Volcano biking

A very unusual activity you can do on Maui is seeing the sunrise from the top of a volcano (at nearly 10,000 feet) and then riding a bike down that volcano, namely Haleakala (Ha-lay-ah-kah-lah).

For most tours, you start the “day” in what feels like the middle of the night, when you are picked up at your hotel at O-Dark-Thirty and taking to a staging area where they give you a bunch of clothes to put on and select a bike and helmet for you. Then you are taken in a van up to the top of Haleakala and can wait outside for the sunrise.

It is FREEZING, and I (and others) spent much of my time there shivering, huddled in what shelter we could find from the gusts of wind at the lookout.

Finally, we started to see the tiniest spots of deeply colored light along the horizon. And then, we froze some more. And then those patches got bigger and bigger until we had a full sunrise.

Once the sun was no longer able to be looked at directly, everyone looks around the information at the lookout and all the views, then gets back in the bus/van and goes to a location just outside the entrance/exit of the National Park to start the bike ride where all the selected bikes are waiting.

The bikes are specially adapted for downhill riding so the brakes don’t wear out. You’ll coast, then brake, then coast, then brake, most of the way down. At one point there is a thankfully brief uphill part, and then more coasting. At the top, you are still freezing, but as you go down you can start removing some outerwear.

Usually, you’ll stop somewhere and get pictures of you standing with your group on the bikes, etc. The guides suggest balancing poses like the below.

Finally, after 20+ miles, you reach Paia town, where you are relieved to get off the bikes and return to normal clothing in the warmth