By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor

Yesterday I wrote about cool things you should do in Paia. Here’s what you should NOT do:

Bike down Haleakala. Hundreds of yahoos pay top dollar to get up at O-dark-thirty a.m., squeeze into a van with a bunch of strangers, drive all the way up to Haleakala National Park to freeze while watching the sunrise, and then ride bike cruiser bikes the 38 miles down back to town. A friend who lives right along the highway says he sees people crash right outside his house all the time. Don’t be a dork: skip it.

If you are wondering where you should ride, I suggest taking the road less traveled: start in the tiny upcountry town of Keokea and ride 15 or so miles out to the Kula region of East Maui. (Or however far you want to go; just turn around when you’re tired.)

Here’s why:

1. Because up here you’d be hard pressed to see a single car (have the road to yourself!), much less another cyclist.

2. Because the scenery up here is totally different from down below.
This is ranch country: think horses in fields, flowering jacarandas, eucalyptus trees. Further down the road the landscape changes to lava moonscape.

3. Because the views are unreal from way up here.

4. Because you can start and end your ride at Grandma’s Bakery, where the pastries are homemade and the organic coffee was grown on the slopes of Haleakala.

5. Because you can start and end your ride at Tedeschi Vineyards, Maui’s only winery, housed in a pretty white cottage that I wouldn't mind living in.

So start training.