The long Memorial Day weekend demanded a ride. We were all set for a Saturday outing, but then I remembered that I had something to do on Saturday, so after a flurry of emails, the ride was moved to Sunday. The weather was iffy on Friday with heavy downpours, but Saturday was clear and breezy. The good weather lasted through to Sunday, so we were set for a full Luana loop.
Almost like clockwork, Chris called before the ride and said something had gone horribly wrong at his folks’ place. Last week it was a plumbing main leak. This week it was all electricity. The main service line had gone dead sometime during the week, so the ‘fridge had gone into meltdown and released its contents as a foul liquid. Yet again he was denied a ride. Jeff’s back was tired, so he opted out of the ride, and JT was off gallivanting in Texas, so it was just Ckucke, Root, and me.
The beautiful weather buoyed us into an initial positive vibe, but moments after rolling out, our deconditioned backsides began hurting from the seats, and the climb up over the pedestrian overpass caused instant burn. What was a refreshing breeze at the park became a howling headwind all the way up Kalani’anaole and onto the old highway – even the downhill sections were work. Entering the trail network, we took a slightly more level route to the mud bog, avoiding the climb up to the fenceline contour. Reaching the big tree, the first of the series of climbing was done with.
Dropping through fat guy, we took an easy pace down the Ditch to Government Road. We passed three guys on bikes, a pair of equestrians, and one runner. I was actually expecting more traffic, since it was a long weekend and summer and all. We conserved energy in granny ring going up the road so we wouldn’t die out on the Luana traverse. At the top, a dude came down the Demon trail on foot. He had ridden his bike over to the Waimanalo trailhead, then locked up his bike and came up the trail on foot to explore.
After a rest, we entered the trail. Everything up to the sharp right turn was reasonably clear, except for a little narrowness along the downhill. I was glad I had my long-sleeve jersey! Beyond that point, there were around 3 or 4 new deadfalls that required dismounting, but it was otherwise fairly open. The exception was the middle section between the ferny chicane and the last endless climb, which was grown in to the point that the trail was still apparent, but the traffic surface was often invisible. Some evil cow-catching plant grabbed Ckucke just before the double root wheel stopper.
We broke out onto the paved road a little after five, so the sun was still above the crest of the mountains. There was a family of four, a solitary dude, and tweaky shirtless guy near the parking by the bridge on the way out. I was pretty much tapped out, as there was burn, lack of power, and the beginning of the twinges of cramping on the climb back up to the park. Probably could have done with another bar, gel, or bloks along the trail at some point. I had a large frame bottle of Cytomax, which was depleted early on; and 2.5 liters of water in the hydration reservoir, of which I used about 2.2 liters. I remember running out of water doing this ride with Chris, so I brought a little more this time. It worked out about right.
Chris missed another good one. Maybe next week…
Pictures here
D = 16.56 km (10.29-miles), Vavr = 10.3 km/h (6.4-mph), Vmax = 41.0 km/h (25.5-mph), T = 1-hour, 36-minutes (total trail time approximately 3-hours)
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