I started out my morning unsure of where I would be riding. A few factors were in play and with a later start, iffy weather and even less predictable legs, I headed north at a good clip. I felt amazing. I chopped wood all the way to Dongshih and managed to continue at a good clip without leaving the big ring all the way through Dongqi Rd. As I crested the hill above the Da-an River, I felt the allure of the road up Sima Xian Shan; a nasty climb between Zhuolan and Dahu. A section of the main road was completely wiped out last year, and the word was that passage was impossible. I thought I might see if the situation had improved over the past year, and if not... I would just get a shorter ride and enjoy the afternoon. I blazed along and caught up with a couple riding road bikes. I stopped to ask if they had any info on a road crossing the mountain. They both thought the road was closed and were just going up the river, only to return the same way. I passed another group of riders all kitted out on expensive road bikes. When I hollered to see if they had come over the mountain they stopped and looked at me as if I had my hair on fire. Motioning like he might offer me a chocolate bar and a shiny trinket.... "You speak Chinese?" Of course I had just shouted at him in Chinese, so my answer was a resounding "no" while I asked again in Chinese if they had come from the Dahu side. "Where are you going?" one of the guys asked. " I'm going to Dahu fro this side", I replied. "No, you're going the wrong way. You need to turn around. You need to take the Highway 3", he explained. " The road past Tian Gou, do you know if it is open?", I asked again. *look of confusion* "You know, the road that goes past Tian Gou down the other side to Dahu... is that road open. I know it was closed this year..." I continued. "Dahu.... from here.... but that is climbing....", he said with a perplexed tone. I waved them off and found the last police station on the river. The cop, told me the 中像道路 was open and goes from Xiangbi Village to Dahu over the mountain. I was rapidly on my way and eating some serious bitterness on the opening ramps. It is not as majestic or scenic as the old road, but it offers some spectacular ramps and a few vistas worthy of the effort. The Miaoli fog came sweeping in from offstage and the temperatures plummeted. I finally met a few riders coming over the hill and we exchanged info on the road conditions each side could expect. I dropped down some incredible concrete chutes, carful not to pinch flat on the drainage grates that spit the roads every 50 meters. Suddenly I was spit back out onto the river of the Miaoli 61-- as awesome a road as there has ever been or ever will be. After a fuel stop in Dahu, I was again plugging back to Taichung at as high a speed as I could will into my legs. It is one of those days where the accomplishment is the reward. THE ROAD IS OPEN!
This time of year is a great time to teach the legs how to climb. With the northern monsoon pushing a steady wind from the north, the hills offer some respite in putting out a strong effort and actually accomplishing something. I had been eyeing a road for some time, but I never really had a great opportunity to follow it. I had been down the lower section several times, and each descent I always thought I wouldn't want to try climbing up that very hill. I wouldn't want to try it... until I actually did try it: The Fuxing Agricultural Road. The ride out of Taichung was a bit of a sleepwalker, with a group of cyclists rolling out for some mass event or another. I hoped to take a bit of a shortcut through the Houfeng Bike Trail, but it was blocked off by a marathon (the current sport dejure of Taiwan). I had to take a couple farm roads back to the Highway 3. Eventually I was back up on the Miaoli Route 52-2 along the southern end of the Liyutan Reservoir. This was where the ride really started. At the section beneath the dam where the 52-2, Miaoli 49 and 52-3 meet, I launched up the 52-3. Launch it the appropriate word as the road is a single lane of vertical abuse. It is one of those roads where you clip in and then hang about a mile out over the handlebars to keep the front wheel down. I bit and spit my way to the top and then, surprisingly, kept going. I did have to dismount once to let a car pass, but I was feeling great. The road dishes out a few more bumps before settling down high above a shady wetland that completely transforms the mood into something resembling tranquility. After another long, straight climb, I took a breather to orient myself on the GPS as I was heading into new territory. I was giddy and the road took an unmerciful leap along a carved out hillside. The whole space seemed ridiculous for a bike ride. I revelled in the obvious absurdity of the image I must have cast to passing farmers as I stomped and shifted my way between the occasional stair step in the paving. The higher I hot the more ridiculous the ramps became. I must have hit a dozen or more comically nasty sections. They never lasted too long, but the sense I was getting was that I would eventually be biking up a quarter pipe. I hooked into a corner and passed a derelict cemetery eerily blanketed in a soupy grey fog. The fog cleared for just a moment to reveal the reservoir below. I was in absolute heaven. Then the landscape shifted on me as rapidly as the click of a Viewmaster. A sloppy string of pavement slid along the side of a persimmon orchard. I couldn't figure out how they lifted so much flat road up the mountain. I was again enveloped by the chill of a wet fog that covered me until I was spit out in the middle of a parking area next to a haunted commode at the base of a hiking trail. I took the right hand turn and blazed along the dirty concrete path. Suddenly, a large eagle swooped out of the trees above the road just in front of me and swept the road with its talons. It did this two more times before flying off to Salisbury Hill or some other locale. I was having more fun on the bike than I had had in a very long time. There was adventure, wonder, absurdity, mystery and silence. I finally nailed a steady beat back to Taichung. But not before stopping to take a picture from the warm sunlight of the mountain I had just taken a bite out of. A highly recommended road for the local rider looking for something that will surprise. There are several more roads back there that I will be looking into in the near future.
