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Haleakala Bicycling at Sunrise


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I am thinking of doing the bike ride down Haleakala but my wife is hesitant. Is the trip down steep? Can some one describe the ride down that would put my wife's mind at ease about the ride down. We are going on the POA in March 2018.

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I am thinking of doing the bike ride down Haleakala but my wife is hesitant. Is the trip down steep? Can some one describe the ride down that would put my wife's mind at ease about the ride down. We are going on the POA in March 2018.

 

Before you go any further, no matter how much fun or adventure the ride sounds like, does your wife know how to ride a mountain bike and would she be comfortable with the bike itself (sitting on a small seat for a long time, for instance) and learning the braking system? In thinking about being comfortable in another way, will she feel confident in taking a bike that far? Not trying to be sour grapes at all, but Haleakala is not the place to learn how to ride a bike or try to bring forth skills if you haven't ridden for decades, so please be honest with yourselves.

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Let me put it this way - my husband is an expert cyclist who cycles several time a week. He has driven up and down Haleakala and his first comment was ONLY someone who is a good cyclist and who cycles regularly should consider this. He would not do it himself because of the numbers of inexperienced cyclists on the road and yes it is steep.

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You will need to leave around 3:30am to get there by sunrise....maybe a tad later....but it's an EARLY rising thing! And, it's FREAKING COLD! When we were there it was about 27F.....and windy!

Yes, it's very steep and curvy and busses will be passing you on the way down.

If you're comfortable doing it, go ahead. Let your wife ride back down in heated comfort!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I wanted to do this, and I have enough cycling experience that I would have been fine, but alas I have a family and one child wanted to see the sunrise so we all ended up driving up together. A few observations:

- Yes, its cold up there. Dress accordingly, and I think the bike tours give you warm clothes. We were inside the visitors center with the crowd until the last minute, and I thought we dressed appropriately, the ride down would have been chilly.

- Its early, but we were still on California time (for 2 weeks I woke up at 3:30 am daily) so it wasn't that bad to get up, even for my night owl kid. I don't think the time is that big a deal since its early in the cruise.

- I agree that if you/your wife are not experienced cyclists it could be a scary ride. Its curvy and downhill and parts I would consider steep. I cycled a lot in the SF Bay Area hills, but for someone from the flat midwest it would feel steep.

- What I observed/heard that I did not see before, is that the cycling tours now leave from outside the park, not from the summit. They take you to the summit to watch the sunrise then drive back down (several thousand feet) then load up the bikes. This was not clear to me when I read the tour descriptions and I would have been pretty disappointed I think. There's still a good view, but you're riding down the bottom half of the crater, not the whole crater, which is not the same. So just FYI if that matters to you or your wife.

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- What I observed/heard that I did not see before, is that the cycling tours now leave from outside the park, not from the summit. They take you to the summit to watch the sunrise then drive back down (several thousand feet) then load up the bikes. This was not clear to me when I read the tour descriptions and I would have been pretty disappointed I think. There's still a good view, but you're riding down the bottom half of the crater, not the whole crater, which is not the same. So just FYI if that matters to you or your wife.

 

Yes, the bikes leave from outside the park not the summit.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The summit is insanely cold and packed full of people. Once the sun comes up, all of those people start back down the mountain.

 

If your idea of fun is to be freezing cold, riding down a steep road for miles while trying to not get run over by people in their rental cars, go for it.

 

 

(Biking down a volcano sounds awesome but unfortunately it just sucks)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...

My husband and I did this on our honeymoon and it was one of the highlights of our trip. We made many stops on the way down the mountain and had plenty of time to explore. Neither of us had been on a bike in at least 10 years, but we didn't have an issue remembering the basics. I was 30 at the time.

 

Even though it was a lot of fun, there were some truly scary moments. Those huge tour busses roaring behind you on a steep hill scared me enough that I might not do it again...especially that we now have children and we wouldn't want to leave them parentless. There are also stretches where you are riding on the street with no shoulder. Most cars were considerate and gave us our space, but some came too close. I would say that if your wife is hesitant, this is probably not the trip for her!

 

 

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I am just a middle-aged lady that doesn't bike much and didn't have too much of a problem.. Would definitely do it again. We did book with a group that had a trailing van so nobody passed us unless we had pulled over safely to the shoulder. We did have to maintain a fast speed to avoid tying up traffic to long but it was not traumatic. As others have said it's freezing. Like long underwear, scarves, and mittens cold. It was beautiful and we loved the adventure. Your wife can try it out and if she feels uncomfortable she can hop in the van. If you google you can find videos of people doing the entire trip down.

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