Sunday Epic Bike Ride

...then the sun rose on Sunday and we were off to the wilds again. Back on our bikes, we headed south towards a small little road that takes you into the coastal mountains, up a windy course and plops you right down at the trailhead of one of the nicest trails close to the city - the YueMei trail. It is a trail we have done twice, a nice three hour or so loop. But...today....the goal was to bike up the road, lunch at the trailhead, bike down the far side of the mountains and bike home along the Pacific. Leaving the house with a full head of steam, we aimed fer them mountains. Twelve litres of sweat and 8 hours later, we got home drained of anything resembling energy!

That heat, I tells ya....



Trevor taking a photo op break along the bike trail (the same one as the previous post, only this stretch goes south from our house, the last post was biking it north of our house)

Us at the marker telling us we are entering the Scenic Area, a grade lower than National Park but with similar restrictions, on the left. On the right, Crystal manages through our first of three...four...five...landslides along the backroads.

We left the trail and took the backroad route along the Shouguluan River, undulating our way through a peaceful part of Taiwan. This road takes us to one of my old schools, from 6 years ago, where I would teach every Wednesday. We stopped there and took a trip down memory lane for a while, re-hydrated and took off south again. Soon enough, after helping a pair of Taiwanese bikers find their way (I still don't think they believed me when I told them where a certain bridge was.....but they went that way anyway. Perhaps they believed me....who knows...), we arrived at the cutoff for the YueMei Trail road. From here on in it was up, up, up. Deadly up. We were not ready for it. But we did it!

The cutoff for the YueMei Trail road. A gorgeous, but savage, 5.1 km uphill slog in the noon sun. On the right a little friend we met along the way....big friend....probably 10cm long.

Yeah.....it was killing us. Up, up, up....

Looking back down one of the windy sections of the YueMei road, Crystal can be spotted making her way around the corner. On the right is a scenic view of what we had, at this point, accomplished. In the background is the outer limits of Hualien City. Also visible is the Shouguluan River.

Above and below: Managing two of the landslides that we met along the way Some muddy, some rocky, all scary. Probably should not pose by one in the future.....but this did bring up a healthy discussion of the probability of a second landslide occuring in the same place versus a fresh one in a nearby place. Two asteroids, one house situation. Are we safer to have lunch within a massive rockfall, or beside it where the rock has yet to fall...hmm....

Long story. This is the old highway that hugged the curvature of the mountains along the coast. Typhoons kicked the snot out of it, landslides knocked the snot out of it, people drove off the cliff....it was a treacherous road. So they built a tunnel inland a bit, closed the road and that is that. Now, as the cars are forbidden, it is a bicyclists playground. We took this route on chance that the entire road would not be washed away or blocked by fallen rock, and aside from the sinkholes it was a glorious ride. The road ahead is clear, the air clean and the cars gone.

Back on the main highway, Crystal pedals towards our break stop. And on the right our bikes taking a break from us.

So, all in all it was a perfect ride...8 hours through an excellent part of Taiwan that we had never biked before. One more notch in our belt of our "Bike Taiwan" dream!

Until next we speak....