Today, I biked about 50 miles on the beautiful isle of Maui. Unfortunately, almost half of those miles were unintentional and extremely difficult – so much so that at one point I really thought I was going to die in a ditch by the side of the road.
Some lessons learned:
- Kihei to Lahaina is 24 miles, not “about 12.”
- Measuring mileage on a tourist map while Tweeting and using the “thumb and forefinger” method almost guarantees inaccurate results.
- There’s no reason to believe that the ride will be mostly flat and you’ll have a tailwind, just because you hope it will be. In fact, the opposite might be true.
- If you leave at 4:30ish to catch a 6pm sunset and it turns out your mileage estimate is wrong, you will be riding in the dark for a good portion of your trip. Also, Maui highways aren’t lighted.
- Just because the highway has Bike Route signs doesn’t mean you’re not riding in a shoulder with cars zipping by at 50mph just a few feet away from you.
- If your ride is an hour longer than you expected and it’s around dinner time, you will be hungry for a good part of your trip.
- If your ride is much harder and longer than you expected, you will finish your one bottle of water long before you reach your destination.
- Catching the last bus out of Lahaina will be a big relief, but means you will still be riding 9 miles from Ma’alaea to Kihei because it’s too late to make the connecting bus.
- You will earn both admiration and embarassment-inducing disbelief when you tell your story to the Maui Bus driver.
(Ahihi-Kina’u Nature Preserve, Maui, HI)