It was a bluebird day today - beautiful sun, but also very cold. It was -8F at the start of the ride, and warmed up to a balmy 20F by the end. 6 hrs at a whopping 7.5mph average speed. My friend had his bike loaded up to test stuff out for Alaska. Makes my bike look puny.
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Love the sky in that last pic!
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At the time, I was trying to get a pic of the steam rising from the river. That shot didn’t show it very well, but the clouds came out well. The pic at the top got the steam on the river. Not that it’s “steam” - more water vapor that condenses out because the air is so cold.
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Yeah I really liked the first one too!
Another afternoon at the ‘endurance office’
and greeted by a beautiful sunset upon my return to our neighborhood:
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Today was the last big day on Hawaii and it was truly epic!
My plan was doing Mauna Kea. I had SAG support (by Chris DeMarchi, Hawaii Epic Cycling).
He reached out to me yesterday when he planned on doing MK with another client and they had closed the Mauna Kea Access Road (that is the last 20k of the climb, that incidentally make it the world’s hardest climb).
I started out today very early, when Chris picked me up at 5:30am. A long day better has an early start!
It’s a ritual to dip the bike tires in the ocean to literally start the ride at sea level.
At 6a.m. I set off from Waikoloa Beach, with at least 88km of climbing ahead of me.
The first hour was in complete darkness, but the sun lingered behind Mauna Loa.
One hour in, I had climbed 700m, travelled 21k and had Mauna Kea in sight!
When I saw how much snow there was on MK, I had a bad feeling about them re-opening the Route in time (the last update was from the day before).
After around 20k, I turned right onto the upper (busy) highway and then onto Saddle Road.
Saddle Road connects the Hilo and Kona side of the island and goes up to almost 2100m/7000ft.
A lot of cars left and right and a lot goats, too.
I took a first break after 2.5 hours and around 1600m (1 mile) of climbing.
About an hour later I had reached MK Acess Road, and they said it might open by Noon… maybe. I didn’t want to take this chance (and wait for hours) and did a right instead of left turn.
That was a good decision, as MK access road stayed closed for the entire day:
Good thing, Hawaii has one of the most epic climbs in the world right next to the most epic climb in the world.
I turned onto Mauna Loa Access Road.
Mauna Loa is world’s largest volcano (by area) and almost as high as MK. The problem for cyclists is, that the last 2000’ of the mountain are rough trail. And that’s no comparison to MK. It’s big volcanic rocks! If anyone completed Mauna Loa to the top, that would probably be the toughest climb in the world - no one has done that so far as far as I know.
I didn’t either.
The Mauna Loa is a very special climb, in that just a narrow (but well maintained) road snakes up the climb in wavy undulations, through nothing but Lava fields. This road will take you from 2100/7000 to 3360/11300. This is the closest you can get to moonscape on Big Island.
Chris took a lot of cool pictures and I’ll just post them in somewhat correct order:
At 10’000ft, I started feeling the altitude for the first time (ever). Especially the undulating road with many pitches above 12% really got to me. The air felt thin and I felt weak. The feeling was a little uncanny and I felt lightheaded a few times.
Luckily, it wasn’t far to the top anymore.
When I finally reached the top, I was relieved (also kinda relived that MK was closed, because this was very hard already). Now I have another good reason to return to the Big Island to get the one that got away.
Chris had prepared a cool “finishers trophy” to remind me of the pain and the beauty of this climb.
PJAMM calls it the “world’s longest climb”, which doesn’t make a ton of sense in my mind, but it’s an epic adventure surely.
Many thanks to Chris for the great support along this 6 hour (+2 hours driving down again) adventure!
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Epic! Looking forward to my chance someday!
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Congratulations - an excellent effort and an interesting write up and photos. Yet again your adventures on this thread are keeping me entertained - especially during the winter months of mostly indoor riding 
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Treacherous conditions first thing so we put our ride back a bit and chose a low route on main roads round the River Forth. It was beautiful sunshine but still cold.
About 2 miles from home though I was remembered why I prefer treacherous elements as opposed to going out in nice safe conditions.
As we circled oundabout (Traffic Circle for non UK citizens) a driver came straight at me (fortunately not fast) and nudged me into the middle. He then nudged me again and again. The 3rd nudge took me down. My left rear cheek is a bit bruised an my elbow has a few annoying grazes (although bruise free). The bike’s Portland Works Fenders (front and rear both sides) were released but with a bit of force clipped back in, the reflector on one bar end plug is detached, there is a bit of scraping to the saddle and hoods and a slight buckle in the rear wheel. But after reattaching the chain the bike was good for the 2 miles up the hill to home.
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Thanks for the kind words🤙🏻
It’s really nice to get a few breaks from rainy, windy, cold and worst of all, flat Germany.
Can recommend Hawaii to any cyclist.
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Another afternoon at the ‘endurance office’
and greeted by a beautiful sunset upon my return to our neighborhood:
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Can not recommend the Big Island enough. Especially when you are on Hawaii relatively frequently, give it visit. I found it amazingly beautiful. The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time and it has 3 of the 6 hardest climbs in the United States , with another one being over on Maui.
Mauna Loa is an underrated climb in my mind as well.
The „FIETS“ system to rank climbs really proves its limitations here.
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I’ve been on the Big Island four or five times, but all before taking up cycling. It’s my favorite island because Maui is too much like Cali ha ha, and Kauai is awesome but a little too cozy. We promised the kids the next trip is to Kauai since it’s the only major island they haven’t been on.
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Off your head going out in that… I was working near your run in “The Kingom of Fife” always makes me smile when I see those signs 
, it was baltic.
My car in the drive was thick with frost/ice when I left.
Hope you recover quick!
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I migrated several comments to here, from the 2021 topic.
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Thank you!
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You bet! I should work harder to track those year/step topics down, but I still miss them. Thanks to you and the others making and watching them
I got a call from a mate I hadn’t seen in ages to go for a short cycle in the sun albeit a 
one.
Yesterday I couldn’t bear to put my hands below my knees and even this morning was a struggle but after a short easy ride things are a little more bearable (even if its through 
) and I can bear to sit down for the first time since yesterday.
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Well, I’m back in the saddle after about 3 weeks away with an easy spin on the trails. I flew back to Switzerland yesterday from Boston (US) and I’m allegedly rested (based on my CTL from yesterday, see below) though a bit tired from looking at the posts here (Good job @Aeroiseverything and glad you’re ok @hlab).
It’s snowed a bit here, including last night. There’s not much at our altitude, with a bit more higher up. Based on the number of people with skis on the train spotted on our ride from the airport home yesterday, there’s good skiing to be found in the hills. Yes, you can easily take a train to a lift, often you’ll need to switch to a bus to get to the lift. Often, you can use your rail pass for the lift. Anyway, I wasn’t on skis but wheels today. Nothing terribly interesting, but it was a nice, easy spin of just shy of 90min in +2 to -2ºC.
If it looks like the trail has been cleaned, it’s because it was. The authorities roll a tractor (different sizes depending on the trail) with a blower on the front to clear debris, including leaves and small branches, from the trail. Before I left, this and other trails were covered with autumn leaves.
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