Miaoli 34-2 to 28

It would seem 130km is a long way to travel to knock off a couple of roads. It is. And as I plugged my way northward on the Highway 13 through Sanyi, I wondered if I had made more trouble for myself than it was worth.

The thing is, whenever I travel on the HSR, I look out and see a bunch of cool looking roads and struggle to find them on the GPS before the internet dies in but another tunnel.

Just at the top of Miaoli are a series of HSR tunnels that flip through narrow valleys like an old zoetrope to flash an instant image of cycling of intrigue. I needed to find and ride those roads.

I have already attacked the ridge lines longitudinally, but there are still several roads that criss cross those hills I have yet to ride. I have since ticked several off my map. The Route 34-2 looked interesting along with the Route 28. I was on my way.


I thought the Route 51-1 out of Houli would be a great start... and it was serene as usual.



The 34-2 starts behind the Da Chien General Hospital (My map below is inaccurate at this point...sorry). You can pick it up just behind the parking area on the southern end of the hospital grounds.


The descent is a lovely drop through fields and along twisty roads that pass beneath the HSR tracks.
When I got to the bottom I realized I had been to that spot several times on the Route 119. Personally, I prefer the Route 119 off the Highway 13 to get to this point.



The Route 28 goes back up the hill above Miaoli City. It is one of those special littler roads that can feature as a satisfying leg to any adventure.



The climb is never too much, but offers lovely views of the surrounding forest and out to the coast.



Moreover, the roads are smooth, sweeping swaths of unused pavement. The experience was really pleasant as I huffed away over a river valley...thinking of incorporating this into more demanding rides.



After a strange trip through an old railway town, I popped out behind a cemetery over Miaoli City. The view made Miaoli City look almost not repulsive.

The Route 28 is a keeper. The 34-2... meh!

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Hammering Up Anvil Hill: A Ride Forged in the Furnace of Summer

I had been hoping for a ride closer to home, so I took off to climb Anvil Hill behind Dajia Township. I really didn't know what to expect.

Anvil Hill is easily identifiable with a concrete Japanese era blockhouse, which once served as part of the coastal defense system and possibly as part of the network to defend the Kokan aerodrome in Taichu (Taichung) during WWII.

The crumbling concrete structure poking above the long grasses of the hillside was enough of a curiosity to bait me into making the short climb to the top to check it out and to explore the area behind Dajia.


Few riders were out in the high temperatures and each protracted stop light made it feel like a barbecue pit. Superfluous stop lights disappeared in the ripples of heat in a bid to keep the air flowing over my body. It was one of those days where you approach an intersection and the only thing there is  the acrid stink of someone else's body odor still sizzling on the pavement.

On the northern edge of Dajia I took a right up Taichung Route 12, a.k.a. Chenggong Rd. (成功路), that climbs into the Anvil Hill Scenic Area, which is perched above the alluvial plain of the Dajia River.

The climb is short, but stiff and at the top I took a side road out toward the southern face of the hill.

I was really taken aback by how quickly the scenery had transformed from the slipshod concrete of Dajia township, to the etched green squares of rural Taiwan. The Dajia River Valley more resembled the picturesque agriculture of Yilan or Taidong than the notoriously dusty industrial hub of Taichung.

The road narrowed as it pulled upward, and I was soon faced with a little cyclocross action to get up to the highest section.

I had a fill panorama of the entire Dajia plain, from Sanyi, all the way to the coast.
The site is popular with radio controlled glider hobbyists and I watched for a few minutes as they dive bombed the tombs below. I am not sure what that does for one's Fengshui, but nobody seemed worried.

I took some time to think through my route, and decided to just continue along the Route 12. The heat combined with a bullying headwind would make for enough of a workout without killing myself.

There were no cars along the slick squiggle of asphalt that cut between the overgrowth that was spilling onto the roadway

From the hillside I could see several possibilities for future adventures. The roads all zig-zag out toward Houli and Sanyi, so the Route 12 would make a great escape to or from the coast.


After a tour of some rice fields and several of the invisible, grey businesses that seem to spring up in the immediate vicinity of gravel companies, I followed the river back to Dajia before retreating to a 7-11 for an ice cream. The headwind made the return into a hill climb.

In all, this makes a nice getaway in an area we tend to be resigned to just passing through out of rare necessity.

Soaking Up The Miaoli 54-1: Rain Rides

Last Saturday looked like the better of available weekend days for a ride. It smelled a little rainy, but the roads were dry. This time of year in Taiwan will often start the day tantalizingly clear, with bright sunshine and puffy white clouds lazily hanging over the mountain peaks. By noon it can often turn to sheets of rain and slop.

I have a simple policy for rainy forecasts. If it is raining when I wake up and shows no sight on stopping by a reasonable starting hour, I'll skip it and hope for the next day. If it is dry at start time...the ride continues even if the rain starts to fall. It just means the extra hassle of drying out the bearings.

I met up with Rob, a rider I had never ridden with before, and we headed toward the hills at an even pace for shooting the shit and talking shop. After some harder training days mid-week, I really was ready for a more dialled back ride.

Reaching the 7-11 in Jhuolan, we ran into Michael Turton from The View From Taiwan, and his crew of Iris and Mike (a.k.a. Mike Surly/M'erican Teacher). In an odd way, it was a meeting of several oddball spokes in the Taichung cycling world. It was also a great opportunity to keep the atmosphere of the ride fluid and amicable. I really enjoy these rides.


The coffee and fuel from 7-11 vanished too quickly and it was time to head out. I had originally just planned an attack on the Miaoli Route 130 for a final sampling of the DT Swiss RR21 Dicut wheel that have been a revelation in the stiffness that can be engineered into a set of lightweight alloy hoops.

Instead, we headed out of Jhuolan on the Shuanglian Industrial Rd. that humps up a stiff climb through a cemetery (possibly littered with the bodies of cyclists who broke trying to cap the heart popping climb).

As we pushed and heaved and zagged up the ramps, mist became a dribble that became a full drumming of raindrops on hemet tops and gear.



We met up with the 54-1, which is excellent by itself, or part of a larger network of rides that really showcase the hidden gems of Sanyi cycling. The 54-1 traces along the fingers of the Liyu Reservoir and through patches of orchard land.

There are still plenty of short climbs as the route skims along a crumples ridge above the Dajia River Valley.

The mist and rain obscured the deal of the foothills in a gouache blending of shapes and lines. Once you get used to the fact that it is raining, it can add an element of beauty to the landscape that we too frequently miss by hunkering down indoors.

We eventually crossed the Highway 3 to the Route 130 and battled our way up against drizzle and gravity. It looked like a coin flip on the weather, so we trudged up to the Mile High Cafe for some hot Hakk-esque cuisine, which was totally welcome in the weather. 

We lost the coin toss and the rain was soon coming down in sheets.... Enough to make the fun descent down the back of the mountain a whole lotta not fun, so we retreated and beat it home. 

I had been feeling like I was ploughing into the rain covered streets for some time and then realized it was the least convenient flat... a flat in the rain. The two-way rim allowed me to switch from tubeless to clincher mode with ease and we were again on our way back to Taichung. 

If riding in the rain is good for anything, it makes for the greatest naps afterward. 

Guan Dao Shan: Death Climb In-Sanyi-ty!

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. 

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