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Biking Koloa
I don't think I wrote that last month I finally got my bike rack assembled so that I could mount it on Julie the Benz's trailer hitch. For its debut, I used it to take my bike out to the Kauai Trail that runs down the east shore of the island (and will perhaps someday be expanded past its current length, but perhaps not, as NIMBYs exist here on the island too, and they're fighting that expansion). Perhaps not the best choice to use the new rack all the way on the highway out to Kapa'a, but that was what I needed it for.
The Kauai Trail is always a beautiful ride, as it runs right along the ocean, and as is often the case, I got to bike it with my dad and Mary (and afterward headed back up the trail to find a mini-pavilion to write for a few hours).
For the bike rack's second outing, I took it out to Koloa this recent Saturday. This is something I'd been wanting to do for a while, as Koloa is one of the closest areas to us that you can really bike around. And a place that I'm pretty familiar with since we've been going there since 2001. I'd been hoping to bike there when tourists were off the island and there weren't a lot of cars in the area, but even missing that opportunity, I was determined to give it a shot.
Saturday was actually a mess of a morning. I got out to the garage and found that my bike had a flat in the rear tire. This has been an ongoing problem for at least three years now: slow leaks developing in the back tire. I've had bike shops check it out any number of times. I even went to further away bike shops in Berkeley after Mike's Bikes failed me, and I just kept getting the flats until finally I got a tire with sealant goop in it. But that tire totally came apart before one of my outings last year.
Fortunately, I had some goop on hand and I put it into the tire. Unfortunately, afterward the thing wouldn't inflate. @)(#$*)@(#$ goop.
Fortunately I also had a thorn resistant tire on hand. So after the goop failure that went in.
It was still a frustrating morning and I got to Koloa much later than planned.
I landed at Poipu Beach, mainly so that I could drop off recyclables. Ah, the glamour of semi-rural living.
It was so late by that time that I just biked down to the Shops at Kukui'ula for lunch, where I hit my second obstacle of the day: no chicken. Since beef makes me sick, Savage Shrimp it was.
But that was the last obstacle on an otherwise amazing day.
The bike from Poipu to the Shops was great. It was terrific seeing land that I've walked and driven from atop a bike. It felt very empowering.
From there I went all the way out to Spouting Horn, and was amazed how my bike just ate up the miles. Two miles, it turns out. A long walk, which I've done a few times, as far back as 2001 (though the Shops weren't actually there at the time, but our condo was very nearby), and just a quick zooming, beautiful ride on my bike.
I always love getting to sit out somewhere and do some writing on my days out, and I'd chosen Spouting Horn as my most likely locale for the day.
Surprisingly, it was still almost as empty as it was when we had no tourists. The new vendor stalls there are still closed up, the dreaded tour buses are still absent, and so there were at most a dozen people out there at a time, looking at the spout. The picnic tables were mostly empty.
I wrote for almost two hours. Edited and organized and updated really. My most frequent day-out writing currently is The TSR Codex, and I finished my first draft of chapter 9 of book 2.
From there it was back to the Shops, then up Kalanikaumaka to a ride that my dad had suggested: into the actual Kukui'ula subdivision.
This is a luxury housing area (and a luxury golf course) a mile or more up from the shore in western Koloa. There's just the one way in and out, with no access down to the shoreline, to keep all the riff-raff off. My dad thinks it all might be private land, and it sort of looks like that could be the case, but if so there's no signs proclaiming that, so I happily biked in.
It was GORGEOUS. Because this was Richie Rich land, the landscaping was all beautiful, and done in the most authentic (totally-fake-white-privilege) Hawaiian style with all kinds of ferns and other tropical plants. There was actually a surprising lack of no-trespassing signs, given how many I see in less affluent parts of the island. And you could see down to the shore almost the whole ride along.
I was shocked how far the road went. Almost the same two miles I'd ridden on the parallel road to Spouting Horn. Definitely the best part of the ride, and I noticed there were a few walking pathways _also_ not specified as no-trespassing. Future possibilities!
So I'll definitely be back. Maybe I'll get run off some time, when the island gets even more crowded and Boss Hogg gets more vigilant, but Saturday's ride was great.
I did a bit more riding, cutting across Koloa proper, then going down the bypass road on the backside of town, which is one of the few places with an actual bike lane (and thus one of my original plans).
I got back to Poipu about 5.15, and though I'd considered swimming in the afternoon, I decided it was time to come home.
So that was my biking day in Koloa.
It was good to bike around a community, not just along a trail or a backroad. It reminded me a bit of life back in the Bay Area. And there was still plenty gorgeous to see. I'll definitely be back.
(Overall, I really need to figure out how to increase my biking here in Kauai, as it's much better exercise than just walking or even hiking, so I'd like to be doing more of it.)
I was planning to also use this journal entry to talk about my happiness that taxes are done for 2020, and I considered it a major landmark ... but today I got a letter from the Department of Taxation saying they think I owe a lot more money, with the problem apparently being at least in part that they lost a rather large payment I sent them in April. (Fortunately, I have my confirmation number.)
@#)$@*#)#.
So milestone not yet achieved.
And that's the second time in my adult life that a tax authority has lost my tax payments. I mean, seriously, people? You just have one job.
The Kauai Trail is always a beautiful ride, as it runs right along the ocean, and as is often the case, I got to bike it with my dad and Mary (and afterward headed back up the trail to find a mini-pavilion to write for a few hours).
For the bike rack's second outing, I took it out to Koloa this recent Saturday. This is something I'd been wanting to do for a while, as Koloa is one of the closest areas to us that you can really bike around. And a place that I'm pretty familiar with since we've been going there since 2001. I'd been hoping to bike there when tourists were off the island and there weren't a lot of cars in the area, but even missing that opportunity, I was determined to give it a shot.
Saturday was actually a mess of a morning. I got out to the garage and found that my bike had a flat in the rear tire. This has been an ongoing problem for at least three years now: slow leaks developing in the back tire. I've had bike shops check it out any number of times. I even went to further away bike shops in Berkeley after Mike's Bikes failed me, and I just kept getting the flats until finally I got a tire with sealant goop in it. But that tire totally came apart before one of my outings last year.
Fortunately, I had some goop on hand and I put it into the tire. Unfortunately, afterward the thing wouldn't inflate. @)(#$*)@(#$ goop.
Fortunately I also had a thorn resistant tire on hand. So after the goop failure that went in.
It was still a frustrating morning and I got to Koloa much later than planned.
I landed at Poipu Beach, mainly so that I could drop off recyclables. Ah, the glamour of semi-rural living.
It was so late by that time that I just biked down to the Shops at Kukui'ula for lunch, where I hit my second obstacle of the day: no chicken. Since beef makes me sick, Savage Shrimp it was.
But that was the last obstacle on an otherwise amazing day.
The bike from Poipu to the Shops was great. It was terrific seeing land that I've walked and driven from atop a bike. It felt very empowering.
From there I went all the way out to Spouting Horn, and was amazed how my bike just ate up the miles. Two miles, it turns out. A long walk, which I've done a few times, as far back as 2001 (though the Shops weren't actually there at the time, but our condo was very nearby), and just a quick zooming, beautiful ride on my bike.
I always love getting to sit out somewhere and do some writing on my days out, and I'd chosen Spouting Horn as my most likely locale for the day.
Surprisingly, it was still almost as empty as it was when we had no tourists. The new vendor stalls there are still closed up, the dreaded tour buses are still absent, and so there were at most a dozen people out there at a time, looking at the spout. The picnic tables were mostly empty.
I wrote for almost two hours. Edited and organized and updated really. My most frequent day-out writing currently is The TSR Codex, and I finished my first draft of chapter 9 of book 2.
From there it was back to the Shops, then up Kalanikaumaka to a ride that my dad had suggested: into the actual Kukui'ula subdivision.
This is a luxury housing area (and a luxury golf course) a mile or more up from the shore in western Koloa. There's just the one way in and out, with no access down to the shoreline, to keep all the riff-raff off. My dad thinks it all might be private land, and it sort of looks like that could be the case, but if so there's no signs proclaiming that, so I happily biked in.
It was GORGEOUS. Because this was Richie Rich land, the landscaping was all beautiful, and done in the most authentic (totally-fake-white-privilege) Hawaiian style with all kinds of ferns and other tropical plants. There was actually a surprising lack of no-trespassing signs, given how many I see in less affluent parts of the island. And you could see down to the shore almost the whole ride along.
I was shocked how far the road went. Almost the same two miles I'd ridden on the parallel road to Spouting Horn. Definitely the best part of the ride, and I noticed there were a few walking pathways _also_ not specified as no-trespassing. Future possibilities!
So I'll definitely be back. Maybe I'll get run off some time, when the island gets even more crowded and Boss Hogg gets more vigilant, but Saturday's ride was great.
I did a bit more riding, cutting across Koloa proper, then going down the bypass road on the backside of town, which is one of the few places with an actual bike lane (and thus one of my original plans).
I got back to Poipu about 5.15, and though I'd considered swimming in the afternoon, I decided it was time to come home.
So that was my biking day in Koloa.
It was good to bike around a community, not just along a trail or a backroad. It reminded me a bit of life back in the Bay Area. And there was still plenty gorgeous to see. I'll definitely be back.
(Overall, I really need to figure out how to increase my biking here in Kauai, as it's much better exercise than just walking or even hiking, so I'd like to be doing more of it.)
I was planning to also use this journal entry to talk about my happiness that taxes are done for 2020, and I considered it a major landmark ... but today I got a letter from the Department of Taxation saying they think I owe a lot more money, with the problem apparently being at least in part that they lost a rather large payment I sent them in April. (Fortunately, I have my confirmation number.)
@#)$@*#)#.
So milestone not yet achieved.
And that's the second time in my adult life that a tax authority has lost my tax payments. I mean, seriously, people? You just have one job.