February 2007, Bill Wynhoff, Pat and Colin Kearns and I caught an early flight out of Honolulu and headed to Kona.  We were picked up by our local bike dude and he drove us up to the Mauna Kea Ranger Station at the 9000 ft elevation and set us up with our rental bikes. 

We rode the hairy 1 mile asphalt downhill to the trail edge and then road the 51 miles of 4 wheel road around the base of Mauna Kea ending up in the town of Waimea, 2700 ft.

The bike dude met us at the trail end and my sister drove us frantically to Kona Airport where we just made our 8 pm flight home.

Unfortunately, my son Mike didn’t make the trip due to a work conflict.