A Run Up The Lahaina Pali Trail, Maui, August 12, 2011
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| View Southeast on the Lahaina Pali Trail |
(See also, my run up and across Haleakala)
Of course, my packed vacation itinerary with the family only freed me up for the second half, hottest part of the day. But, Matthew and Dylan were still game. We started at the Circle K at the intersection of 310 and 30, and ran along the Lahaina Hwy, part of the Maui Marathon route, through the famous OloWalu Tunnel, for about 4 miles. Above us to the right is a small ridge which used to be the old road to Lahaina. Matthew and I agreed how hard it must have been for Model T's and horse carriages to traverse. Matt bends my ear on a dozen fun topics the entire way. :-) Even though I had been training in the sweltering Texas heat, the direct sun on this road, at this time of day, made my core temp rise more than I liked; especially since I was trying to skate by with two 24 oz hand-helds. I had practically sucked my first one dry and we weren't even half way. Luckily, I wouldn't even finish my second bottle once we climbed the trail and it cooled down considerably. I went ahead and jumped in the ocean at the beach across from the trail head to cool the engine down... it worked nicely. We climbed up to the old road... and then, climbed, and climbed some more.
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| Dylan Rist, Me, Mathew Fober |
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| The Old Road to Lahaina |
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| Molokini out there... |
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| Climbing... |
The trail climbs up to Maui's now famous wind farm, over fine dirt and lava rocks much smoother than the Kihei side of the island. Dylan explains the smoothness is due to this side of Maui (part of the West Maui's) being about 1 million years older than the side of Haleakala. I suspect these two guys could, and have, run up this route much faster than we are now. But, I really appreciate their hospitality and patience with my camera stops. As we reach the peak, and start heading down the return section of the trail loop back to 30, I of course feel like running at a little more respectable pace... it feels like Fall (in Texas) up here! We reach a gate that Dylan decides to do a flip over, scurry down to the highway, and cruise back to our cars at the Circle K. What a perfect last run on Maui until I return! Thanks guys.
Aloha, David.
The GPS route
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| Dylon Rist on the Lahaina Pali Trail |
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| Maui Wind Farm |
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| Matthew Fober climbing the Lahaina Pali Trail |
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| Kahoolawe, the "forgotten island" |
This was a great run, always one of my favorites. It's nice to finally look at the GPS route for this run! See you next time.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you guys had a nice sunny day for this hike. Great view on the West Maui mountains.
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