It’s going to be 7 degrees tomorrow—that’s -14 celsius.
Luckily I won’t be around to experience it and neither will my bike.
We’re going someplace warm.
To pack my bike in this soft case I’m removing the wheels, pedals, and handlebars, which
get stowed away or strapped down to the inside paneling.
These bags aren’t cheap, but neither are good mountain bikes.
Plus, I can use it to carry all my gear.
In the hands of professionals, I can rest assured that my bike and gear will be handled
with care, just like any other checked bag.
For the privilege of leaving my bike with the baggage throwers, American Airlines charges
$150—each way, and I’ll need to rent a car that can carry it.
With only one day to ride, no reliable intel on the trails, and the possibility of getting
rained out, I could be doing all this for nothing.
Even if everything does work out, my bike could still get lost, stolen, or smeashed.
Only time will tell.
I got a message saying my bike was lost—of course.
But after spending some time on the phone with the airline I was able to track it down.
It was on the other side of the airport, sitting on a cart.
I guess I should explain that I’m in Kauai for my friend’s wedding.
It’s the furthest Hawaiian island from the mainland, and I knew nothing about it upon
arriving here.
It ended up being one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited.
It looks like a calendar.
Every day you see rainbows—lots of rainbows, and landscapes that don’t even look real.
And Kauai is paradise for more than just people.
For every awesome vista you gaze at you’ll see at least a thousand of these rooster lookin’
guys called jungle fowl.
I’m willing to bet they taste like chicken.
Scenery and wildlife aside, Kauai looks a lot like the mainland, with roads, traffic,
strip malls, and of course, bike shops.
This made it easy for me to meet Minh Hai from Kauai cycles.
He already knew who I was, and would be off the same day I intended to ride.
Minh Hai was even able to arrange a rental for my friend, Nick.
It was immediately obvious that we had found the right guide.
Minh Hai really knew where the fun stuff was.
To whoever built this trail, it’s amazing.
I promise never to tell anyone where it is.
But even if I wanted to I couldn’t.
Nothing in Kauai is marked, there are no trail maps, and I’m not even sure what stuff we
were or weren’t supposed to be riding.
Without Minh Hai we would have been hopelessly lost.
The mountain biking community on Kauai consists of only about 50 riders, and they’ve managed
to carve little slices of paradise into this—paradise.
Must be nice.
Not only does the place look like a postcard, but the dirt is like hot chocolate mix.
It might be some of the most uniform and crazy looking dirt I’ve ever seen.
I could eat it.
I did.
As for the singletrack the good stuff is good.
Really good.
You need to work for it though as there are a lot of ups and downs on Kauai’s trails.
There’s also a lot of moto stuff which can be kind of fun to session.
Minh Hai also took us on an XC ride by
the water.
I was skeptical at first, but ended up seeing some really memorable stuff.
This tunnel is in the middle of know where.
And
this buoy forest is composed of—buoys that floated over from Japan.
Because we had started early, we were able to ride a ton of spots in one day.
This despite the fact that you almost never go faster than 40mph on Kauai.
There are lots of people there, and they’re all on the same road.
Still we fought traffic for what seemed like hours to ride one feature that Minh Hai had
to show me: A creek gap tucked away in the woods.
Without seeing it, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
And
as we were losing light, that creek gap was great way to end our ride.
After the rental car and baggage fees I had spent almost $1000 for the chance to ride
my bike in Kauai.
And I only went there because of my friend, John, the genius who decided to have a destination
wedding on a remote island.
But the nursery of stupid ideas is where the greatest memories mature.
I got to go to my best friend’s wedding, and I got to ride somewhere that most people
don’t get the chance to.
Getting to do it on my own bike meant I’d be on my A game.
With Minh Hai’s local knowledge I even got to eat legit food that most tourists never
get to try.
We may even get to ride with Minh Hai again on the mainland.
So as I pack my bike back up for the long journey home, I feel it was all worth it:
The costs, the hassles, and the risks, just for one day on the trails.
As always, you’re paying for the memories.
Mahalo.
I’ll see you next time.