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Making Tracks in Lanai

Lessons you can take with you.

Obviously, going on vacation isn’t an everyday experience, but the great outdoors moments you have on holiday can become activities you enjoy at home, too. During 33-year-old copy writer Mike Dabaie’s 2003 trip to Lanai, Hawaii, he tried mountain biking for the first time. A road-bike enthusiast, he’d never before ridden on a trail. Presented with an opportunity to take to two wheels on the sleepy Hawaiian island of Lanai, he leapt at the chance. Not only did his outdoor journey show him unexpected sights, it allowed him to try out skills he’s used on his road bike ever since.

The trip started near the hotel where he was staying, along one of Lanai’s many beaches. As he rode upward along the narrow trail, the temperature dropped and the foliage changed from tropical to pine. “It was totally unexpected,” he says of the quiet, remote landscape he discovered as he rode. “It looked more like how you’d imagine Colorado to be than Hawaii.” At the end of the trail, however, was a view that was quintessential Aloha state: A cliff fell away to reveal the deep blue Pacific and the islands of Maui and Molokai in the distance. The scene felt special, he says, because it wasn’t something that a typical tourist would see. But it was an amazing sight for those who’d made the effort to get there under their own power.

In addition to vivid memories, the mountain bike trip taught him lessons he continues to use at home on his road bike. Riding on a much heavier bike on much rougher terrain, he got a great workout and used skills he’d only read about (like shifting his weight farther back to steady the bicycle) to control his descent on steep trails. These days, when riding down a tricky hill near his New Jersey home, he remembers his ride in Lanai and knows just what to do.