Hawai'i

They still ride out that way. They park their trucks by COSTCO and run over by the mililani cemetery back through there. Normally see about 20 or 30 on Sat or Sun

Kahuku is a nice track. They are building a dirt track down on Sand Island, a full 4x4 course, not sure what the progress is on that. Also if they ever get the funding for it, they'll have some dirt tracks on the new course at Barbers, but i doubt they'll get the money for that anytime soon.

I'd recommend the hale koa as well. If your son is stationed at Schofield you may want to try "the inn" he should be able to get you reservations up there.

Most of my family is still in Hawaii and we regularly visit back home. I see you're moving to Colorado soon...as you know get some excellent riding here! a hui ho!

Soooo ... I was right planning to bring to Maui Cagiva Gran Canyon (for daily commute) and Husky TE510. That should cover all my island riding.

Yup, I can't wait either. 10yrs in Hawaii was enough for me. Never got into dirt while out here though. Wife has family on Kauai so we'll still be coming back and forth I'm sure.

Want me to bring you any spam musubi or a plate lunch?

mahalo, ono grinds! Actually, I make'em all here! You can actually get a fair amount of 'local' stuffs here...get plenty of us Hawaiians on da mainland...well maybe not that many

No dog parks, you won't need them there is a leash law though but there are sooo many places to go where nobody will give a ratz butt (mainly in town is where people care).

Saddle Road has been neutered a bit after taking out more twisties concur the 950 would make that route a breeze, they just blessed another 9 miles of road this morning, the west side is still rough and twisty and from 6 to 19 miles is still twisty but more fun on a sportbike. OTOH there are tons of narrow twisty roads south of Kona, most running from the HWY to the shore are pretty sweet.

IIRC: The Inn is a bit of a dive, granted it's fairly new but it's in the middle of the Post and for the $$$ you'd be better off in a more touristy kind of place down in Waikiki. The Hale Koa is in an awesome location as far as Waikiki goes we used to park down there and surf Kaiser's during the summer in the "Small kid days" well high school and college kid days...

510 should cover most bases, there is some gnarly single track over there that is mainly Two Stroke country though.

SPAM Musubi... I just bought a dozen fresh ones for the crew that was setting up the tent, seats, tables, etc. for the Saddle Rd. Blessing this morn. Dats sum gud stuffs!!!!

Spam musubi... I was just talking about it at work a few days ago. I miss the food the most, I think. Plate lunch, shave ice with azuki beans, tako poki, fresh everything, ahi sashimi, roll sushi, cone sushi, crack seed, bento boxes, haupia, lumpia, kal bi pork, kalua pork, mango, starfruit, papaya, guavas, mountain apples, apple bananas,
oink oink oink!!!!!

I'm making myself hungry. Good thing I'll be going to go visit the folks on Oahu in February so I can grind.


NCW Mike

Nice!! I'm stocking up on Huli Huli sauce and some other local seasonings before we move out there.

You can get Huli Huli sauce here in Colorado as well as, Poi, Lau Lau, portugese sausage, seeds, Hawaiian Sun products, Aloha Shoyu , S & S saimen, fish cake, kim chee, manapua...too many local foods & ingredients to list at Pacific Merchantile in Denver...we always ending spending plenty every time we go. Recently an L & L drive in opened up in Aurora...we went to go check it out. It was ok, they have a basic selection of plate lunches that haven't been 'too mainlandized' But I make um betta!

Jess n case you guyz neva know, get snow on top Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa rite now....

Went to get some snow for our son to play with, at 16 months it's not really a good thing to drag him up to 13,000+ Feet. Ran some snoboarders back up a couple of times in the Jeep Chairlift.....

Cool crater shot, guess I should send over my snowboard.
Is the texture like sierra cement when it sits for a while?
Turns decent enough after the sun hits it for a while though.

Probably an opportunity for a powder day or 2 if you time a after storm trip right?

You have to be on top of it to get powder, many moons ago there wasn't anybody "Looking out for your Safety" and you could basically go up when you wanted. These days they control the road access until they have it cleared before they open up to the public, there's usually a melt n freeze cycle or two involved before they open up.

Bring a beater board cuz you're gonna scrape some rocks sooner than later!!! :eek1

Thanks for the info. Too bad about the road closings.
Would love to load up a few crazy people in the E350 4x for a powder day.

Found this link, brining MTBs too, any opinions on these 10 rides?
Are any of them no engine or hiker only trails?

Thanks for all your info, sounds like you have been on the big island for a while.
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Listed below are 10 of the most popular biking trails, according to the Big Island Mountain Bike Association, along with brief descriptions of each trail's features.

Walua Road - (less than 1 hour) A beginner-level trail, 3.2 miles one way, with a 600' elevation change. The road is paved and generally uphill with some local traffic. Highlights include ocean views and tropical landscapes.

Pine Trees - (1½ hours) A beginner-level trail, 6.4 miles round-trip, with no elevation change. Most of the trail is on a sandy beach road.
Pohue Road - (less than 1 hour) A trail for people of all biking expertise levels, 5 miles one-way downhill, with a 1500' elevation change. The trail features varying terrain and views of Maui and open ranch lands. The trail can be accessed from Makai and Mauka.

Old Puna Trail - (3-4 hours) An advanced-level trail, 10 miles one-way, with no major elevation change. This is a rough trail through tropical landscape. The trail can be accessed from Hawaiian Paradise Park (Puna) and Hilo.

Mana Road - (6-8 hours) An intermediate/advanced-level trail, 45 miles one-way, with a 3500' elevation change. The trail is along a dirt and gravel road curving around Mauna Kea. It offers great views and can be accessed from the Saddle Road and Waimea.

Kulani Trails - These are intermediate/advanced-level trails which are essentially a network of technical, single-track trails. The terrain is rough.

Volcano - All paved park roads in Volcano are open to bikes. See the National Park description below for more details.

Ainapo - (3 hours) An intermediate/advanced-level trail, 9 miles one-way uphill, with a 2800' elevation change. The trail is along a dirt and grass double track and ends at the Ainapo trailhead, where summit climbs to Mauna Loa begin.

Kilohana - (1¼ hours) A beginner/intermediate-level trail, 10.5 miles one-way, with no elevation change. Winding along a mostly rough gravel and dirt road, the trail offers great views from an elevation of over 7000'.

Beach Road - (1½ hours) A beginner/intermediate-level trail, 21 miles round-trip, with no elevation change. The trail offers an easy ride on dirt roads through tropical landscape.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is perfectly suited for biking at all levels of expertise. Exploring the main attractions off Crater Rim Drive by bike is a good alternative to driving, as the road is good and traffic is light. More challenging trails in the park are longer and feature rougher terrain and larger elevation changes.

Below we list some trails in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, as excerpted from the National Parks Service descriptions.

Circle the Rim - (1-2 hours) A circular trail of moderate difficulty, 11 miles long, with a 400' elevation change. The trail circles the Kilauea Caldera crater on a paved road with automobile traffic. Many side hiking trips and points of interest are accessible from the biking trail.

Escape to Mauna Ulu - (2-3 hours) This challenging circular trail is 12.5 miles long, with an 800' elevation change. The trail's name comes from the road's having been built as an escape route during lava flows. It is unpaved and suitable only for mountain bikes.

Overlook Hilina Pali - (3-4 hours) This is a moderately difficult trail, 18 miles long round-trip, with a 1400' elevation change. This narrow, paved road winds downhill over small fault scarps and old lava flows through the Ka'u Desert to the Hilina Pali Overlook. The overlook at the road's end offers views 2,000' down to the coastal flats. This area can be hot, dry, and windy. Note that the return leg uphill presents quite a vigorous climb.

Ride Ainahou Ranch - (1-2 hours) A challenging trail, 5.7 miles long round-trip, with an 800' elevation change. With great views of the coastal plain, this route can be very hot and dry. Notably, the return leg uphill presents quite a vigorous climb.

Summit to Sea - (2-6 hours) A challenging trail, 40 miles long round-trip, with a 3700' elevation change. The trails descend from the Kilauea Caldera crater's rim almost all the way down to the Pacific Ocean on the Chain of the Craters Road, which is paved and open to automobile traffic. Short detours can be made to various crater overlooks during the first few miles of the road. The trail offers great views of the coastal plain as the road crosses, and is eventually cut off by, massive lava flows. The return leg uphill is difficult.
Ups and Downs of Mauna Loa - (2-4 hours up, 45 min. down) A challenging trail, 27 miles long round-trip, with a 2600' elevation change. The trail follows a paved, one-lane road up the slopes of Mauna Loa, through the Koa woodlands, and over prehistoric lava flows. The road ends at an elevation of 6,662' (2,031 m), where, weather permitting, you will be rewarded with a panoramic view of Kilauea. Watch your speed as you descend the narrow curvy road, as cars often cut blind corners, and as it is difficult to negotiate the hairpin turns. There are a few side trips you can take from this route, the longest of which is three miles long round-trip.

Kulani Forest, Friday ride rain or shine every Friday, Chris at Hilo Bike Hub is the main culprit, generally don't ride MC's in there out of respect to the MTB crew that maintains the trails. The OHV park is right up the road and we're opening up some routes up to it about 7-8 miles up the road.

Hawaii Volcano Nat'l Park, the mellower trails are now open to MTBs absolutely no MCs, in the old days we'd do Ninja MTB Runs through the Park Hiking trails, wife works there now so no civil disobedience for me...

Mana Road, basically a firebreak type road that goes along the eastern side of Mauna Kea, OK for motorcycles, can go WFO!!!!

Beach Road is pretty good and leads to other good opportunities for MCs, mellow for MTBs.

Old Puna Road if you can find it is brutal after the first mile and a half, I've never done it but heard stories of guys getting helicoptered out after spending the night... Check It Here

Mud Lane just east of Waimea is nice single track for MTBs and MCs.

I'll think of some more and let you know.

Thanks man, appreciate the info.
Sounds like there are good number of choices to ride.
Happy to hear some of the trails in the Volcano park are bike friendly.

I just spent the weekend over on the big island..be aware that the VOG is pretty bad on most days in Volcano these days.... I know that I would not want to spend a lot of time doing any real hard physical activity in the area.

Good Point!

Fortunately there was a decent tremor about two weeks ago that shut down the Plume coming out of Halema'uma'u. The beauty of living in Hilo is that %90 of the times the winds are out of the NE and blow the vog south and west. Currently we've been in a SW "Kona Wind" pattern and it's keeping the vog on the east side (that's the other %10 of the time).

Bummer for the folks south and west of HI Volcanoes Nat'l Park %90 of the time though..... :eek1

Dunno how I missed this thread, but I'm here in Hilo too. I guess we do need a Hawaii subforum. 1+ to all of Southest US thumper's comments!

Robert, how was the thunder this am at your place? at about 0450 I thought a tree fell on the house, it was so bad. The poor pup was really flippin' out.

Andy

Holy Shamoly!!!! We had one so close that all the smoke detectors beeped right before the Slash with a boom right on top of it! Not as bad as a couple of years back when the telephone pole out front took a direct hit.

The Mountains are covered in snow, way below treeline on eastern Mauna Kea and around 10K on Mauna Loa too. If it weren't for a friend's daughter's 1st B-day luau tomorrow I'd head up and get some picks of the WR in the snow.

They have the Makaha Sons playing the luau or I'd shine the luau on.....

Did any of you lose power yesterday in that storm? All of freaking Oahu did. Lost it for about 8hr or so, pretty lucky, considering.