding was getting into the loose sand and if you lose your momentum, it can be a real challenge to make any forward progress…  Once we headed inland back up the hill to where we had parked we saw some great sights - one of which was a massive caldera:

OK - well you can’t really see the caldera but it’s there in thebackground…  This photo does show why and how Dusty got it’s name.   By this time we had dust in just about every crevice - except Cliff who wisely chose to be in front most of the time….

The way back was truly an adventure since we got lost in the only section where I decided I was going to “lead”.  After about 3 miles up the hill on a road that was really closing in with vegetation I decided to pull over.  Cliff rode up and said “…so where are you going?”.  Sheepishly I admitted I didn’t know but we decided to soldier on and find out where this road lead.  As luck would have it, the road culminated at an unlocked gate and a neighborhood very close to David’s South Point property.  This was news to them and as it turned out a great discovery.  We braved a few miles of tarmac and the risk of a ticket to get back to the cars.  All of us were too tired to go back to the fork in the road that we had missed and get back ”off-road”. 

After some recuperating, I decided the weather was just right for another Mauna Loa trip.  David has lived in Hawaii since the early 70’s and has been up Mauna Kea countless times - but did not know about the Mauna Loa road off of Saddle road (see earlier post on my first ride up Mauna Loa last year).  We took off from “the hood” down here at the bay in the morning and when we got back in the afternoon we had covered a few hundred miles and had gone from sea level to just under 12,000′ in elevation and back!

Around the 28 mile marker on Saddle road, you get to the Mauna Kea access road.  Across the street on the South side is a small hill covered with trees and really sticks out in the barren landscape - it’s called Pu’u Hulu Hulu.  Just to the East of this hill is the access road to Mauna Loa.  It’s not well marked and it’s no wonder most people bypass this trek.  Right off the highway is the access gate to the Pu’u Hulu Hulu Tree Sancturary so we headed up the trail for a short hike after being in the saddle for 1 1/2 hours and to acclimate to the 6500′ in elevation.  Before the hike we had to have a Kodak moment:

Here’s a photo from the top of the hill - see our bikes down there?:

There are many varieties of trees, birds and bikers in this sanctuary:

After our hike we head up the 17 mile windy road through myriad lava flows.  It’s a very unique road and ranges from new asphalt:

To much older asphalt:

 

The two photos above and this next one were taken while in motion:

 

David stops to look back at Mauna Kea which had some snow on it’s peak:

 

On the way up I was looking for telephone pole #200 since I had heard that 50′ on the opposite side of the road was a lava pit.   We found it but it was a bit difficult to photograph.  …so we took these instead:

At this point we were at around 10,000′ in elevation.  It always amazes me to find plants in the most unlikely places:

…and finaly we made it to the top:

 

Just to find out that the “real” summit was another 6 miles…

Our ride back was non-stop and we actually encountered one car coming the opposite direction - this was the only other car we saw on the entire trip from the highway up to the observatories and back!  By 2:00 we were at the Harbor Hut restaurant at the marina in Kona enjoying a spearfish sandwich and a Fire Rock Ale.  …life is good…

I feel fortunate to have Dusty on this island and believe the KLR-650 is one of the best bikes to have here (if you are only going to have one).  Whether on the road or off, it goes and goes.  …David has suggested a name change to “Trusty”.  A great bike and a beautiful island to explore!