For my first multi-day bicycling tour of the season, I met my cycling buddies in Maui for a two day tour around the western half of the island. We started the ride from the Paia/Kahului side of the island to facilitate the airport exchange, but you could just as easily begin and end from the Kihei/Wailea side. You could also do this route as a long day ride, but you would have to start pretty early in the morning, given the challenging terrain of the last 30 miles.
From Kahului, traveling clockwise, there are two highways that lead to Lahaina and the surrounding communities: the Kuihelani Highway (380) and the Honoapiilani Highway (30). Highway 30 seems to carry less auto traffic and had a bike lane for significant portions, so this seems like the preferred road to take. To get to where the highway begins in Wailuku, you have to snake your way through urban and industrial parts of Kahului which are less than scenic. On the bright side, our meanders took us past a local greasy spoon called Tasty Crust, apparently known island-wide for their pancakes. Perfect fuel for the road!
Leaving Wailuku via highway 30, the tradewinds push you right through the valley at a speedy clip. Past the 7 mile marker, at McGregor Point and Lighthouse, is a pullout that's great for whale-watching. We saw several breaches within just a few minutes. Past mile 10 there's a narrow tunnel that's a bit sketchy, but there's enough shoulder to get by. Another 10 miles down the road is Lahaina, the historic whaling town and tourist trap. (Take Front St. from the highway). Lahaina provides a nice resting point, and there are plenty of options for food and refreshment here. We had a bite to eat at the Pioneer Inn Grill and Bar, which has a great wharf side location but isn't particularly cycling-friendly. The greasy long-haired jackass who was in charge gave us a big stink for parking our bikes on the sidewalk. He was really concerned about us blocking the walkway. Meanwhile, Front Street was a parking lot with a brazillion tourists and their SUVs.
Anyway, from Lahaina we continued on towards our first night's destination, Napili bay, just a few miles past Ka'anapali. Just outside of Napili, the road was actually closed to car traffic while crews worked on some power lines downed by the storm. Luckily we were able to walk our bikes past.
Yeah, the weather was... not so good. It's the rainy season, so you expect some showers, but there was actually a pretty substantial stormfront hanging over the island for most of the week, making for some less than ideal riding conditions. J likened it to riding in Cambodia during the monsoon season. I didn't feel like we got pummeled by too much rain on the West Maui ride, but the roads were wet, muddy, sometimes flooded, with occasional rock slides and other debris on the shoulders. At the end of each day we looked like we had gone mud-wrestling rather than cycling. So, it was certainly nice to arrive in Napili for a brief respite from the rain and mud before we hit the road again for day two.
Napili has lots of condo rentals that are relatively inexpensive, given the beautiful location (a protected bay with a perfect cresent of sandy beach). Napili Village has spacious studio condos that sleep up to 4 ($160 a night). You can have dinner with a bay view at the Sea House, about a block away. Try the poi, it's tasteless! (at least that's how our waitress marketed it) They also have live music, some good Hawaiian stuff mixed with covers of '70s and '80s classics for the golf course Haoles. Rock on!Day 2: Napili to Paia
The second day of the ride takes you past the remaining condo towns where few tourists venture. Past Kapalua the road narrows to one lane and traces a sinuous path along the cliffs. Even in good weather this leg of the route would be challenging, with the constant hills, quick descents, and narrow switchbacks. A few brief sections are so steep that I had to use my lowest gear (i.e. walking). In our less than ideal conditions it was a real bear of a ride. But it was still pretty spectacular. It reminded me a bit of stretches of highway 1 in California.. just a bit more lush and tropical.
There are no services on this stretch of highway, besides a couple small fruit stands in Kahakuloa town. Just past the village begins the only sustained climb of the day: an elevation gain of 1000 feet of so over 2-3 miles. For the most part the road is well graded in this section, so it's actually a pleasant climb compared to some of the steep stuff earlier on. After that, it's all downhill back to Wailuku. Total Miles: 80
Elevation Gain: unknown
Route maps (bikely.com): Paia-Napili and Napili-Paia
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