Biking Down Haleakala

About twenty years ago, I saw a commercial, probably for a credit card, in which the people were riding bikes down the side of a volcano. Obviously, the commercial didn't make too much of an impact on me since I can't remember the product it was hawking, but I was mesmerized by that idea: biking down a volcano.

I have always been fascinated by volcanoes, how they form, why they erupt, how they can both destroy and create. I watched every nature show I could find about the volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands.

It wasn't until many years later, when I was married with teenage children, that I finally had the opportunity to go to Hawaii. We had won the trip through our business, and though we would have very little pocket money, my husband and I felt we had to take the trip since it might be our only opportunity to see Hawaii.

The problem was that we were being sent to Maui, which sounded just as beautiful but was a helicopter ride away from the big Island, where we would find all those great volcanoes. The company agreed that they would pay for one major event for us while we were in Hawaii, and they gave us a list to choose from. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I discovered the pamphlet about biking down Haleakala amidst the brochures.

The options included a sunrise trek down the volcano, but there was a waiting list that extended beyond our limited time, so we chose a late morning time to take the trip. A large van picked us up at our hotel along with about 8 other people. It took us very little time to reach the summit of the volcano, probably due to the beautiful surroundings.

Haleakala summit's elevation is a little over 10,000 feet, and we took some time to wander around and take in the scenery. We could certainly understand why a sunrise ride would be preferable, but we were happy to be able to more closely examine the barren peak so strangely juxtaposed with the wildly vivid flora nearby.

We spent some time with the leader of our expedition finding a bike that fit us. He then put us in a single file order and emphasized the safety issues. The road we would be traveling was not closed to traffic, so we needed to be very careful to stay in our lane. Like any mountain road, it twisted as it wound itself down. The van would follow us to stop vehicles from careening in behind us, and it would also be there if people found they couldn't handle the trip on the bike and needed a ride. One of the women who had gone with us thus far decided she didn't like the idea of riding down a volcano at 20 mph, so she opted to take the van, as well.

We had to pedal for about three hundred yards at the start, but the rest of the way down required steering and braking-it's that steep. The exhilaration for someone whose previous daredevil experience consisted of standing on the third step of a ladder was beyond speech. I couldn't believe I was actually biking down a volcano. I'm sure my teeth were full of gnats by the time we got down since I couldn't stop smiling.

It is a 38-mile road from the peak to the coast, but it didn't seem that long. This particular company fed us lunch in a lovely meadow with a great view of Haleakala's peak, and then returned us to the hotel. I must admit that many of our cohorts, especially those just past middle age who hadn't been on a bike for 20 years, seemed more relieved than anything else to be finished with the trip, but I was walking on air for months afterward.

There are other Haleakala groups now that help with the logistics but allow bikers to head down the volcano at their own pace. That does sound like a nice option, especially since we have biked down it once already and so would be more comfortable.

So even though we didn't get to see the active, bubbling volcanoes prevalent on Hawaii's big Island, I got to bike down a volcano.

It still makes me smile.