Climbing the Da Hsueh Shan Road

Another awesome day in central Taiwan as Drew and I set out on our bikes to train for another ride up from Taroko and over the central cross island highway next month. Our path today took us to Dongshih and the road up Da Hsueh Shan.

Although we had fog in the morning, it cleared by 9 and we were treated to lovely blue skies and excellent views.

The grade of the road is about 6% the whole way, a pleasure to climb up or roll down.

A little community offered a place to have lunch at about 900 meters.

Looking south toward Dongshih

Hardworking beetles find lunch.

Reaching 1000 meters.

At 1000 meters the road was lined with people selling stuff, but these disappeared as we climbed.

A logged out area.

A perfectly representative photo of a perfect day.

Not all beautiful vistas were distant from the camera.

River valleys and side roads become the object of plans for future rides.

At 1400 meters I called it a day and turned around, having climbed some 21 kms of 6% grade, with 50 kms of road still in front of me to get home. Whew! I hadn't slept well and was tired, and the clouds out of the picture looked like they were darkening. Still, days like this in the rainy season are treasures. Drew's excellent post is here.

UPCOMING RIDES: May 22-23 we're taking this route over the Northern Cross Island Highway, weather willing. The third day up the NE coast is optional. June 19-20 we're going over Hehuanshan from Taroko.
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