Riding Taroko Gorge

Friday afternoon a group of us met at the Sincheng train station in Hualien County for another ride up Taroko Gorge. The plan this time was to bike the 25 kms from the train station to the Catholic Hostel at Tianxiang at 480 meters of altitude, overnight there, then bug out at 7 or so in the morning and climb 50 kms and 2100 meters to a hostel in Tayuling.

I met my friends Dwight and Jeff at the train station as the sun was setting.

We headed up 8 for Taroko Gorge.

The first westerners to see this side of the island marveled at the dramatic cliffs so close to the ocean. Today we still do.

Taroko Gorge is one of the most beautiful places in the world, but light was failing at this point.

A bend in the gorge.

Jeff takes in the views.

It soon grew too dark to take pictures.

Rough and ready accomodations at the Catholic Hostel.

Morning...er...flowers.

The morning sun confirmed that the day was going to be sunny.

Right outside of Tianxiang was this enormous landslide, which had taken out the road. A new road had been built over its detritus.

Resting in front of a tunnel.

Further up in the gorge Jeff makes a friend. The apparatus behind him enables the village(rs) from the village atop the ridge to get themselves and their things down to the road.

At Shibao at 915 meters. The opening section to here is the steepest part of the road, with grades I think were between 7-8%. The local school is here; the children board and go home on weekends.

The road climbed

At 1117 meters I stopped to get some peaches. On a climb like this you can never have too much food.

Jeff and I take a breather.

Keep this bridge in mind. There's a story....

Jeff, Dwight, and Drew taking a break.

Just before the set of switchbacks at around 1500 meters there is a small shop that sells snacks. We grabbed water, down a Supao, and dined on tiny bananas smaller than a thumb. Yi kou jiao! punned one of the locals after we commented on how you eat one at a single bite.

In the switchbacks.

Taiwan's tough weather and constant landslides mean constant need for road repair.

The peaks are awesome.

Resting at 1644 meters.

I didn't even know Taiwan had dung beetles, but I spotted this one by the side of the road, hard at work. UPDATE: After I posted this I thought I would check Google to see what information there was on Taiwan dung beetles, and found that my post had become the seventh hit, so lacking is information in English.

So I video'd his furious struggles.

Above the switchbacks the road levels out to a 4-6% grade, not difficult at all, but still work.

We stopped to enjoy some butterflies and a group of people photographing them. One of the men named them all in Chinese for us.

Bees busy.

I showed the resident expert this fellow resting in the leaves, but he dismissed it with a wave. "It's just a moth," he said, adding that Taiwan has hundreds of species of moths but only 400 kinds of butterflies.

At 1995 meters we grabbed another Supao and rested in front of a small stand. Alas, the B&B that used to be there is now a wreck.

As we rested, we took in the superb vistas.

At Shenmu ("God Tree") at around 2200 meters there is a restaurant.

We devoured cups of coffee and a bowl of noodles. Exactly what we needed at exactly the right time, remarked Drew. Thus powered, we surged forward.

Dwight shows his power.

The road bends around the mountain to over 2500 meters at this point. The views are vertigo-inducing.

Dwight and Jeff have a chat.

In front of the two tunnels at 2600 meters.

At Kuanyun at 2375 meters. The final climb of a couple of hundred meters was still in front of us.

We stayed at this place in Tayuling at 2564 meters, which has a very secluded little hostel space at $300 a pop. We were the only people there.

Unfortunately I have severe problems with sleeping at altitude. Although I came ready to go over Wuling and down to Puli, after a sleepless night I decided to go back down to Sincheng the way we came. Jeff went with me. It was a lovely day, and a very enjoyable ride. Going downhill with gravity doing most of the work enabled us to notice many things we missed on the way up while focusing on the work of the climb.

A pheasant crossed the road and then I managed to get a picture of him as he watched us from the bushes. Jeff identified him as a Swinhoe's Pheasant (Wiki), but a commenter below says he is a Mikado Pheasant (Wiki).

Downhill on the pleasant grade.

It took us about ten tries just to get this crappy shot.

Another clear day.

The road to Wuling.

We stopped again at Shenmu for coffee. The owners of the restaurant are really nice people.

Here's another one of these bridges. We counted three red ones, and at the bottom of the gorge, there is a similar one in yellow.....

Their story is told in this plaque. The bridges were made by the Gustav Eiffel engineering company in France for Vietnam in 1954. Then this happened. They were installed here in Taroko in 1966, according to the marker to the left of the bridge in the photo above this one. Waste not, want not.

The mountains aren't any less awesome because you are going downhill.

One of the advantages of biking is that you come on everything silently, meaning that you see a lot of wildlife you would have missed had you been in a car or (god forbid) a large motorcycle. We surprised innumerable monkeys on the way down.

Down into the green gorge we went.

We reached the steepest part of the road, about 600 meters above Tianxiang, that little clump of buildings in the center of the picture.

Below us the river continued to make new gorge.

As we entered the gorge, the traffic picked up. We took a breather here by a ruined bridge. The sign warned about wild cattle on the paths, but I figured that any cattle that can manage to wander on those steep rocky trails must be godlike creatures that I would humbly submit to pounding me to a pulp.

The trail is closed.

Welcome to Taroko.

This accident totally snarled the road. We had trouble with big motorcycles the whole ride down. The drive up as fast as they can -- never did we see motorcyclists stopped above the gorge, enjoying the view or watching the animals. They are louder than an advancing army, terrifying the local wildlife. Worst of all, they pay no attention to anyone else and "turn" corners by cutting them, with the predictable results shown here. Although the SUV drivers appear to have all signed a pledge saying they will drive with the center line under their hood ornament at all times, for sheer wanton selfish road hogging, the big motorcycle drivers win all awards. They are an unredeemable menace. I seriously think they should be banned from park roads.

As we were coming down we ran into these boys walking in the middle of the road. With us on the side and cars racing down the road, there was no place to go, so I shouted them over the side of the road. Later we met in front of 7-11 in Sincheng, to mutual amusement. They proudly showed off the shrimp they'd caught, and one boy explained to me how to barbecue and eat them. The shrimp, I mean.

The station in Sincheng.

Plenty of food for thought. You could contemplate this Falungong display right in the waiting area, I guess aimed at Chinese tourists. Or....

....you could try and figure out what this sign meant, if you didn't read Chinese. We boarded the train, the ride over, but the pure joy of it lingering.

With men at work on a hot Sunday afternoon....

....we cyclists were bound for home. _______________________ [Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!