Pahoa

January 6, 2018

Note: the photo captions are a bit screwy or missing on this and the past few pages. I’ve been working with Jeff to track down a bug, and it looks like it’s been found - it’s a problem with the new iOS operating system. Now that I know the cause and remedy, I’ll come back and clean up captions when I get time.

Today is the closest we’ll get to a rest day on this tour. After swinging by the lava caves for a visit, we’ll drop down to Pahoa to spend the night - we may not even break 40 miles today, mostly downhill.

While you’re waiting around for a trip report, you can reminisce with me by checking out Rachael’s GoPro results from the past two days: Thursday, dropping to Black Sand Beach; Friday, along Hilina Pali and Chain of Craters Road; and at the end of the road on Caldera Rim Drive:

And, you can enjoy our view of the caldera this morning - one more argument for staying here more than one night. At gay break, it was foggy and even lightly raining. Within fifteen minutes it had all blown away, disappearing nearly as quickly as it appeared and darkened the sky at dinner Thursday night.

No sunrise display this morning - we’re blanketed in fog. I hear that this is common, and that we were pretty lucky yesterday.

This slight rainbow over Mauna Loa was an ephemeral delight, appearing and then quickly disappearing in the space of less than a minute.

We have an easy day today - a fairly short, downhill ride to Pahoa. We have plenty of time, so we can afford a few hours to check out some of the sights close by the lodge. We start bike biking a couple of miles to the Thurston lava tube. This spot was highly recommended to us by our greeter at breakfast, with the advice that we get there early and beat the crush of tourists that arrives midday.

We arrive at the parking lot at 8:30,and are the only ones there. After locking our bikes to a tree we walk down to the tunnel, enjoying the short walk through the rain forest beneath thirty foot tree ferns. The 200 yard long tube is a unique sight, well worth the visit if you arrive like we did when there is no one else around. I imagine it’s much less atmospheric when a crowd is present though. Here’s Rachael’s video of our walk through the tunnel.

By the time we return to the parking lot, traffic is already picking up. About ten people are milling around, and more arrive soon after. While Rachael checks out the quality of the outhouse I strike up a conversation with Connie, a young woman staring off into the forest. I’m startled to learn that she and her partner Cesar are on a two year world tour, partly by bicycle. Their goal is to Bike from Alaska to their home in Chile. They’re on a hiatus here - their bikes are back in Seattle, waiting for warmer weather; and also waiting for Cesar’s broken collarbone (injured in a long board accident) to heal.

So spooky! This looks like the entrance to Hades.

From the lava tube we hike back by the lodge and keep going a few miles in the other direction, blasted up the mild incline by a strong east wind. We follow Crater Rim Road to its virtual end at the Jaggar Museum. That’s Jaggar, not Jagger - this one is Thomas Jaggar, an American volcanologist, the founder of the Hawaii Volcano museum.

I’m sure the museum is a fascinating place, but we’re here for the views. The overlook of the smoldering Halema’uma’u Crater - this is the best overview of it that’s open to the public. The crater opened up in 2008 and has been spewing gas and ash ever since.

As we’re taking it all in, a fog bank rapidly blows in from the east and starts filling the crater. We return to our bikes and head back toward the lodge - further travel along the rim road is prohibited beyond this point, for safety reasons. It’s been closed ever since the current eruption began because of the ash and fumes.

The short ride back to the lodge is brisk - downhill, into the strong wind, and into a mist that quickly clouds our glasses. Along the way we pull off on the short Sulfur Banks Trail. We hadn’t done our homework here and didn’t know this trail existed - we pulled off for safety reasons, because we couldn’t see very well. It’s lucky we did though - it’s an interesting path, following along a rift lined with spewing vents and crusted over with bright yellow sulfur deposits.

The fog suddenly rolled back in as we left the crater overlook. It was a chilly ride back to the lodge, biking downhill into a fierce headwind.

The fog returned while we were viewing the caldera, bringing a light mist with it. We had a damp but fast ride back down to the lodge, but the prospect of continuing down the mountain in these conditions wasn’t attractive. We holed up by the fireplace for about an hour and a half, futilely hoping for a return of the sun. Finally we decided we could wait no longer and stepped outside again; and almost immediately the skies began to clear again.

The ride to Pahoa is mostly downhill, dropping almost 4,000’ in twenty miles. It’s a bit busy and not the most attractive stretch of road we’ve seen on the island, but there’s a very generous shoulder the whole way so it felt perfectly safe. The ride was fast and uneventful, save for a brief rainy spell. For a few minutes it came down quite hard, and with no shelter in sight I was bracing myself for a thorough dousing. It quit as quickly as it started though, and we quickly dried out as we coasted downhill into a mild headwind.

Our lodging for the night is out in the country, about three miles from Pahoa. Unless we pack our own food in there’s no place to eat nearby, so we stopped at Pahoa for a late lunch. Sunset is about six, so it would be too late to venture this far for dinner. We arrived in town about three and pulled up at Kaleo’s bar and grill, a place with an attractive menu we had targeted from our advance research. We sat outdoors, because it looked pleasant, we were pretty scruffy, and we could keep an eye on our bikes.

Several different fish dishes were on the menu, each with a different variety of fish. Our server informed us though that the menu was incorrect - for today, all of the options were prepared with marlin. Going with the flow, Rachael had marlin tempura and I had sweet and sour marlin. Both were delicious. As was the cheesecake that we followed up with, the specialty of the house.

The highlight of the meal for me though was not the food - it was the gorgeous, iridescent gecko that kept peeking around a spindle of the porch railing, gradually working his way closer to the table. He clearly makes his living on table handouts.

Afterwards, Rachael wandered down the street to find snack items for this evening. I stayed at the restaurant and repaired a flat tire, our first of this short tour. I picked up a staple, presumably very recently because the tire was completely flat after our meal but I hadn’t noticed anything amiss when we rode in. Lucky timing.

So disappointing - you didn’t leave any cheesecake for me!

I’ve definitely had worse setting for repairing a flat. The Lavaman Red Ale didn’t hurt either.

Our lodging for the night is Lava Tree Tropic In, a few miles south of Pahoa. It’s in an exotic setting that feels like middle of a park - and it is! Access to the inn is through Lava Tree State Park. Our hostess, Irene, explains the history for us. This area was once all part of a vast private anch that extended to the sea. The owner was driven off about fifty years ago by volcanic fumes, and donated most of the land to the state for preservation as a state park. He withheld four small plots embedded within the park though for the homes of his children.

Irene isn’t one of those original descendants though. She’s Hungarian by birth. After spending most of her life in Budapest, London, and Los Angeles, she had her full of city life and moved to this remote little paradise.

Total elevation gain: today, 1,400’; for the tour, 14,000’

Today's ride: 46 miles (74 km)
Total: 195 miles (314 km)

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