November 2, 2014: An adventurous ride to the Siangbi Elementary school with the Fengyuan gang

Garmin Activity:  https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/625124084

142km, 5h41, elevation 1650m

Another Sunday morning meant another ride with the Fengyuan gang. This time they took me to a location I had never been before. Early in the morning I went to Fengyuan and head breakfast with them, then we commenced our journey together.

From Fengyuan to Dongshi there was a cycling path. Coming here today, I realized I had been here in August too, when I just got here. I just never found it again. There was a running competition about to commence and some people were not happy about us cycling through there. I could see the provision stands waiting for the runners to pass by. We left the cycling trail at the first possible exit.

Later we got on that same cycling track again, that led the way to Dongshi city center. There was an old, obsolete train station here. We stopped for some pictures.

Early in the morning, waiting for the gang to arrive

This is the Houfeng or Dongfeng cycling path

At the train station in Dongshi

A-Yong and Liao Shijia

A beautiful morning out with a gang of cyclists

Then we went to Dongshi city and took a left at the first big lane we saw. I was just following the guys because I was not familiar with this area; Later I learned from checking the map that this was Taichung-47. This was a nice quiet road, with some climbing in the last few miles. We stopped at the 10km sign to wait for the others to rejoin.

My friends told me to wait on the first descent I saw, so I waited here, for quite some time. When I saw nobody, I went back and there they were!

 Waiting for the guys at Taichung-47

This part was already Heping township.

Beautiful bike! Already had great rides with it

When I found the others we had some pictures together

Quite a gang today

 

There was a very steep slope right here, they challenged me to go up their. I put my money where my mouth is and did it. They were impressed!

Then the journey continued, going further on Taichung-47. They told me we would be going to the Xiangbi tride, which was located in these areas.

This was a mythical area, beautiful scenes and little traffic.

Goofing around a little

The road had ups and downs, sometimes even of 12%. I could feel I was climbing but none of them were long climbs.

Occasionally I was waiting for the others

We crossed a bridge and then it was about five miles more to Siangbi. We had some pictures there and a break at a local small shop. Then somebody told me that there was a way to connect from this Siangbi to Dahu. I was baffled by it and I had to research it.

After the break we went back but slightly different. We took a long flat road called 140. In about 10km that road would connect to the Zhuolan bridge of Hwy 3. I learned quite a lot about local geography on this ride.

At that 140 bridge, we took some more pictures

 

Then on the flat section, everybody was seriously racing. I was not even paying attention to it, but when I realized they were out of my sight, I really hammered it, going as fast as 50kmph. In the end I did manage to end first, but it required some strength.

Then we went back to Fengyuan for lunch and I headed to the school for my class. Unfortunately my GPS displayed an error and was unable to navigate me to Taichung. So I navigated based on my understanding of the roads. I still managed to get there on time. Another fun ride with the gang!