{"id":513,"date":"2010-01-07T09:13:44","date_gmt":"2010-01-07T17:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=513"},"modified":"2010-04-28T21:39:25","modified_gmt":"2010-04-29T05:39:25","slug":"aloha-from-the-aiea-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=513","title":{"rendered":"Aloha from the Aiea Loop"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love it when things just fall in place.\u00a0\u00a0 I had to “work” in Hawaii this week and was hoping squeak in a ride during the trip.\u00a0\u00a0 I had a\u00a0early flight on Tuesday and found myself on the ground\u00a0at lunch time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was no delay in getting my baggage and the\u00a0rental car thing went really smooth.\u00a0\u00a0 I already\u00a0knew where I was renting a bike during this visit so went by there picked up and decently equipped hardtail that was basically brand new.\u00a0\u00a0 It was right about this time that I realized that I forgot to bring my clipless pedals.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cleated bike shoes and flats pedals don’t mix well so my next stop was to local bike shop where I picked up a set of SPD pedals on the cheap.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was all set to squeak in that ride when the opportunity presented itself.\u00a0\u00a0 A look at my watch revealed that opportunity was now and the trailhead was just a few miles a way.\u00a0 The sky\u00a0was filled with ominous looking clouds but what the heck, the temps were nice and it was not raining right now so time to get some trail while I can.<\/p>\n

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I had done the Aiea Loop<\/a>before which was good as I did not have much of a daylight buffer for exploring.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Having all much my gear stuffed into luggage it looked like a yard sale around my car I was pulling stuff out all over the place to get to everything.\u00a0\u00a0 Soon I was in the correct garb and ready to head out.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The last time I rode here was in 2004 and I remembered lots of roots.\u00a0 Yeah lots of roots.\u00a0\u00a0 Back in 2004 this trail was my first exposure to roots galore\u00a0and I remembered it being monumentally frustrating.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Since then I have had a lot more exposure to riding this type of stuff so the roots where down into the challenging category.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For the first 1.6 miles of of this loop you are climbing\u00a0some good and twisty singletrack.\u00a0\u00a0 I have been fighting off some chest and sinus congestion for the past week so the “redline” on the cardio side of the house was much lower than normal.\u00a0 Get anywhere near that line for line would quickly turn into a wheezing, hacking mess.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This meant I really got to enjoy the climb as despite the overcast, the scenery was nice with lush vegetation all around.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

That lush vegetation however does hide some often precarious exposure that could net you a long tumble down a steep hillside should you blow a move or turn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once I reached the highpoint , the fun really got to going as a good chuck of the rest of the route was downhill.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The flowing singletrack typically bench cut in the side of the steep hillsides so there was little room for error along the trail.\u00a0 I had gotten into flow of the trail and was zipping along quite nicely when the bike gave me a quick reminder that it was not one of\u00a0trusty full suspension bikes.\u00a0 I took a root drop that was a little bigger than it looked from up the trail and soon found myself riding a compressed fork nose wheelie for way too far before slamming the rear wheel back\u00a0and nearly\u00a0jolting myself off the bike.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After\u00a0getting the bike to a stop, I\u00a0starting laughing so hard that I sent myself in another round of congestion\u00a0hacks\u00a0and coughs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Any near miss that you can laugh at is good in my book.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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It was not long before I was back at the trailhead where I cleaned up a bit and did the yard sale thing in reverse and headed out for the hotel.\u00a0 What a great way to start a business trip.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Black Mountain & SYTT<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t San Juan Trail<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>