Haleakala Downhill

On Tuesday, Zach, Matt, Tom, my Dad, and I went for a little bike ride.  It was a beautiful morning and we thought, "Hey, what a great day for a bike ride!"  So let me tell you that this was NO little bike ride.  We drove to a town called Haiku.  This is where we were fitted for our bikes and helmets.  From Haiku, we were loaded into a van that drove us up Haleakala VOLCANO!  Yes, I said VOLCANO!  

The van dropped us off at an elevation of 6500 ft, nearly at the summit of the volcano.  They unloaded the bikes, gave us a map and told us to have a great time.  Now I have to admit during the ride up I was thinking to myself, "We have to bike DOWN this?"  My fear was not so much fear for my own life, but for the life of Zach and Matt.  My mommy-instinct took over and I told Tom he needed to ride back down in the van with Matt.  When Matt heard my plans he became quite upset.  That's when Grandpa Dave took over and reassured me Matt would be just fine.  And he was.  

Here we are at 6500 ft.  We are ready to go, ready to start our 22 mile bike ride.  Zach and Tom went first and occasionally stopped for the rest of us to catch up.  

A few hundred feet down I made Grandpa and Matt stop so I could capture this amazing view.  WOW!  We started out ABOVE the clouds and gradually rode through them.  Pretty cool!  (And scary!)

This is one of the points where Tom and Zach stopped for us.  It was truly spectacular!

(Yes, those are clouds on the left side of the picture!)