Garmin Activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/759380545
188km, 8h33, elevation 3000m
This ride was a request from Jennie Liao, a friend of mine who works in the Specialized Taichung Concept Store. Jennie is a really nice person to hang out with so I did not refuse her request :-) We met early in the morning in Daya and cycled through Shengang, Fengyuan and Shigang on to Dongshi, where Zhongzuan-1 will lead to Daxueshan (Big snow mountain) in just 50km.
I was still on my flatbar, still no road bike in my possession, so I literally had hands free to take some cycling action footage. Today would not be about breaking records, just the relaxing climb up there and then down again, that's it.
Warm up is over, the climb starts now! One picture before the ordeal kicks in...
Jenny was already having second thoughts...
I wasn't, lol!
At the 10km mark I decided to wait for here. 10km means 20% completed
Weather looks fair enough
There she is! Alive and kicking
The first big checkpoint of the Daxue Mountain route: the 15km Dadong police station, located at exactly 1000m elevation
I have no idea if this forest trail leads to somewhere. Would need an MTB to sort that out
Admittedly, this does look insanely tempting...
A fangus green poison snake, ready to poison the shit out of whoever dares to approach it! Yuk!
Oh my God, it's a snake! I am so startled I can't move!
Mirror reflection of I cycophile
At the 26,5km we went through the Hengling tunnel, which is quite scary. But we cycled next to each other with the lights on, leaving no room for vehicles to pass.
28km, I will turn 28 next week so I wanted this picture! Next year I'll come back for the 29km picture haha
Thanks for this picture Jennie, I love it!
My favorite location on this 50km mountain road, my absolute favorite one: the blue bridge at 32km. This is such a beautiful sight! And that blue barrier is just soooo adorable
One of the extra benefits of living in central Taiwan is that you get to ride this one as often as you like!
Jennie made it to the 32km bridge
A rare occasion of having my own picture taken here
Let's have one more
Now her turn
At the 35km point there is another important checkpoint. It is the entrance to the Daxueshan National Park. A ticket is 100-150 NT, but it's worth it. We went inside and the first few km were not that steep. At the 43km mark there was a visitor center, we had a break there, took some pictures, had a quick snack and had a chat. Good times
Altitude 2270, which means some 300 left
In higher spheres we began to see fog and mist
The picture below is the 48km watching post. On it, you can see the entire mountain range, there is the big snow mountain, small snow mountain, middle snow mountain. The highest peak is higher than Wuling with 3550 meters! A real shocker right! Just too bad there is no road up there.
And then we made it to the big finale: the 50km end mark. Look how happy Jennie was to finally have done this once in her life. When I found at she only had a 25T cog in the back of her bike, I was more impressed than she was. Excellent job Jennie!
I have been here about ten times, but I still was not sick of it; On the contrary...
Showing off at Daxueshan 50km! Making the friends below me jealous
That fog was becoming more aggressive as we went back, aggressive enough to have us lower our descending speeds
But it did make for some fantastic pictures, I must say
Lovely stuff
This was a very nice trip! We should do it again someday!
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