November 5, 2023
November 5th
Along the 7 and over the 宜51 to Chilan
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There's light coming through the wide floral curtains and g tells me it's gone 7. It's time to get up. Pulling the curtains back, the sky is streaked with grey clouds, but from our 10th floor room, it's doesn't look too bad. It's unclear if we're looking east or whatever and it's just too early to say how the weather will be: the day could go either way - rain or sunshine. Time will tell.
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After wheeling our bikes along the corridor to a pair of elevators, we each take one down with our bikes upended. It's then only a minute's ride to the same 7-Eleven where we bought drinks last night. This time I get myself a blueberry bagel that gets zapped in a microwave, then we pedal a block to an 85°C Coffee place and get one of the round tables placed outside and watch traffic - mostly scooters - come and go across the junction for 10 minutes as we sip our hot drinks.
It's still quite early in the day - around 7:30 or so - when we set off and it now seems like the weather will be OK as we ride a few blocks south from the train station to reach Highway 7, which around here is just another city street lined with the usual array of shops.
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By the time we reach the western edge of town, the sky is completely blue. It's clearly going to be a scorcher. Sun cream gets applied to our arms and faces, and I'm wearing a 'new' cotton cycling cap that I bought a couple of years ago. It's blue with darker polka dots: snazzy.
The 7 becomes wider and after a few kilometres we cross a slightly arched bridge that passes over a shallow river, then opt to make a left and follow some back lanes for a while. These run parallel to the highway, which actually isn't that busy, but these lanes cut through farmland and are devoid of vehicles. The silence here is really nice. We have a decent backwind
It's said that numerous rich people from Taipei bought big enough plots around here to legally build second homes that qualify as 'farm' houses. The agricultural land used to be cheap on this side of Taiwan, but it seems those days are over.
We spot one modernist home that's clearly empty. It's looking a bit sad - its white exterior stained from the rain - but it's likely to be less that 10 years old. Perhaps the owners didn't get the required planning permission, or they just couldn't cope with the tranquility of remote, rural life. Who knows. We pause to take a snap and find it has a small swimming pool that's full of murky water. Elevated above overgrown grounds, the stylish building incorporates lots and lots of glass, so privacy could be an issue.
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We end up back on the 7 after a couple of quiet kilometers, but soon make a right and follow a small river upstream. There's a smooth bicycle path running beside it and that's all we can hear flowing along at quite a pace. There are grassy banks each side that look manicured to a certain extent.
It's 29°C now and still only about nine o'clock. My cotton cap is soaked and it's been easy riding so far.
The cycle path weaves further west until it finally comes to an end at what looks to be a hydro plant. Hills rise above us and the path doubles back a bit before we get access to the 7 and begin our climb up it.
The 7 is wide, but pretty quiet with a broad shoulder and while the incline doesn't appear too bad, I'm in my lowest gear and spinning away, working up a sweat. There's next to no shade.
We eventually reach a point where there's a vista of the flat expanse of farmland below, on our left, with what appears to be the buildings on the western edge of Loudong not that far away. I spot the straight path we just rode along, beside the power plant, but it seems ages ago already.
We drop fast down the other side, cooling off in the breeze, and follow the 7 to a very wide river valley, making a right off it just before a bridge to start climbing up route 宜51. It's quieter than the 7 running along the northen side.
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Four and a half km doesn't sound bad, but this Route 宜51 is not easy. We did this climb together quite a few years ago ago, but it's hotter today. There are pockets of shade, with dense foliage lining the sides, but I still have to make regular stops to wipe sweat from my eyes and let myself cool down some. My lowest gear just doesn't seem to be low enough, even though it's as low as Rolhoff permit.
The 4.5km to the crest takes us well over an hour. I'm cooked. Our clothing is stuck to us. There's no discernable breeze around here.
The drop also lasts 4.5km. At the bottom is a basic shop run by an aboriginal family that sells cold drinks and not much else. We rest up as a few customers come and go. They appear to be local aboriginals, too - friendly and welcoming.
The plan - or hope - was to cycle along the gravel river bed like we did before. It's an opencast quarry, with diggers and trucks constantly getting the aggregate for concrete or cement production and we venture along one bumpy path for a minute or more, only to find that it ends at a deep ditch. Looking across the flat valley bottom, it appears that most of the work is on the far side of the river now, so we give up and stay on the 宜51.
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We get to the hotel at Chilan well ahead of schedule and pay NT$130 each to enter its grounds - this gives access to hiking trails - but that fee is deducted from the room rate. This place isn't cheap. The room is NT$3,800 and is nothing to write home about.
We ask if the hiking ticket is valid for tomorrow and it is, which means we can access the remote tail that begins from about 10km further up the 7. I ask about it and the receptionist tells us that only organised tour vehicles are allowed along it and we have to pay extra to get the mini bus. It's not what we want to hear. We have to come up with a devious plan.
It's still only just gone one and we can't check into a room until three. Thankfully there's a large deck with views of the lush valley and a kiosk selling decent coffee and cakes, so we sit and relax for an hour or so, pondering how to get on the mountain trail. There's a manned checkpoint at its entrance, so getting past that undetected won't be easy.
Right now we could both do with a bed to collapse on. It's been a really testing day: albeit only 45km with a relatively short climb. Tomorrow is going to be much harder. And we have to come up with a way to get onto the remote track that leads to a divine tree.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 3,365 km (2,090 miles)
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