Wapehani – its no longer ‘whop my heiney!’

Wapehani is a local set of mtb trails just a couple miles outside of Bloomington. Its small, but challenging. There’s not much there for beginners, and I remember the first time I rode there, years ago, on a very basic mountain bike, with no mtb skills at all. I crashed, and a vein across my shin swelled up, skin did not break, and it looked like I had a blue sausage link across my shin. It was soooo attractive.

Last night I rode at ‘the Wap’. And now I love this trail. Its fun, challenging, and a great change of pace from the smooth rolling singletrack at Brown County. The Wap doesn’t get a lot of traffic anymore with Brown County being so close, and being such a fantastic set of trails, so the trail is narrow, at times overgrown, debris (branches, twigs, pine cones, nuts, rocks, piles of dirt) covered, which makes even the few smooth sections a challenge. There are also roots. Lots of them, in places to give you that extra challenge going up over a short steep climb. The first third of the trail is narrow, rooty,tight and twisty. Very challenging if you ride it with any speed. The back half is a set of maybe 6 hill pairs. Up and down, six times. Steep, loose, rooty, rutty, and super fun! One of the uphills is so steep, the front wheel is often off the ground. You have to stay low over the handlebars, or you are off the bike. Throw in more rocks, and branches, and lots of loose dirt and this uphill is the toughest around. The hills are not long, they take a few minutes to climb, but with your heart maxing out from the steepness, the challenge is always there. I love this trail. I used to call Wapehani ‘whop my heiney’ because it always did whop my heiney. But not anymore! That’s not to say I don’t screw up sometimes. I still do. But I can ride the trail, and enjoy it, and often ride laps cleanly. It may be an ugly lap, but it is clean.

The name Wapehani must be Indian. But its odd that I don’t know of any other cities, towns, parks, or places in the area with Indian names. So its weird that this little park is called Wapehani. And for those Hawaiian readers out there, did you notice that it only contains letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. My college roommate grew up in Kailua. I visited her one summer in college, and she tried to teach me to pronounce Hawaiian words properly. Its not always easy, or obvious, when you are a novice. One day she had me pronouncing street signs. We came to an exit on the highway for ‘Dune St’. I yell out ‘Doo-nay’ and she cracks up at me. Its just the English word ‘dune’, as in sand dune. So, I was a slow learner. But I can say humuhumunukunukuapuaa! And I'm from the midwest! Can you?

Tomorrow is my mom’s birthday… HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!