Quite quickly I have been on all of the riverside bike trails which follow next to Taipei's many rivers. One goal of mine has been to start cycling in the mountains that surround the city. Not only for the exercise that hill climbing would provide, but also for the fantastic views that you can only get deep in some untouched mountain.
If my previous ride on a small mountain road taught me anything, it's that mountain roads, especially the smaller ones that cars don't usually go on, don't seem to follow any logic. They are quick to change names and directions.
To avoid getting lost i put in a lot of research. The first thing I did was find some biking blogs where people in the area map out their rides and talk briefly about them. After some research I found what seemed like a good starter route. It's a big loop so i wouldn't have to go back the way I came, and from what i read it wasn't too steep, and most of it was flat.
I wasn't taking any chances though, so the next thing I did was get on google maps and go through the street view of every part of the road. It's a good thing I did, because at some parts the road forks off and i needed to follow the fork, and other parts there were dead ends that didn't seem like they should be there if you just looked at the map. So i took down notes on my phone of each time i need to change to a different road or direction.
The only thing left to do was to wait for the perfect day. I'd learned my lesson about going up into the chilly mountains in the rain, so I waited for a clear day. Also it needed to be a weekday that wasn't a holiday, so there wouldn't be many drivers out on the tiny mountain roads. Finally the day came and armed with two phones (should the battery die on one) I set out.
The route I took was one that goes up a mountain and then down the other side to a popular area south of the city that is well known for it's great hiking and natural hot springs. From there it's back up another mountain and then down the other side back to the city.
The route there was quite nice. It had short steep sections that were good for getting the heart rate up, and then long flat sections to relax on and build up the energy to attack the next short steep bit. The ride down the mountain was of course great. The way back was one continuous shallow uphill climb followed by an extremely long and windy downhill part that was quite fun after climbing for so long.
All in all it was a great trip. Lots of good exercise without being too taxing. The view was also great, part of it was along the river, and it was stunning to see just how clean and beautiful it is when the river is away from the city. This same river runs by my house and it's so yucky that it's hard to believe that the river in this picture is the same one.
The mountains were also nice. There are some extremely small communities as well as some people who built some big homes there. The best parts are the roads that are too small for cars. Everything is so quiet as you ride peacefully under the trees.
The mountain riding bug has definitely bit me. I already have a long list of other mountains that i'm ready to attack. Let's hope that none of my future posts are from Hell, after I died speeding down the mountain straight into a car going up a tiny road.
