October 14, 2019
North to Lishan
a climb up route 投89
It's only 7.00 AM when we cruise back down route 14 for a minute or so to the FamilyMart to get some breakfast inside us, plus buy drinks and snacks for the day's ride. There's very little on offer along the small route that leads up to Lishan. We'll be 'out there' today.
My choice is a microwaved lump of smoked chicken that seems a bit weird, like it's been grown in a lab or something. The coffee is pretty good - a step up from 7-Eleven.
We look at the map and know today is another tough one, but the sky is blue.
Cycling back up the 14 past our hotel seems a lot easier this morning than it did last night and when we get to the turnoff I point to another hotel that I thought we would have stayed in. It's right on the corner where we turn left onto route 投89 and I wonder how much they charge for a room. It looks more expensive than where we slept.
The 投89 is narrow and there's no traffic on it. Far over to our left, probably a few kilometres away, is a ridge of peaks standing in sunshine, while we're riding in cool shade, with trees and the mountains on our right blocking the low sun. It's a nice temperature, but no doubt we'll be sweating soon enough.
We do a climb that lasts a couple of k that's no big deal and it doesn't take us long to clock up 14km.
The road is a mixture. Sometimes it's concrete in decent condition then sometimes we ride on potholed tarmac, with rough surfaces here and there. The route undulates, but it's pretty easy going. I though it'd be much harder than this.
The sun gets higher as the morning progresses and we put on sun cream. We're around 1,600 metres above sea level. That's about 5,200 feet, which is much higher than the UK's highest summit - Ben Nevis - and we still have a long climb to come.
After 20km we reach a Y junction and there's a small cafe inside a long, metal shed, but it doesn't look very salubrious so we just get cans of drink and stand in the sunshine for a few minutes. Neither of us are hungry yet, anyway.
I tell g we'll start to climb now and before we leave I dig out my bar-end mirror that got damaged in the hotel last night - the bike must have fallen over and the plastic stem of the mirror snapped. I place the detached mirror part on top of a rough wooden trestle and say to g that maybe the guy running the cafe will use it for something. His place looks brutal.
Not long after the Y we cross a bridge and then the hairpins start. We drift in and out of shade as the route twists this way to that and every so often we pause to get our breath back and let our heart rates calm down, and wipe away the sweat that's running down our foreheads and into our eyes.
I have a bar towel that I keep in my handle-bar bag and it soon becomes damp and I drape in on my bars so that it can hopefully dry a bit in the sunshine as we spin away travelling at walking pace.
It's 11 o'clock when we reach the edge of a village and at a junction we make a left and find a shop where two women are sat inside having a chat. The younger one of around 40 runs it and the older women tells us she's 80. This is another aboriginal village.
We get cold drinks and sit on stools and answer the usual questions. I opt to have a steamed bun - a staple breakfast item. It's gone a bit dry and I can't finish it and get some soya milk - another popular breakfast item - to take away the dryness in my mouth.
It's nice to be sat in the shade. I reckon we've come about 27km now.
The road continues upwards. Our low gears get used a lot and we sweat with flies hovering around our heads. I swipe at them to no avail.
Clouds have drifted over but the humidity is still high and we pause maybe less than every kilometre to rest. Gradually clouds gather and as we get higher the sky has far less blue in it and eventually it's predominantly grey.
Hairpins keep coming and g says his Google map shows there are 19 in total and we silently start counting them down. It's a slow process.
The surface of the 投89 is seriously rutted in many places, with puddles stretching across the width of the road, and the km markers become inconsistent. Logically we should be counting down to zero, but they jump from saying 20km to 15km then go up to 24km or whatever. Weird.
Tea fields are spaced on the slopes with rows of bottle green bushes rounding the contours and there are workers dotted about in the fields whiles others are riding robust but battered motorbikes that noisily come and go to who knows where. They're all foreigners, probably Indonesian or Vietnamese migrants, and they smile and wave as they zip past in groups of about 10.
We spot a long suspension bridge that's likely been built so that walkers have a short cut and opt to go across it. I recall doing the same when I dropped down the 投89 a few years ago. It's a high bridge and cycling across gives us a bit of a thrill. There's a fantastic view to our left of distant peaks and far below is a deep valley covered in dense green. There's little sign of life.
The 投89 curves around a hillside that has collapsed in heavy rain - the rock is a slate-like shale that's unstable and landslides here are common. The route just here is has become a bulldozed path and we take it steady. When it rains it'd be a real trial cycling along this section. It's dry and dusty right now, thankfully.
There's a small shop that looks closed, but I try the sliding door and it opens so I go in and the lady who runs it comes out from an adjacent room and it seems like I've woken her up. There's a tall fridge and I get a cold can of lemon tea from it and pay her, then g and I sit on the step at the front and rest a while and wonder aloud how much harder it'll be. My energy is about gone. We've not eaten much all day.
The sun tries to shine, but it's a halfhearted attempt and it's not long before it seems like it might actually rain. Dark clouds hover ahead and they are getting lower, or maybe we're just ascending into them, or it could be 50-50.
We keep counting down the hairpins. Fir trees tell us we're now pretty high.
I know that we'll eventually drop down and I try to remember the spot where the route crests, but get mixed up and it seems to take forever. There's a bit of a village at the top which is ghostly quiet and we then climb a bit more and I point out to g where I stayed when I did the ride going the other way. At night it was freezing inside the cabin I rented and although it's very cold now, my shirt and shorts are damp with sweat, which doesn't help keep me warm.
We finally start the decent to Lishan just as dusk arrives and even though it's only around 4:30 PM, it'll be dark soon and we agree that it's not good to be riding here on this bendy mountain road. We speed down around the bends to make it to Lishan before it the sun has totally gone for the day.
The wind chill is painful and my hands become numb as we keep dropping and dropping. I thought it'd be just a few kilometres, but it's almost 10 when we reach the top edge of Lishan. It's a relief and g tells me his hands hurt from braking so much.
It's five when we push our bikes along a street and pop into a hotel and see the owner who speaks great English. He quotes us NT$2,500 and won't deduct anything for not having breakfast and as g and I are both feeling pretty whacked we agree on the figure and get the key and lock the bikes up in a garage across the street then go into the room which the manager says is spacious to find it's nothing very special.
The manager says the restaurants will close around 6.30, so we soon go out to eat only to find the staff inside the few places we try along the main street telling us they've already stopped serving.
We spot a sign for a 7-Eleven and walk to the east side of the village and get microwaved meals and sit at a table at the back and don't say very much to each other. Before leaving we buy cans of beer and some snacks to take back to our room.
Tomorrow we have two options and we'll see how we feel in the morning before deciding what to do next.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 277 km (172 miles)
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