The last time I took the Skyline-Mamane Route down Haleakalā the big volcano didn't live up to it's name: The House of the Sun (not to be confused with the Animals song) was actually a house of fog and I had about 20 feet of visibility at the top and temperatures in the 8°C range. Had Liz been on this previous trip she may not have agreed with me that this merely added to the texture of the adventure. Fortunately for her, this latest run included weather which was as good as it gets at 10,023 feet.
We rented an Enduro and a Remedy with some lava-resistant rubber at Crater Cycles, and caught a ride up the mountain with Doug, who was recommended as a shuttle driver but turned out to be a full-on Guide of Hawaii, and could have easily continued sharing interesting facts about Maui and the volcano after the hour ride up was over. "I usually like to have one short break for questions on tours of this length. And that was it, did you notice?" We really enjoyed his tour and sense of humour during the shuttle ride, and need to give him credit for taking a few shots of us at the top as well.
With the benefit of visibility, the ride down turned out to be incredibly scenic. Moonscape turned to scrub then forest then pasture as the trail descended almost 7,000 feet. The singletrack was dusty and reminded me of Kamloops in the summer. Some rain would do wonders - after we leave the island, of course! The flow was interrupted at one point by a wild pig that blasted through the dry underbrush right in front of my bike. I wondered if he realized how close he was to being turned into a spam sandwich?
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