day 2

I woke up early today and we made a brake for it. I was a little saddle sore but the riding was smooth.  A lot of little stops helped my sore muscles get warmed up and the pace was much faster. We hit Ohio about 9am and somehow managed to miss a bunch of rain on the way to Defiance. Currently I am sitting inside Kissner's restaurant where I had a swiss steak and a yulengaling. Already we have traveled 45 miles thanks to the cool weather and a nice tailwind. I was averaging about 14mph for the last hour or so. At this point I feel content to find a place to rest for another hour and continue this afternoon. I'm pretty sure that i'm still 100mi to my destination but I'm hopeful that I will break 100k and not have to rush the entire last day to Mansfield.
     On the way through Defiance I stopped at the library to try to complete the request for videos to the casting person for Naked and Afraid. The computers were slow and I couldn't get anything to work the way I needed so I just ended up talking to a few of the locals. Chris and I chilled outside by the Maumee river and he told me some interesting things about the area and history, then he pointed me out of town and I started cruising east. There was some road construction and a busy highway for a few miles so I changed my route to parallel the highway in the country. There was a great tail wind and nothing much to see, so I just kept pedaling until I found a backyard pond with someone outside mowing. He let me jump in, so long as I didn't drown, and Makai and I got a good bath.  I continued on my way for another hour or so until I spotted a bunch of water towers to the south. I made a turn and was disappointed to find a string of factories and no town. Several miles later I found the town of Lepsic, a burned out old farm town surrounded by trailer parks and factories. There are three restaurants in town; subway, and two pizza places but only one where I could get a beer. So I ate an entire pizza, drank a few Stroughs, and made my way to a park where I set up a hammock and passed out. At 3:30 am Makai woke me up barking. I already knew what was happening so I called out to the officer and told him "I know I'm not supposed to be here, is there anywhere you would rather me be right now?"  He sided with me and let me stay if I promised to leave early in the morning. It was a really cold night and Makai ended up in the hammock with me the rest of the night,  a small reward for being such a good dog

day 1

That two hearted SOB got me, it took far to long to drink that keg. I didn't wake up early and my mom had to shake me out of bed so she could have a proper goodbye.  I packed up the rest of my belongings by 11 and started heading west on the pumkinvine bike path. That is a great trail, it bummed me out when I had to ride on the buggy roads. They hardly compare. Sr 20 is surprisingly nice, The trucks blow by at 5 times my speed but the shoulder is huge. I stopped at Lucy's vedi twist for an icecream cone and an interview with a casting rep from Naked and Afraid. I have another video interview on Friday. While I was eating my peach frozen yogurt my inner tube on the front wheel exploded with a bang and I had to fix it before I could leave. We left as soon as possible and stuck to the paved roads to avoid another flat. The ride got hilly but the scenery was nice and the weather was great. I rode 30 more miles with my pace slowing because of the hills and headwind. Somewhere in Dekalb I stopped to get directions to a campground and no one knew anything so I decided to find somewhere on my own. I crossed hwy 69 and right there less than a mile away was an abandoned business and a house. It was trashed and stinky but it had a roof and screens on the windows. I did what I needed to do updating my family and such and then fell asleep hard for a few solid hours.

ready. set.

I'm about to leave on my big bike trip.  I have everything almost ready. It is only going to take a small amount of packing my trailer and then I'm off. I have to say ciao to a few important people so I wont have a chance to tell of my many adventures in Middlebury, IN or show off my video yet. Soon hopefully I will buckle down on this thing and keep a more accurate record of my daily activities. Keep in touch, I could probably use some afternoon conversations to keep my wheels turning. 808 769 0598 I got a bluetooth speaker to allow me to communicate on bike.

Here is the daily update.
I woke up early to go tour around Elkhart, IN with the city arborist Daniel Coy. We cruised around town and he showed me all the cool things he is working on. They do a lot in Elkhart to keep up to date on their tree city USA status and to plant three trees for every one that the city removes.  He said once the Emerald Ash Borer problem is dealt with he will have more free time to plant trees but for now there are hundreds of dead trees standing in public places. Please do your part and not move firewood, its really detrimental to a lot more than you could ever know.  I got really stoked because of Dan's excitement, he loves trees more than I do, and is so passionate about his job.
 Next, I went to Grandma Hoover's and pulled out some spirea bushes she didn't want. It was a good thing she fed me lunch, because I didn't spend too much on junk food at the store.   I got some grains, beans, dog food, and essentials for my trip and headed home. One last stop at the Pumpkin vine cycle shop and I am now ready for my adventure. I got tires, pedals, a bright green helmet, tools,  and waterbottle cages. Then I helped Mom move some furniture and ran the dog for a couple miles down the bike path. Once again he knows that something is up, I'm sure he feels the same nervous tension I do, like a belly full of coffee. We stopped in to Evan's to try once again to finish Jackson's wedding keg of Bells, Two Hearted. There is still over a gallon and no one has the guts to help me. So, after this post I'm relieving my duties of editing my video and doing a favor to my best friends to hang out one more time, possibly the last time in a few years, share my love and say aloha.

38 days

I got a plan to fill the rest of my 40 days with activities and fill in the calendar with things I need to accomplish before I go. So far there are about a hundred things to do. I'm fulfilling one by writing on here as much as possible. The other thing I was supposed to do was to get a doctor to write me a prescription for  Makai, my dog. I think I got one!
So today I went ziplining. like normal. Except I had a corporate group and they were kinda boring. That only lasted until the mid point of the tour when one of the participants had a rock get stuck in his trolley and I had to go get him.We were only 100 feet off the ground, dangling together while I had him step up in an etrier, or rope ladder, to unclip him and move to another trolley. Its an easy task that I have spent hundreds of hours testing myself and others to be sure that all of our guides can do it under 3 minutes. This time I just had to do it 300 feet down a cable with other groups and guides all around in the forest watching and hooting and hollering. I pulled the unfortunate Joe about half way back to the platform when I had to take a break. He looked back at me and said, " What are we stopping for? Don't take a break. My nuts are getting crushed."  After getting back to the ground we all had a good laugh about it and continued the tour like normal. Poor Joe will forever be that one guy that got stuck in the middle of the zipline during the company outing. I'm sure the story is going to be greater by the time he gets back home to Louisiana. Its ok with me, I don't mind being the zipline guide that saved his life.

Makai is going to America

Makai on left and Mauka behind.

I have decided to b ring Makai on my trip with me. He is a great travel companion and will do well on a bike. We had to do a few things to get him prepared, so this morning we went to the vet. He got his first rabies vaccination, a microchip, parasite check, and they even removed a pellet from under his skin. After another round of vaccines and a blood sample he will be able to come back to Hawaii without any problems and will even get to ride on the plane with me if I get a couple other important things in order.

I got my bike!

Put it together last Wednesday. Haven't got a good chance to take it out. So far its just a work vehicle, and I did get to bomb a hill on Easter.

Honokoa waterfalls

The last few weeks have been a transition period on the island. It happens often, a large fluctuation of people from and to Hawi. A group of my good friends left to chase their fate on the mainland. And I'm sure that their positions have already been filled by equally amazing people just waiting to be discovered. I know that there are a few people who have just returned to Kohala from the US winter, I even met a kid who grew up in Carbondale and is friends with a lot of the same people from the valley.

Right to left Brian, Anna, Tanager,  Travis and Honokoa gulch

   To celebrate the transition of Shell, Anna, Brian,and Tyler, a few of my friends from different social groups. We decided to do something that none of us had ever done before. They left the decision up to me. I have to admit its my favorite thing; taking a bunch of people to do something that none of us have ever done. We got out the maps on a Monday morning, while Shell and Lana made the house brunch. None of us expected the crowd that showed up and kept growing until we departed. I decided on a large canyon on the desert side of Kohala, a big gash that runs from the Kohala mountain road all the way down to Kawaihai. I measured it up and a rough estimate of five miles and four to five hours was produced. Eight hours later we would realize how rough an estimate can be. 

   

 We departed with a larger group than I could accommodate with my gear. We were two harnesses shy because of the tag alongs. I should start my own company, I already have gear for eight. We took three cars leaving the truck at the bottom of the canyon and driving up to the top where we would drop in around noon. All ten of us and Makai started down the north branch of the canyon so we could skirt the houses and the big drops at the beginning of the trek and gain more ground faster. We did end up coming upon more people then we anticipated; eventually we all ran through a field to avoid walking right next to some people putting in a fence. When we made it back to the canyon we were past the confluence of two streams, there were two huge waterfalls before and one immediately after the streams connected and we had a great vantage point where we were standing hundreds of feet above it.

After chasing a heard of about 500 feral goats we found a way back into the canyon. The scene was perfect; sun from above, rain from the east with no clouds in sight, beautiful flowers and green grass everywhere because of the twenty or so inches of rain we had received  this year on the dry side of the mountains. We strolled along the river banks until someone spotted an unfortunate goat bloated and floating in an eddy. Everyone wanted to chill on the green grass and swim in a pristine pond so they decided to hang out upstream while I scoped the scene a hundred feet below. Not very far away there was a waterfall about twenty yards tall with a perfect anchor and rigging spot. Had the situation not been so fortunate we probably would have bailed back out of the canyon and looked for a way around, but we had the gear and I had already dropped the rope by the time anyone else got a look.

Anna on rope with the crew standing on the rocks below

 No matter what laid below the majority were ready for the challenge. I manned the station on top of the waterfall, Tyler stayed below until he was blue, and Peter checked out the canyon ahead to find potential ways out if we ran into big falls. Everyone made it down safely to the pond below, even though it wasn't a flawless rappell. When Makai and I arrived at the bottom and pulled the rope everyone knew we were running short on day light. The sun was no longer directly into the canyon from above and it was shaded in a lot of spots. So everyone picked up the pace. No longer worried about getting wet, we quickly slid and waded through the stream. The canyon became deeper and wider but still allowed enough light for small stands of kukui and peach trees, to our surprise. We took an exit out of the north of the canyon, I learned later that this was our biggest mistake; If we would have gone out the other side there would have been a dirt road leading directly to our destination. However, we were still having fun and were gung ho about making it out in the next hour or so to make it to sunset on the beach. Looking up at our path we should have realized that my "half way there" was not true, but the path below looked like a comfortable grassy field all the way down to the ocean. So we trudged along for a couple of hours still enjoying ourselves as until we ended up with cliffs on both sides of us, the sun setting into the ocean, and no where to go but down. At that point Lana consulted the Iphone map and the truth came out; we were half way to the truck.
We quickly scurried down a cliff through a dry stream bed and up the other side. I saw a road and a subdivision on the map and decided I would like to head for that. I hung back with Tyler at that point hoping that everyone would  make an effort to stay together, but we were moving slower and even the dog ditched us.  We caught up to a portion of our group flashing lights up the hill in the dark and stopped for a brief snack of Nutella and sardines. Not the most appetizing dinner but enough sustenance to keep us going. Again the group took off and was a few hundred yards away from us before we got moving.
     For  the next hour and a half Tyler and I made our way towards some lights off in the distance, we just kept trudging along hoping we were close to our destination but beyond the point of worrying. The weather was perfectly comfortable, warm with a soft breeze from the mountain. At any moment I could have laid down and fallen asleep, but I didn't want to even mention the idea because it sounded so much easier than the situation we were in. The lights in the distance never seemed to get any closer even after crossing a dozen gulches. At some point Tyler noticed the lights were from Kohala Ranch Rd. still miles away from us and we changed our course immediately heading straight down hill. After ten minutes Tyler said, "A Watertower!" and I hardly even heard him until he told me to stop. Right next to us was a huge water tank and upon approaching it the whole subdivision below us came into view. We were finally at a road, we just had no idea where.
Surprisingly enough the road offered no console to our tired soles.We could move at a faster pace than the grassy rocks we had been tripping on for hours, but our tired legs could hardly take the impact of pavement so we ended up walking backwards until we came to a street sign and found out where we were. We phoned the others who were just making it back to the truck, sat down on the corner and we were picked up in no time. With a bed full of eight dirty wet adventurers we descended upon the only restaurant left open in Kohala, The Seafood Bar. We hardly said a word as we sucked down dark beers and late night happy hour pupus. We had a few people ask what we were up to; I'm sure that ten people sitting at a table giggling hardly saying a word and ravenously stuffing our faces were quite a scene. We left as the restaurant closed and headed up the mountain to our vehicles. This would end up being the worst part of the adventure. After nearly nine hours, six miles of hiking and 3500 feet of decline there was nothing comfortable about sitting in a truck in the cold wet Waimea wind with full bellies an cramping muscles. But, we made it. All of us, and with only sore muscles and scratched ankles to show for it. Not bad considering the amount of unknowns thrown into the situation. I did apologize to my friends as we loaded up, but they only laughed it off and said they really enjoyed it. I actually believe them now after hearing all the stories and comments from people I don't even know. I really enjoyed it too. After talking to a few of my local friends I discovered that they too have done the same route, and that the gate on the other side of the canyon leads directly down to where we parked the truck only two hours away via the road. Oh well, next time. I also heard somewhere that staying in the canyon is a guaranteed full day, about 18 hours. Now that is an epic adventure.