Michael's Meishan Madness: The Hidden Hills of Central Taiwan

With an extended New Year holiday, my options for weekend riding were completely open. I had several ideas rolling around in my head. I could have chosen anything. My first and best choice was not a chest thumping, piss contest, body wrecking joyride to boost my testosterone (though being over 40, it may not have been a bad idea).

Instead, I wanted to spend my first ride of the year with an old friend and a new one as well.

A great ride isn't necessarily... or even remotely about achievements on the Strava leaderboard. Often, the greatest and most memorable rides are stitched together by the ambling conversations that twist, roll and pitch with the contours of the natural landscape.

 Michael Turton had a ride on offer and I was ready to buy. The idea was to thread together a series of lightly trod mountain roads between Taichung and Chiayi counties. I had been on a few of the roads before, but I had never put the pieces of the puzzle together in exactly the same shape... and I was excited to see what kind of trip this might make.

Oh, the reward!



I rode the 30km from Taichung to Zhushan where I met up with Michael and Iris, another local rider from Taichung. Michael and Iris hopped a train to Ershui Station to save time and energy for the day's climbing.

Iris has not been riding for very long, but she is a dedicated cyclist who has put in the time with a regular riding schedule that has helped her become fit enough to eat up the hills in short order. Apparently, we both raced in the Tataka Hill Climb last October.



Our route started off on familiar territory with the incredible Nantou Route 149 from Zhushan.
The 149 makes easy work of the Qingshui River valley. The air quality was not perfect, so it was hard to really capture the beauty of the river valley.



The Route 149 cuts through the Lugu and Alishan tea growing districts and thus we were never too far from a tea field.



The area is sparsely populated, with only pockets of farms or houses rising out of the forest.



We remained on the Route 149 as it breaks right, high above the infamously daunting 149乙.
I couldn't help feel drawn deeper into the mountains by that mesmerizing call of the Alishan Route.


The climbing was not terribly high, nor steep... but it had the feeling of drifting out into nowhere.



There is not a lot to eat in the mountains, so we brought a little food and snacked as we rode.



As soon as I thought I had the route figured out, Michael added a new wrinkle to it with a left turn up what looked like a small farm road. This was the 212-1.



The 212-1 is a tight little farm track that sneaks between remote tea farms and the abyss.



Needless to say, I was surprised to be crossing into Chiayi County. The road system throughout the Qingshui River Valley crosses through the convergence of Taiwan's Nantou, Changhua, Chiayi and Yunlin Counties.



At one junction we turned onto the 151-1 and I could see no way out of the mountains without a serous climb. At every corner it seemed we would be veering back into the valley below.



Finally, the 162甲 was at hand. The glorious 162甲-- A road that was undoubtedly designed by a cyclist.



The 162甲ties itself in knots on a comically drunken scribble of road that cascades through tea gardens, farms and forest. The road is impossible to descend without stopping to take pictures of such a comically incredible feat of engineering whimsy.


We all plunged into the plain below. I was stuck in a convoy of cars as I waved them off from even thinking about riding up on my left. I was ferocious in sticking to my line and pace with the cars in front.

Man, what a ride!

It was then a slow roll into Dalin Station for a train back to Taichung. I had over 100k of distance for the day and I can imagine the entire ride being done in a single day. There are just so many options in that valley... yet it is fortunately neglected by most regional cyclists.

The company was the best. I was so happy to be out riding with Michael and Iris on that day.

I will definitely be doing this again.

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New York Times is Cycling Taiwan: You Pay What You Get For...

A couple Taiwan cycling related stories have been worming their way through the social media this week.

The first is a beautifully integrated info-tisement, of the kind that are becoming irritatingly common these days, as trusted sources of information have been desperate for content and started pimping for private businesses (CNN anyone?). The quid-pro-quo of content for cash is nothing new, but it is becoming even more prevalent in the internet age.

The article comes from the Grey Lady herself in the In Transit blog by Diane Daniel and briefly touts a bicycle tour of Taiwan.

To be more specific, the blog uses its space to promote one bicycle tour of Taiwan from a company called Bicycle Adventures located not far from where I grew up.

You can always tell when something is amiss when an article about cycling in Taiwan includes one of two things: a) a reference to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, and b) a reference to the mythological founding of Taiwan cycling by Giant's King Liu... "who having descended from on high in gleaming raiments, astride a snorting white stallion, thrust Tony Lo's gleaming bald head into the sands of the Tajia River and said, let there be cycling... and there was cycling."-- Book of Giant 3:13.

This article has both.

The price of the tour is a whopping USD $3945, which is pretty steep by any standard and Taiwan is in no way ready to command this type of cash for an experience that can be had for much less and more fun with some free information, such as the information provided on this blog and others, and a map. Taiwan is safe and relatively easy country to explore, even without any command of Mandarin what so ever as evidenced by decades of McGill University grads who wash through each year.

Upon reading the entire article and browsing the company's itinerary, I was struck by a couple of things.

The NYT says:

While traversing the island’s five mountain ranges, riders visit two national parks in near-rain-forest settings of up to 8,000 feet. One of the biggest challenges will be an uphill ride in the Taroko Gorge, a 65-mile climb that features stunning scenery, traditional villages and several tunnel passages.

At first I thought this was one baddass trip... imagining Alishan, Lugu, Wuling, Baling.... all the great climbs in one ride. In reality, the majority of climbing is done on a single trip up to Dayuling, and back to Taroko. The trip never even touches the western side of Taiwan, where there are some incredible and tour-worthy routes.

The other piece of information that caught my eye, and probably the most damning, is the bikes used in the tour will be rentals (probably from Giant).

If you have the means to spring for such an expensive vacation, for godsakes, bring your own bike... a bike you know intimately. Nothing could be worse that negotiating a landscape on an entirely unfamiliar machine that may or may not be sized and geared to fit the rider.

Lastly, the tour seeks to guide visitors to "Cultural stops". With an informed guide with local knowledge, cultural stops are at every stop. Here we see selected museums and tourist centered locations. It is common practice in Taiwan for tour guides to establish a patronage network with hotels, markets and trinket dealers. It seems here, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau has gotten in on the action.

This brings me to a much greater and more philosophical problem that is not directly related to this article, but to the general problem of the current Taiwan Tourism Bureau in general.

The Taiwan Tourism Bureau is greatly influenced by partisan politics. Over the past 30 years we have seen a protracted struggle for the official representation of Taiwan, both internally and externally. The current administration has been completely tone deaf to the actual identities of Taiwanese citizens and has veered far from the Taiwan centered viewpoint that had been adopted (often poorly) under the Chen administration to more closely identify with the views of the higher echelons of the Chinese Nationalist Party, which has maintained an often pejorative view of Taiwan as a mere degraded periphery of a great China.

This cleavage between views influences how Taiwan is represented internationally and locally... from culture and history, to the portrayal of Taiwan's very diverse population of overlapping ethnicities.

I fail to see how the Taiwan Tourism Bureau can best represent for consumption, the amazing strata of Taiwanese life.... when it is continuously informed by an ideological stance that positions Taiwan far, far from the center, in an area that is steeped in the ethnic chauvinism of the Chinese nationalist world view.

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Bottoms Up!

Taiwan makes the news for fining drunk cyclists.

The beer and the bicycle have long been an item in the gossip pages of cycling magazines. There are numerous products on the market that integrate the two hobbies. Some frames even come with bottle openers welded to the tubing.

Should we drink and ride? Probably not. Maybe... oh heck, I dunno....

I really don't think I am the right person to write about this.

This somehow reminds me that there are some really great beers coming into Taiwan.

My favorite beers from the Elysian Brewery are now on sale all over the place.  The No.1 from Taiwan's 23 Brewing Company is pretty good for us North Westerners who like hoppy beers. Jolly's Thai Restaurant and Brewery has some nice beers... I think they have food too, but I don't recall. And how can anyone refuse the new beer from Chthonic?

Ummmm... don't drink and ride?! Stay in school.

Connecting to Bigger Things: Linking the Small Roads of Sanyi

Each ride and each route had its own start. A ride often has its inception in the space between the map and our imagination. Other times it can be as simple as the kind of "happy accident" frequented in a Bob Ross sort of way, where a wrong turn turned out much more right. 

This road started with telephone poles. 



Two weeks ago I had been out on a late-starter and chose a route I knew with an added wrinkle along a farm road. 

As I scanned the hillside across the valley, I saw a pattern of telephone poles zig-zagging up the hill and beyond. I really wanted to explore, but I couldn't guarantee a decent return time and left it. 

This past weekend I recruited Michael Turton to go exploring with me and together we disappeared into the Miaoli Route 51. 



The Route 51 starts off with an impressive staircase out of the river valley off the Highway 13 in Da She. Several of these roads are popular with cyclists. The Route 49 is especially used as a cycling route. The Route 51 was surprisingly devoid of cyclists. 

After capping the initial climb, which majestically overlooks the area and a famous railroad bridge, the Route 51 flattens out in a twisting avenue through an ecological forest preserve. 





The road is not glass smooth, but rather quite rough for traction against slick moss. The quietness of the shade along with the clicking and squeaking bamboos is simply relaxing. 

The Route 51 will surely be on the map as an alternate to some larger, busier roads. 



Near the Sanyi Station I bid my farewells to Michael and continued alone to see about connecting this network of incredible paved tracks that hide beneath the shadow of Guandao Shan. 



My first experiment was a failure as a promising connection to the Route 56 ended at a sketchy little farm that, apparently, raised vicious dogs. Google Maps seems to include former roads and streams in its mapping software. Still, the ride through these little marshlands is so unique. 



I eventually made my peace with the roads and retreated up the Route 49 to the Route 56. 

The Miaoli Route 56 is a hidden little gem that rises up to Guandao Shan.. but it does so with some compassion. Lots of little climbs, but noting that would restrict the road for climbers only. 



The Route 56 eventually opens up high over the landscape for about a hundred meters before being again devoured by the mountain. 



After another climb, the Route 56 ends at a strange intersection of tiny roads under a low canopy of trees. Each road leads off the hill, so I went down the hill to the Liyu Reservoir. 



I brushed along the orchards and graves lining the roadway until I was on the 53-1... roads I was more familiar with as ascents than descents. 



We need more water! 

I kept the chain on the large ring and jammed for home through Zhuolan and Dongshih. I was feeling good. 



Moreover, I was able to put the final piece of a puzzle together--a puzzle that will make for a remarkable summer route under the shade of the jungle. This one's gonna' be great. 

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