E-Bike Bliss on Two Hawaiian Islands

At this time an outdated haul highway nonetheless runs alongside the western fringe of Maui and John and I discovered a part of it simply north of an intersection off the primary highway in Kaanapali. This highway, now derelict, could sooner or later kind a part of the West Maui Greenway, a proposed 25-mile-long path from Ukumehame Seaside Park to Lipoa Level on the northern tip of West Maui — a bike owner’s car-free dream.

Round mile 10 John and I turned onto a dust highway that climbed steadily for about 600 vertical ft to the Ironwood Ranch, one of many island’s final horseback-riding ranches. The proprietor, Kimo Harlacher, allow us to cost the bikes in a barn and pitch hammocks in a gazebo beneath a Java plum tree in change for serving to with the horses. We used his electrical mountain bikes to journey to a grassy spot overlooking the ocean the place vacationers will be capable of camp later this yr. Wild pigs rummaged across the citrus bushes.

The next day, the using was spectacular, troublesome and rewarding: a 22-mile epic that may drain the batteries with 3,500 ft of climbing up and down a distant highway bearing an elevation profile of a coronary heart assault.

The Honoapiilani Freeway, which turns into the Kahekili Freeway, has curves tight sufficient to convey automobiles to a crawl. For 3 hours John and I made our method across the northern tip of West Maui, the highway rising so slender at occasions the cliffs and rainforest squeezed the middle stripe proper out of it. We cruised previous the Nakalele Blowhole and slogged up “the wall,” a brief, stout climb that even with an electrical help left us winded. We rounded blind corners that exposed thundering bays and craggy cliffs. There have been banana bread stands, farms and timeless villages.

In a couple of spots, we pulled over to let automobiles go after which watched as these automobiles met oncoming automobiles and a sport of who will again up first started. The commerce winds hammered our faces on uncovered curves, then dwindled to a whisper as we rounded the corners of ravines and drainages. The battery-powered meter on my handlebars dwindled because the motor groaned up inclines. The downhills got here quick and thrilling and I leaned the bike into the curves. You can fly to Maui only for this part alone.

That evening, our final, we camped on the farm of George Kahumoku, Jr., a Grammy-award successful musician. For a donation — he helps feed the island’s homeless — guests can come right here on weekends for breakfast and music, however company can’t sometimes keep right here. He allow us to as a result of he was simply again from a tour that handed by means of my hometown in Oregon and he wanted assist tending his taro fields. For others, the inns of Kahului are lower than 10 miles away.