Garmin Activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/651838600
217km, 8h53, 3050 elevation
Today's trip to the Sun Moon Lake carries some personal history with it. When I was in Taiwan in 2012, I visited Nantou with friends from Taipei. Their cycling club was called the "3490 cycling club". We spent two days in Nantou, departing from Caotun, going to Sun Moon Lake, spending the night there and going back via Puli the other day back to Caotun. I added some pictures of this trip of a distant past in which I was only a baby cyclist. I only started road cycling earlier that year. Before that, it was only city bike and low budget bike for me.
Some pictures of this 10-11 November 2012 ride with the 3490 cycling club from Taipei. May I just add that I took these pictures with my first smartphone I had at that time (HTC wildfire) and the quality is not superb :-)
A picture along Hwy 21
Yuchi township (where SML is located), Wudeng village
Nantou county's scenic areas
The Sun Moon Lake cycle path, described by the friends from Taipei as the world's most beautiful cycling path.
First we went through a cute little tunnel
This is along highway 21, this section has a good climb in it. The sign indicated the Xiangshan visitor center.
Me having some pics taken with this remarkable bicycle lane sign
A picture of me at the SML cycling lane
This cute little girl was singing here and she even had a FB group. I added her and kept following her afterwards. Even to this day.
We just completed our spin around the Lake, now onward to Puli it is
We had a friend who bought three bags of these bananas for everyone and cycled all the way uphill with them. What a champ!
Sun Moon Lake cycling path
The weather was not perfect that day, but this was still a lovely view.
Welcome to Yuchi county, Sun Moon Lake
As I lived in Tamsui, New Taipei City at the time, I only came here once. I even kinda forgot about this location until I noticed that I had not yet visited SML since I lived in Taichung. I had been to dozens of locations over the past few months, but SML was missing. And I was going home for Christmas in a few days, so I really had to do this once now.
Back to December 16th, 2014.
It was the last chance of doing a long ride before heading home for the holidays. I headed out from Shalu to Taichung city's Taiping area. The shortest way to the Sun Moon Lake would be Route 136 to Guoxing, a good long climb which I had done a few times earlier. I remember the first time I did it, it was sizzling hot, and I mean 42° C hot! No trees to give me some cover and the steep gradients really got me knocked out when I reached to top. Today was different, not too hot, physically in a better shape. I took this climb with relative ease, not without sweating though and had my picture taken by a few tourists on the top:
Beautiful sceneries!
Really love this location
I was not the only cyclist present at the time. I must have taken a picture of this spot at least 15 times now. Anyway, from here I went down all the way to Hiw 14 in Guoxing and from there I kept going until Puli. To put some numbers on it, Route 136 leads to 37km on Hwy 14 and I followed it until 56km, where there was in intersection with Highway 21, going south.
Hwy 21 would lead to Yuchi, the township of the SML.This also brought 6-7% gradient. I remember doing it on my first Nantou trip in August of this year. After the long climb, there was a tunnel and then a downhill section. Man, this place was packed with tour buses, way too many! And they are so reckless That definitely was a negative aspect of today's journey. After that descend another climb and there she was: The Sun Moon Lake! Beautiful to see it again with my own eyes
I made it to SML, now the goal was to cycle around it, just like we did in 2012. From here there are two ways around it, one was going left and take Hwy 21-2 and the other one was to continue Hwy 21. I chose the first option for no particular reason,. Didn't really matter anyway.
Let's start the grand tour of the Sun Moon Lake
The temple located just after the split section
Sun Moon Lake, here we are! A bystander offered to take a picture of me
After some ten kilometers of cycling alongside the lake, the road somehow diverged from the lake and entered a local village. I could remember having come here in 2012. Not much later, the Hwy 21-2 ended and connected to the Hwy 21, which I had to take north, back to Yuchi and Puli.
I kept following this Hwy 21 and came across this cycle path road sign. Couldn't leave without a picture of this one, right?
A lot of tourists today, so I was lucky enough to have my picture taken here
Left: November 11, 2012 Right: December 16, 2014. A nice gap of 25 months. Revisiting this spot really got me thinking.
Today's weather was excellent
Perfect day for a bride's picture
The tour around the SML was about twenty kilometers. I took the same Hwy 21 back to Puli, most of it was downhill. I did try to look for the 131 that led to Puli but somehow I did not find it, so Hwy 21 it was.
Going back home
In Puli, I stopped for some reinforcements and then I took Nantou 75, which goes parallel with Hwy 21, up north. I took the traditional section I often take after Nantou rides: to Guoxing via Hwy 21 over Baimaoshan and all the way to Dongshi. That section was 45km. Add another 25 to Fengyuan and I could finally enjoy the last tea time of 2014.
Nantou 75, only 4.5km, will eventually connect to Hwy 21 going north/ There are a few small communities located here, one of them is called Yancheng (salt city)
One more BIG thing along the route is the Central Taiwan Monastery (Zhong-tai Chansi). That building is just huge and has to be extremely expensive. Another landmark of the position of Buddhism within Taiwanese society.
After the Fengyuan tea time, I went back home a happy man. Did more than 200km, finally made it to SML, made a real nice tour around and not through Taichung city in the afternoon. Now holidays are coming, I will be back for more cycling adventures in 2015; For now, thank you Taiwan, for turning the second part of 2014 into an unforgettable experience! Duosia li-ah!
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