Miaoli 23 and Me: The DNA of Cycling in Taiwan (苗23, 苗119, 苗38)

With Lunar New Year coming to a close, I thought I needed to get out and put one last exclamation point on my winter of riding. I can't stand repletion in my riding, and therefore, I am always looking for new roads and routes to try. Taiwan seems to have an unlimited number of combinations of the most incredible roads to choose from, and experience has taught me, that no matter how messed up Miaoli has been with most everything else, when it comes to marking roads for cycling, they know what they have some imagination.

Last year I pressed my luck for a wild ride along the CPC Petroleum Rd. that runs along the spine of Miaoli's foothills. For the past year I have been eying the hills to the north of the Highway 6, which runs to Gongguan (公館), and every time I drive the No.3 Freeway or take the HSR, I keep looking out over those hills to figure out where they might be so I can ride them. I have already ridded the 苗26-2, and I have done the 苗22. Both are fine roads. The 苗124 to the Shitan Reservoir is a favorite. But those roads simply flop over the hills one side to the other. I was looking to cut the hill right down the middle. The answer could be found in the 苗23.



I headed out along the Highway 3, my usual corridor into Miaoli County, and kept things on autopilot as I made my way over each familiar roller before Dahu. I stopped to refuel at the 7-11, just on the northern edge of Dahu where the Highway 6 connects to Gongguan. It wasn't too much further that I read the fine print on a series of inconveniently bent and twisted signs, that I found my 苗23 at 八角坑.



I could hear dogs barking not too far off, so I gingerly made my way into the hills on full alert. Luckily, the dogs were all tied up (You can never be too cautious) and I slid quietly along some wonderfully paved roadway.



The opening salvo sounded more like a whimper and I thought I may have picked a disappointing low spot in the topography. A few fields here and there and a little bamboo amounted to the best of the treats at the lower end.



I soon realized I was having to work a bit harder beneath a gray and green lichen covered rock.



It was about this point that the climbing began.



It first started out with a tease. A ramp here, a pitched climb there followed by a levelled bend and then repeat.



The foreplay soon came to an end as the hill was simply going to throw introductions to the wayside and simply dive into it without even a handshake.



I stomped on the pedals and slowly heaved my way higher toward the summit. It was unrelenting.



Unlike most roads that promise a reprieve behind the next bend, this road just threw another dose of steepness.



I slithered upward through bamboo groves and tall forest. I would occasionally catch a glimpse of the mountains in the distance, then the road would loop back into itself and I would disappear under the shade of the forest.


The weather had threatened to rain all morning and would spit raindrops in annoying spurts of indecisiveness. But as I humped my bike up that hill, the weather seemed to clean up.



At last I hit the summit and took some time to enjoy the scenery. I noticed the road has been marked as part of the Gongguan Challenge and deservedly so. That is a fantastic hill for those interested in testing their climbing chops.



At the top there are several options. I continued for a minute or two and hooked up to Bo-ai Agricultural Rd. Apparently the 24-1 goes to the same place. But the 24-1 does not go past a Taiwanese hillbilly shack and all the fun that entails... with the cat calls.


Bo-ai was a less refined road, but it was fine. It follows the ridge line through fruit orchards for almost a kilometer before plunging downward.



The road cuts through the skinny cedars and deep pink cherry blossoms as it traverses between peaks.



The descent is enough to cook BBQ of the rims. A safe descent and a quick descent shall never be paired on this road.



Much, much too soon, I tumbled out onto the Highway 6 near one of Taiwan's few oil wells and was keeping an even pace toward Gongguan.



My plan had only been as far as Gongguan. I didn't know what kind of shape I'd be in by the time I hit bottom, so I kept my options open. I thought I might try one of the 3X roads that slice through the hills of Miaoli and empty out by the strait. I looked up and down the map and finally decided the Route 38 had enough shape to hold my interest. and I rolled along the 119 to the foot of the hill across the bridge from Gongguan.



The first ramp just about tore my quads from the bone, but luckily it was a short climb with confusing enough signage to give me a moment to rest and argue with a local over the correct way to go (I was right). I hoped in the Route 38-2 toward Jiuhushan and the low altitude tea fields.



This climb was as bad, if not worse than the last one. Holy unrelenting pain, Batman! I couldn't believe this too had been designated for bicycles. Most cars were struggling to make it to the top. It was an essay in vertical. What a work out. Climbers, come.... This is your road.



I reached the summit and after some meandering through the farms and through the crowd of a tourist temple, I arrived at another feast for the senses.



Western Taiwan has never looked so wild. All the way to the ocean, green, knife-edged hills lined up in rows.



The descent is a remarkable feat of technical descending. I probably would have had a little more fun, but the road was still quite wet, so I kept things sane. This is an awesome hill to attack from either side.

I slung myself past the Flying Cow farm and onto the Highway 1. I was very conscious that I hadn't been on the Highway 1 for good reason and couldn't imagine why the government had insisted it become the keystone of the round-island route. I just tried to take the industrial wasteland in stride and my mind wandered toward taboo subjects, such as, how I had been over so many gnarly roads recently without a flat.

Then I had a flat in Dajia. I was able to pull a shard or tetnus infused steel out of my tired before changing the tube and heading out.



My legs were about as dead as they have been in a very long time. So I rewarded them with one last climb up the back way into Taichung beneath the No.3 and No.4 Freeway interchange. That was mainly so I could privately suffer up the last hill into Taichung without an audience.

Just as I started the climb, the sky opened up and I got soaked.

Yes, if not for that flat tire near Dajia, I would have made it home dry. Curse that Highway 1. It is an abomination.

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