Jeremy's Bike Blog

I flew out with Phineas and James, hung out in the Islander on the Beach with them, and James’ friend Patti, for a few days, then got a ride up into the Koke’e State Park with all my gear. This wasn’t my original plan, but James was getting the car anyways and it turned out to be a game-saver, as I was really heavy on gear and it was hot and a long climb up 4K feet on a narrow, busy road.

I played with recorded routes, Google Earth and Premier Pro and made this video, which I titled “Bikepacking”, but it was really more of I had two different base camps (that I’d reserved ahead of time), and took long, multi-modal day trips, lightly loaded (just handlebar and one or two fork bags). I played a lot with the 360 camera (and that’s what I used to make the video). I also took some phone pix and videos.

For the earlier days down in the Waimea valley, I pretty much explored everything I could, by setting out and doing a “right hand turn” rule maze-solving algorithm, as in, set out, and at every opportunity to turn right, you turn right…unless doing so starts you on a infinite loop.

It was great being multi-modal with biking and hiking. Wherever the road or trail peters out too much for biking (or the bike is prohibited), I’d just lock it to a tree and start hiking. My handlebar bag doubles as a fanny pack, and the fork bags can be worn on the fanny pack belt. I ended up carrying a water bottle in my hand for much of the hiking, but this didn’t bother me too much.

I didn’t have enough food for the 7 days, but there was a restaurant at the lodge next to my second campground site. It was only open 9 to 4, which added a scheduling obstacle to my routine which had by then become: leave camp shortly after sunrise and returning shortly before sunset and was a bit spendy, but it was another game-saver, as the only alternatives would have entailed descending and re-ascending the 4K feet.

When it was time to go, it was an easy bike back to Kapa’a where I met back up with James and Patti, who had gone to lengths to store my bike box in her small, meticulously packed apartment. She also hooked us up with one of the vacation rentals for a free night (between last guest checkout and cleaners visit). We capped off the trip with a decadent feast at the Bull Shed Restaurant, then got a lift, with my bike pre-packed back to the airport from Patty’s partner.