10000 feet of climbing

Thursday 20 Mar 08, the HACC took its annual pilgrimage to Maui to climb Haleakula. http://www.nps.gov/hale/ Haleakula is a dormant volcano that extends from sea level to 10000 ft elevation in 36 miles. It is probably one fo the very few places in the World with climbs of this magnitude. We got up at 4 am and headed to the Honolulu Airport with our bikes wrapped up for the 37 minute flight to Maui.

Once we arrived at Maui, we changed in the Airport, unwrapped our bikes and

headed out about 0730. Ben met us at the Airport with a van full of water, Gatorade, cookies and sandwiches to give us the energy for the climb. We tooled out for a 10 mile gently rising cruise to a little town where we stopped to refuel. There was a sharp climb out of the town then a unmarked right turn. As I started up the hill, I realized my rear tire was low so I turned around and replaced the tube. Jim Cain and his friend were also experiencing mechanical difficulties as bolt holding his friends seat on broke. I fixed the flat and headed up the hill. I road right through the turn and kept climbing until the road came to a dead end 7 miles and 2000 feet of altitude gain later. Luckily I had a cell phone signal and was able to call John for help. He had Ben head my way to meet me and bring me back to the group. By the time we caught up, the group had spread out. I rode with Jim Phillips until we got to the ranger station where we met up with Gil. The three of headed up together. We stayed together until the 9000 ft mark where Jim we spread out. Grampa Gil showed us young whippersnappers up as he completed the climb about 200 yrds ahead of me. Jim was pretty close behind me. The big thing is we all made it to the top. We stayed up top for about 40 minutes, changed in to warm clothing as it was in the 40's before heading back down. The down hill started out quite fun as John, Bryant and myself flew down the hill about 40 plus mph. about 8000 ft we hit fog and rain which lasted for the next 3000 ft of decent. We flew the rest of the way down averaging over 45 mph. We were rewarded at the bottom at a really nice Italian restaurant.

I replenished my glycogen stores with chicken Parmigiana and a cold Kona Pale ale. We stopped for Krispy Creme donut which I brought home for the family. We arrived back home about 9pm then I headed to church for eucharistic adoration from 11pm-12am. I was sooo tired. Check out Ben's Blog for more pics: http://bensambrano.blogspot.com/