Best Areas for Mountain Biking in Puna

[Guest]

A

[Greg]

There's a group of serious riders that do Mana road on Mauna Kea regularly. Mention California to them for a big laugh.

[Daniel]

If you want to do Mauna Kea just make sure you are prepared. It could get cold, even snow on you. Sometimes in the afternoon thick fog sets in especially on the waikii side. You should have a GPS with extra batteries. There are lots of hunting trails, and hunters. So you may consider an blaze orange jacket. You will see wildlife, silver swords, Koa trees, and lots of other interesting things. Mana road is long, be prepared to ride all day. Have fun with your bike!

Daniel R Diamond

[Rob Tucker]

Arrow76,

If the mountain biking is too tame for you here then perhaps you should consider he'e holua. That is a sport that might put hair on your chest. By comparison mountain biking is kinda for weenies.

He'e holua involves the use of a narrow wooden sled. The sled is used standing up, lying down, or kneeling, to ride down man-made or naturally occurring courses of rock. No brakes. Think of it as rock surfing reaching speeds of 50 mph or more. Not for the faint hearted or most California types. A thousand dollar fancy outfit won't help much.

http://outside.away.com/outside/news/200..._lava.html

[Chuysmom]

Geesh Arrow, why do you even COME to PunaWeb if you hate Hawaii so much? I would think you'd stay as far from Hawaii lovers as you could. Are you one of those troll guys?[?]

Carrie

http://www.sapphiresoap.etsy.com

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR

[Arrow76]

Mauka – I only wish to share my experiences about mountain biking on the Big Island to which I do have a good degree a familiarity (and disappointment). I’m not here to be a “drag” or “troll.” My posts are filled with real world experiences (I like to present the other side when needed). I don’t have anything against the Big island and certainly not my family whom I love dearly. I just like to paint a realistic picture in my posts. I enjoy a good downhill, but honestly I consider myself more of a cross country rider, so my interests are varied. I will try out Volcano based on your description ; perhaps there was something I missed last time. No question, I love California and the mountain biking is great! I would never visit Puna again if my family didn’t live there, but having said that it is not a completely miserable place to be. I spoke positively about the ocean and the shockingly nice public swimming pools in the area. I’ll add some others : the variety of fruits growing everywhere and the Maku’u Farmer’s Market.

Greg – Get real! You need to get out more as well as those mountain bikers. Here is a list of the top mountain bike trails in the USA, not one is in Hawaii. As far as technical, the professional mountain bike publications most often call on California or Colorado, Not Hawaii, for photo ops. Check the link below.

http://www.singletracks.com/php/top.php?action=trails&orderby=hits&direction=DESC

Rob – Okay, you got me beat! I’ll try that next.

[Rob Tucker]

Arrow76,

I kind of appreciate where you are coming from but... I am a bit stumped as I have never heard the Big Island promoted as a mountain bike destination. The Sierras are wonderful but there are things I would not go to the Sierras for - like swimming or snorkeling. I might tweak a few Sierra locals if a newcomer to Truckee asked where to go swimming and I answered online that the swimming sucked in the snow melt waters of the Sierra and that Hawaii was the place for serious water fun.

It's kinda like coming to Hawaii and complaining about the trout fishing.... which I admit is lousy here - no trout. Likewise one would not come to Hawaii and expect white water rafting experiences.... go somewhere else for that.

It's a great planet with lots of different things to enjoy. Go where you heart takes you and try not to offend the locals.

[Arrow76]

Thanks Rob,
In my defense, I would want know if I was coming from Hawaii and wondering about the swimming in Truckee, that it wasn’t that great and ice cold, and that swimming in Hawaii is much nicer. I am doing a similar thing with mountain biking in this forum (it’s just not that great compared to other locales and citing the reasons why). I’m in the position of having much experience in both Puna and California on this subject. I am pretty candid in my posts. I would hope that Punatics would keep an open mind and hear the contrarian viewpoint. There could be some real benefit to my opinions. I personally have benefited from the advice in these forums (i.e. giving Volcano another try for mountain biking).

[Paikikala Puna]

The main benefit I see in your posts here Arrow is keeping invading Californians(yes I'm one of 'em), off the trails in Hawaii!! That I can relate to. The trails are crowded here in Cali. I have to use a bell mounted on my handle bars to notify all the hikers, dogs, kids and slower bikers that I'm going to pass. Try doing that every thirty seconds... it gets real old. The single track riding in the Bay Area is great, just don't go on a sunny afternooon or weekend because you'll be sharing the trail with hundreds of others. I do appreciate other viewpoints but would rather hear from people who aren't chronically dismayed by what Puna has to offer. I bought a copy of Mountain biking the Hawaiian Islands by John Alford and it does appear that other than Kulani forest, and Volcanoes Natl. Park, a lot of the riding is outside of Puna. Looking at the map provided in this book there is riding all over Hawaii, from Grubbies Trail(sounds like it is short but sweet!) off mud lane to 'Ainapo Trail(dirt road) in Kapapala Forest reserve to Pine trees(flat, scenic and easy) near Kona to Skyline Trail, and Mana road on Mauna Kea. Sounds to me like there is just about every kind of riding climate, trail, and level of difficulty to make everyone in my 'Ohana happy to be riding in Hawaii!

[TheodoreJay]

Don't forget Moab Utah as a prime Mountain Biking destination in early spring and fall if you want to have a primo experience. I'm sure you can find some stuff on the Big Island to do w/ a bike its just not a prime mountain biking destination but there's plenty other things to do as well. My friends did a road bike loop of the Big Island had a jolly good time. There only downers was the rude truck driver in Puna almost running them off the road and the resort people not wanting to see their bikes at the front door even though they were paying guests.