Broken Bones and Biking...

Wow, just thinking back to this particular excursion reminds me of how crazy it was.  Dad and I had made reservations to bike down Haleakala Volcano.  We woke up at 2:45 am since we had to be at the bike rental shop at 3:30am to get outfitted and start the journey up the volcano.  We were planning on seeing the sunrise from on top the volcano, and then bicycle 25 miles back down.  I was really excited about this, but the excitement was on the inside because I'm sure my appearance on the outside displayed the opposite this early in the morning.

Before I talk about my experience, how about some facts about Haleakala:
-Haleakala in the Hawaiian language means house of the sun.
-The summit is 10,000 feet above sea level
-It's a shield volcano that created 75% of the island of Maui (also know as the East Maui Volcano).
-Haleakala crater is at the top; it and the surrounding area is designated as a National Park.
-Haleakala crater was one of the first national parks and was designated as such less than a week after the creation of the U.S. National Park System in 1916 under the Dept. of the Interior.
-Haleakala is technically an active volcano, but is not currently flowing and shows no signs to doing so in the near future.
-The last lava flow there was 350-500 years ago.

A view of Haleakala from the east side of the island (across the bay).

OK, now onto my trip.  We headed up the volcano in a van full of our gear.  At the summit it had temperatures in the 30's with wind gusts into the 40+ mph range pushing 'feels-like' temps into the teens.  So in other words: it was freezing up there when I'm used to 75-85 degree temps; plus it was raining!  Unfortunately, mother nature didn't cooperate with us and we didn't get to see the Sunrise.  We did get to see the sun shortly after it rose (see picture to the right).  Haleakala is called the house of the sun for a reason because it's supposed to be breathtakingly amazing.  The area is sacred ground to the ancient Hawaiians.  After we found a little bit of sunlight, we loaded back into the van to exit the main park area where we'd start our bikes.  They used to start the bike ride at the very top, but there there were a couple fatal accidents, so the National Park Service makes the companies start outside the park area.  Fatal accidents?  We later found out just how dangerous it is...

High above the clouds.

This picture courtsey of Dad.  The outfitter for our trip told us the little cloud rainbows are called Rainbow Dogs, but he was rarely truthful about anything so I'm not sure if he was telling us the truth or not???

Now it was time to get on our bikes.  We were at 9000 feet to start.  We unloaded the gear, and strapped on our helmets.  The winds were gusting hard, and this was where the trip became interesting.  A trailer door blew over so hard it knocked 2 people to the ground as we were unloading gear.  Dad and I were ready, and it was a self guided tour (where we just returned the bikes when we returned to the shop 25 miles later), so were off.  Dad started and I said I'd follow, but as I was getting on my bike an Australian tourist was telling me he couldn't move his arm (he took the blunt of the blow from the trailer door) and his arm appeared dislocated.  I yelled to Dad to stop, but with the wind he couldn't hear me and continued on, but I stopped to help.  The Outfitter and I got him back on the bus and took his jacket off.  Fortunately, his shoulder wasn't dislocated.  His elbow, however, was already swollen and awkwardly positioned.  While I was assess it, I asked "Does it hurt really bad right here?", he replied with (and imagine a painful, loud, Australian accent with the next statement): "Yes, it bloody hurts mate!"  Pretty sure he had a proximal ulna fracture (ie. just below the elbow).  As I was putting Mr. Australia in a triangle sling a call came over the van's radio about a bicycle wreck involving an older man a half mile down the road.  My first thought: Oh no, Dad is a half mile down the road by now!  So now I'm jumping out the van door, donning my helmet and jumping on my bike.  The wind was literally blowing me off the road and I almost crashed a couple times on my way as I navigated the switchbacks and shifting wind patterns.

I caught up to Dad at the accident site, and was happy to realize he was fine.  Dad held my bike as I went to investigate.  This person had been biking like us, but with a different company.  Sure enough, it was serious.  The man had an open fracture of the femur (ie. his lateral thigh had a bone sticking out of it...it was pretty awesome in hindsight).  All things considered, his vitals appeared OK, but he was not very responsive and had a deer-in-the-headlights look.  It was still windy and cold.  A family member had covered him with their clothes and was doing their best to block the wind by laying next to him, trying to stave off shock.  Another tourist, who was driving by, stopped her car in the road to block traffic and luckily, she was a nurse.  She said she'd monitor vitals until the ambulance arrived.  Thankfully, the ambulance arrived a short time later.

At this point I felt like I was working ER triage versus biking down a mountain while on vacation.  Dad and I continued on and then we had fun (and managed to survive).  The views were awesome as we descended through the cloud level.

A few miles into the trip we finally reach the tree line.  It had been mostly baren at the higher elevations.  The blue spec on the road in the picture below is Dad.  He's one switchback ahead of me, and two switchbacks away from the tree line.  In the distance (slightly to the right) you can see the West Maui Volcano, and in the far distance (middle of picture) you can spot the island of Lana'i just under the cloud.

Switchback here I come!

We stopped at the tree line to take a break.  Granted we were going downhill so it should have been easy, but it was a little tiresome (physically and mentally) to constantly focus on not being blown over the guardrail and navigating the challenging switchbacks.  The trees brought welcomed relief from the relentless winds.

We stopped half way at a local breakfast spot.  The strawberry cream waffles were awesome.

near the bottom view of Iao Vally (the cut in the mountains) along the West Maui Volcano.

We got a little lost while it was raining toward the end of the trip but it was fun overall.

Mahalo for visiting.