Oct 12

Originally Eric and I had planned to ride from O'heo to Keokea--about 40 miles and a 3,000 foot elevation gain--in one day. We have done rides that hard before. I thought maybe it was possible again.

So we set out from O'heo expecting a hard day. The road started out relatively reasonably. But within a few miles, it turned to gravel and took off up cliffs near the beach. Some stretches were as steep as the hill where the Fairmont sits in San Francisco. We grunted up these switchbacks, around blind corners (marked with signs urging motorists to "blow horn" before turning) only to go back down the other side. It wouldn't have been so bad if we had climbed up and up. But to spend half an hour going up, and 30 seconds losing all the gain on a downhill, was breaking my heart.

But the views were glorious. I think the stretch west of O'heo is as beautiful as Highway 1 near Carmel, Calif. Unfortunately, it was hard to appreciate this when I could barely get air.

We were also worried about running out of water. We had heard about a store in Kaupo, eight miles from O'heo, but we had also heard it was closed on Sundays. The next store wasn't until Ulupalakua, another 20 miles farther, and up a serious hill.

When we got into Kaupo, we hoped that somehow, the store would be open anyway. Of course it wasn't. So we lay on the front lawn, hoping someone would take pity on us and give us water. Of course they didn't. (Somewhere along the way, we actually did flag down a tourist, to ask for an ice cube. We needed a few to keep Eric's oral typhoid medicine cold in our thermos. They didn't have ice cubes, but they did give us a drink of water).

I actually contemplated laying there until the store opened the next day. The signs were so depressing: Ice cream, Cold drinks. Alas.

Finally, we picked ourselves up and started down the road. I didn't know exactly how far we'd get that day but I knew it wouldn't be all the way. After all, we had ridden eight horrid miles, and we were still at sea-level, while our intended destination was 3,000 feet above.

With this depressing though I rode forward. We were on the bikes about 20 seconds when we rounded a corner and saw a sign that said "Open." I just about died. It was Auntie Jane's. She is a ranch owner who grows her own hamburger and serves it up out of a van on the side of the road in Kaupo. Her burgers are huge--huge meat patties with lots of fresh vegetables, and cheese and lots of fattening mayo. We were in heaven. We bought two sodas right off, and ordered two more for when our burgers were up.

A carload of young folks had arrived just before us. They all live in Kihei, on Maui's southwest coast. I wondered what kind of work you could get on Maui. They said one of them was a dive master, one worked at Starbucks, and two worked at the International House of Pancakes. They were out camping for the weekend. They gave us a great tip about some beaches we could camp at just four miles away. It sounded great to me.

Auntie Jane came out and talked to us. She can really talk an ear off, but she was nice, so we didn't mind. She is a very large lady with huge red welts on her chest, and massive pink welts on each arm. She told us she had psoriasis (sp?) a skin disease. At one point, she used some skin cream her doctors prescribed, and then got huge second-degree burns on both arms--the pink welts we saw. She went to great lengths to explain that several doctors said she could prepare food without causing it harm. In her van at the serving window she had a picture of herself on her wedding day 23 years ago. Back then she was thin and fair skinned. "Did you see the picture?" she asked. "I was white."

Now Auntie Jane is taking care of her granddaughter Leticia, who is four years old. Leticia ran around while Auntie Jane talked about her. At one point she shook her head, saying that Leticia had chosen a "haole" (white) boyfriend. She seemed to be saying how silly that was.

At some point the Kihei gang left. We stayed on and listened some more. She invited us to fill up our water bottles and wet ourselves with our hose. We did. By the time we left, we had each eaten one burger and guzzled three sodas.

The Kihei gang said the road would straighten out after Kaupo, and it did. But it still rose and fell over lumps, forcing us to lose all the altitude we gained. And though the road had no potholes, that was because each pothole had been individually patched. Eric says it looked like someone had dropped asphalt on the potholes from the sky. We vibrated up and down the hills for awhile.

Within four miles, we sited the milepost the Kihei gang had mentioned, #30 (Maui's roads are re numbered often, so there are several mile posts all over the island with the same number; if you rely on mile posts to navigate, you have to know which part of the island the post is on).

Eric, who once climbed 10,000 feet in a single day with his loaded touring bike in Australia, didn't need to stop. He was ready to push on. When milepost 30 came up, I somehow didn't see it. Eric didn't say anything. Somehow it occurred to me I had missed it. I asked him if he wanted to turn back. He was willing if I was. I said I couldn't believe that we had climbed and climbed and climbed for 12 miles but we were still at sea level. So we pulled in, and got a killer campsite right on the beach, just 100 yards away from a family living out of their car.

The beach wasn't swimmable; huge waves crashed into very large grey boulders on shore. When the waves rushed back out to sea, several of the boulders rushed out, too, making a thunderous sound as they rolled.

We decided that even if we couldn't swim, we could at least get wet. So we sat on the boulders, waiting for waves to come up to our feet. Several came short of our feet, and then a few got our feet wet. We were ready to move closer when WHAM! A huge wave rushed full at our faces, slamming us into the boulders. I was sitting against one, so I was just kind of smushed, wetly. Eric was sitting on one and got knocked off. We decided to keep clear of the water after that.

That night we sat on the beach and watched the stars for a long time.

next: the 3,000 foot climb

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