RR: Lahaina & Makawao Forest

[Sprockethead]

Well we landed on Saturday morning and made a beeline to Crater Cycles in Kahului to pick up our bikes, Kona Kikapu's. While at the shop, I got a surprise call from Robbie, Shaheeb on MTBR, to go on a ride in Lahaina. Woohoo, we're staying close by and going riding the first day. The ride was supposed to start at West Maui Cycles with Robbie's friends, but he never showed up. Fearing that my day was shot, I asked one of the riders in the group if we could join them cause Robbie invited us to this ride. He didn't seem happy, typical Turner rider , but said yeah, c'mon. Riding in Lahaina is pretty much fireroad climbs with some singletrack downhills. Nothing too technical the first day out there.

By the way, here's what I have learned so far in Maui. If it say Private Property, No Trespassing, that means go for it. If you get caught, go ahead and admit you know you're on Private Property, but don't say, do you want me to leave? We didn't get caught, but that's what the local rider explained to us. In Maui, there are only 3 legal trails, 1 in Makawao Forest and 2 in Poli Poli Forest. Poli Poli burned down cause some hiker was careless with his cancer stick back in Jan '07. The park is supposed to open back up in July though. Hence, the illegal trails everywhere else. Anyways, we met a really nice rider named Armadillo on the ride and he showed us around the local trails in Lahaina.

The second day, we followed the instructions provided to us from Crater Cycles and headed to Makawao. Wow, this place is beautiful. Lot's of tall trees and moss. It reminded me of the Pacific Northwest. The trails in there are set up similiar to Alvin Meadows with a fireroad and singletracks criscrossing it. We saw quite a few doubles and jumps all over the place. The ride felt surreal cause it was raining but we weren't getting wet. We were riding under the canopy of the trees, way cool. The dirt in Maui is also very tacky. I think it's some sort of red clay, pretty amazing. Your tires will stick like glue, so will all your other parts.

On the third day, Armadillo took us back up to the trails in Lahaina and showed us some singletrack. This time, I had a blast riding through the downhills, they were bumpy with some waterbars to jump over at high speed.

Pineapple on the trail!


Ann coming down a trail in a coffee field



Just stuff you see while riding


Armadillo decending towards Lahaina Town


Singletrack in Lahaina




Red Powdery Clay and you still stick!








That's a mango tree behind us and mangoes on the ground





This guy didn't fare too well

[Sprockethead]

Rain Rain, let it come down. It sure made the temps seem cooler.


Park Entrance




Huckee! It's a little bigger than the top drop on T&A


Little drop

into a table top


I'm still terrified of doubles


The drop into the tranny was about 4' into another drop then onto a table top




Small double on this singletrack


Singletrack, this was so fun we rode back up and did it again.




Makawao is pretty small, I think we got about 6 miles in, if that. Ann will load up the gps files in the maps section when we get home. I highly recommend coming here if you're in Maui. The guys at Crater Cycles are awesome, Thanks Paul for hooking us up with bikes.

[Jordansrealm]

Thanks! I am heading to Maui in 2 weeks very excited! Going to see if my roomate is up for a ride.

[Pho'dUp]

Thanks for the pics, I love Maui. Need to ride there someday. I knew there were some ridable trails because I've seen moto guys entering the hills behind the shell station near Laihaina.

Is there riding near Mt. Haleakala? I remember seeing some guys shuttling up with some DH rigs when I was there.

Great pics, hope you guys ate a whole lot while you're there. Hawaii is great for that. Even the Spam McGridle I had at McDonald's was pretty good.

[CalEpic]

Thanks for the pics and RR Andy. I love Maui. My sister in law used to live in Haiku very near Makawao. Of course we would visit a few times a year. I love the Windward side of the island for the lushness.

Pho'd - I've heard there is a very good downhill trail down the backside of Haleakala. One of the companies that does the cruiser rides down the highway has a guide if I'm not mistaken.

C

[allison]

Andy, that's all well and good, but where are the beaches and Mai Tai's?!

[SAR_boats]

Some of that terrain looks familiar. I have ridden on Maui, Oahu and Big Island. That red clay is amazing but don't wear your favorite jersey because the stains don't ever come out I rode Maui in the the early spring several years ago when everything was still wet and got covered in the red mud. I ended up throwing the jersey and shorts away.

[Sprockethead]

Originally Posted by Pho'dUp

Thanks for the pics, I love Maui. Need to ride there someday. I knew there were some ridable trails because I've seen moto guys entering the hills behind the shell station near Laihaina.

Is there riding near Mt. Haleakala? I remember seeing some guys shuttling up with some DH rigs when I was there.

Great pics, hope you guys ate a whole lot while you're there. Hawaii is great for that. Even the Spam McGridle I had at McDonald's was pretty good.

You're welcome! Yes, there is riding on the backside of Haleakala, unfortunately, it won't open back up till July 1st. They had a pretty big fire earlier this year. I believe it's called Skyline or something like that in Poli Poli. There's a 12 or 13 mile downhill shuttle ride.

We pics of Lahaina are the trails used by the moto guys. They're the ones cutting the trails and you can access them from Keawe St., right by the Shell station.

[Pain Freak]

Wow, that's the same stuff I rode with my wifes stepdads nephew. The guys from South Maui rode with us too, I know you wrote west, but I never met them. We did quite a bit more riding thru a very big plantation, but not much climbing or downhill, but still a very fun ride. One thing I learned while riding there ALL roots are slipperier then snot! Man, I love that place, but the locals all talk about the riding over here.