Mountain biking in the movies

This is a guest post by Scott. While Jen is working in Hawaii, I get to do the fun exploring and she asked me to post on Bistro Chic.

Enthusiasm is contagious.

On Wednesday, I went for a Mountain Biking adventure. Regular readers may remember, that I participate in triathlons. So, I ride road bikes. I have never really mountain biked. I figured what a better way to see the beautiful scenery than to ride up and down a valley looking out at the ocean.

Just like the other tours, the van picked me up at tapa tower bus depot. Everyone is usually quiet with the early morning pick-up times. People keep to themselves. For surfing and kayaking, there were many more females than males.

For this mountain bike tour, it was 5 guys and 1 lady. When I got on the van, there was a guy named Greg who was chatty with excitement. Not only that, he brought his own helmet and a bike mount camera. Greg was giddy about the island views. His enthusiasm set the tone for the entire trip. In addition, everyone was super friendly and started introducing themselves right away. One guy from Vancouver, Canada. One guy from Australia. The couple was from California. Greg was from Virginia Beach. This trip was different from the start.

We drove to a working cattle farm, Kualoa Ranch.

If you have watched: Lost, Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, Pearl Harbor. Windtalkers, or Hawaii 5-0. Then it’s likely you have seen parts of the ranch as many of the scenes were filmed on the location. The ranch is kind enough to allow mountain biking tours.

We first got on the bikes and visited a World War 2 bunker. It was very interesting.

For most of the first part of the ride, we rode on Jeep and ATV roads.

After every twist and turn in the road, it felt like I was looking at a new painting. All the participants were taking different pictures of the same mountains. It was phenomenal.

We road our bikes into the valley and saw all sorts of different movie set remnants.

We even got to explore some ancient Hawaii temple ruins.

Okay. That isn’t ruins, but it is a set for a new Journey to the Center of the Earth movie. After we rode for a bit, we hopped on some single track which is much more technical.

We rode different kinds of terrain. There were hidden rocks all over the track.

I will admit it. I fell off the bike a few times and the family jewels were often in peril. I got off the bike and walked a bit too due to some of the steep rocky terrain and my inexperience. I’m glad I did. I escaped with only bumps, scrapes, and bruises. The female rider in the group was not so lucky. She fell off her bike in some rocky terrain and had to go to the hospital. The ambulance guys said the early diagnosis was a compound fracture. I hope she and her male companion are doing okay. It really put a damper on the rest of the ride.

Luckily for them and for us, the fall was near the end.

When we finished the ride, we packed up the bikes and had sandwich lunch with the wild chickens. Yaay: No mayo this time!

The bus ride back was equally adventurous. There were van drivers performing singing telegrams, strange women running alongside, and great hiking stories all mixed-in with a real terrible mix-tape.

Oahu is just plain gorgeous. I will miss it.

This concludes the Mr. Bistrochic Oahu adventure series. I’m excited for my next adventure: some quiet rest and relaxation on Maui. Here’s a Maui sunset and a Maui preview photo to help you relax too!