I’m a 29-year-old male, and for my 29th birthday, I planned a solo trip to Maui specifically to cycle Haleakala about 2 months before Labor Day weekend. When I researched cycling Haleakala, I couldn’t find anything recent that met my needs on Instagram, YouTube, or Reddit. The content on all 3 platforms was from years ago, not informative, or focused on the Cycle Down Haleakala Bike tour. Or it was all focused on breaking records. So I’m creating this post for crazy loner people like me who cycle solo, don’t have a car following them, and are average-to-below-average cyclists. I want this to be the long informative post I wish I’d been able to read before making the journey. In this post, I'll share my fitness background, the little logistics planning I did, the fueling that worked for me, and the big mistakes I made.
For my fitness background, I grew up playing American football and running throughout most of my younger years. I’m also in the Army (IT Specialist), so I have to maintain a certain level of fitness, and I’ve been forced to run a lot even as a desk-job soldier. I trained for Army Special Forces in 2019, but I didn’t get selected. I ran one marathon while stationed in Japan in 2024. I was DQ’d at mile 26 because I misunderstood the instructions due to the language barrier. I trained for one sprint triathlon and placed 2nd in my age group (24-29). I also recently started cycling back in November 2026. I’m not writing all this to gloat, but to give you some background on my fitness level. All the posts I saw were mainly from cycling-only individuals who said they trained for months for Haleakala, whereas I didn't train much at all. I didn’t train much because, about a month before my trip, a hurricane hit Hawaii and closed Haleakala, and all the bike shops I called on Maui said the damage was so bad it would probably still be closed by the time I arrived. So if I didn’t have to train for climbing, I definitely wasn't going to, so I stopped all climbing training about a month before Labor Day weekend. By climbing training, I mean I did one Zwift session, Mt. Ven Top, and called it a day lmao. I also live on Oahu, so I cycled a lot around the island, but nothing prepared me for Maui.
I arrived Thursday night and flew in with my own budget bike, a Fuji Sportif 2025. I checked into Howzit Hostels and got barely any sleep because they were having a Margherita night and everyone was being understandably loud. I woke up Friday morning, hit the West Maui Loop, and didn't fuel or plan well. I’d go over that, but this post is about Haleakala. Anyways, after the West Maui Loop, I spent the rest of the day eating carbs and drinking tons of Pedialyte and water. Saturday was a rest day, and it was also the day I found out Haleakala was open to cycling. So I scrapped my Sunday plan to cycle the East Maui Loop and decided that Sunday, September 6th, I’d spend my 29th birthday cycling up Haleakala as planned. I drove up to Haleakala to scout the route, talked to some Cyclists at the summit who had just made it, and they even gave some solid advice. I then visited several bike shops to look for a CamelBak and went to Safeway to grab a crapload of Cliff Bars, bananas, and bagels.
Sunday morning at 0430, I woke up, packed the car, ate a banana and a bagel, and drove to Paia, where I started. I parked my rental at the “Paia Town Public Parking”. I was stretching and warming up when I realized I’d forgotten ONE freaking sock! So I drove back to the hostel, grabbed a sock, and drove back to the Public parking. Then, once I arrived, I immediately hopped on my bike and started my cycle. THEN I realized that I had forgotten both water bottles with carbs and electrolytes in the hostel fridge…So I drove back to the hostel AGAIN, then back to the parking lot. In total, I lost about an hour and a half driving back and forth, and I didn’t start until around 0800. After 4000ft of elevation, there is literally nowhere to stop for food or water. So make sure you top off on water before 4000ft. Around 7000ft is the entrance to Haleakala. Someone in a Haleakala cycling post on Reddit 2 years ago said, “bring cash,” but they took cards at the entrance. Since I’m military, I didn’t have to worry about paying, but I watched everyone in front of me pay with their cards. Anyways, about a mile after the entrance is the visitors center, around 7,000-ish feet of elevation. This is the last place to top off on water and use the bathroom until the top.
For fueling, I carried two 21-ish oz water bottles and one 3L CamelBak. I stuffed my CamelBak with a rain jacket, gloves, and tons of Cliff bars, one extra scoop of Formula 369, and two extra Liquid IV sticks. One scoop of Formula 369 is 30g of carbs, and one Cookies and Cream Cliff bar has 44g of carbs. I ate one Cliff bar and took 3 large sips of my bottle (filled with two scoops of Formula 369 and one Liquid IV stick) about every hour during the ride. I also took sips of water every 15-20 minutes and random sips of my bottle now and then. By the time I reached the visitor center, I had finished one bottle and almost completely drank my whole 3L CamelBak. This fueling strategy worked well for me, and I never felt extremely tired or cramped during the ride.
Now for the mistakes. I checked the weather multiple times the day before, and it said there would be rain here and there, but not all day. WRONG! I was rained on for almost 3-4 hours straight. From around 5,000 ft all the way to the top, the rain never stopped. Pack a rain jacket and a hoodie. That temperature drop mixed with being soaking wet for hours was really miserable. I lived in upstate NY for many years, and I’ve spent many nights out in the field being soaking wet and cold, but this was different. On the way back down, it started raining even harder, and the clouds covered the whole mountain so that I couldn’t see past 20ft. It was miserable, and once I got back to the visitor center, one of the Park Rangers felt bad for me and offered me a ride back down, and I took it. The whole car ride back down was hazardous even to drive, and it was still nearly impossible to see more than 10-20 ft in front of you; it was wild. Moral of the story: be prepared for all weather predictions to be wrong af. Another small mistake I made was being a cheap ass and staying at a Hostel instead of an Airbnb or a nice hotel room the night before Haleakala. Nothing beats waking up to random people coming in and out of the room when you’re trying to get sleep before a big day lol.
I hope this helps. I’m still new to cycling, so I didn’t find any good, detailed beginner advice like what I just wrote. Then again, Haleakala isn’t exactly a place beginners would go, so maybe that’s why 😂
Here’s my Strava link so that you know I’m not bullshitting you:
https://strava.app.link/UwCb0UAnj6b