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The Jhongliao Loop – Extended Edition

Todd Alperovitz — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:42:02 +0000

I was off to an early start on Sunday morning. I met up with my riding partner at a nearby 7-11 for an adventure into Jhongliao Township [中寮鄉]. Jhongliao is located east of Nantou City [南投市] and north of Jiji Township [集集鎮]. Most of my rides in Jhongliao begin with a steep but manageable climb to Pingding [坪頂]. After wrapping up the climb, we stopped at the Pingding Sacred Tree; A massive camphor tree believed to be over 1,600 years old. It’s tranquil and quiet, making it my favorite spot to stop when traveling in this direction. The only sounds were those of our conversation with a ham radio enthusiast we met on the climb up and that of a nearby resident’s dustpan hitting an object. My riding partner had plans for the rest of the day, so he turned back down the hill from which we came while I traveled in the other direction towards northern Jhongliao.

The Pingding Sacred Tree [坪頂神木]

I kept both my front and rear lights on during the winding descent into northern Jhongliao. The fog was thicker than on the Caotun-side of things and it wasn’t clearing up with the passage of time. Once in town, I was riding quite conservatively as I was anticipating a challenge riding up the steep climb to the Dragon and Phoenix Waterfalls [龍鳳瀑布]. I hopped off my bike briefly, to take a picture of Neicheng Village right before the climb:

Neicheng Village [內城村]

The lack of other cyclists, the absence of motorists, and the dense fog made for an exceptionally lonely climb. Even the birds and insects seemed to be taking a break from their usual morning routines. I made it up to the Dragon and Phoenix Waterfalls parking lot in great time only to find that the stand selling refreshments hadn’t opened yet, which was unfortunate because I was really looking forward to buying a can of Mr. Brown Coffee. I didn’t hike over to the waterfalls, I’ve taken pictures of those several times before [photographs from the most recent visit]. After a quick stretch and swig of water I was back on the road. The climb isn’t so steep after the waterfalls.

Sakura

After about 150m of climbing, there’s a fork in the road. One road, which I took the last time I came here, is a bumpy descent into Hexing Village [和興村]. I chose the other road, which pointed to Wuxin Mountain [無心山] because the surface looked smoother. After riding for a few meters however the surface quickly deteriorates. It’s a short, bumpy climb followed by a long, bumpy descent to southern Jhongliao’s Pinglin River [平林溪].

The Mighty, Mighty Pinglin River

Once in downtown Jhongliao, I was able to satisfy a caffeine craving in the town’s Family Mart to power-up for the final stretch home. I chose a hilly route instead of the straight-shot into Nantou City. I was very proud of myself when I tackled one hill, the 投17-1 with complete ease compared to the first time I rode it on my road bike. I’ve been riding a lot of my favorite routes much faster and more confidently than six months ago.

Climbing on the 投17-1

The fog lifted and the temperature finally warmed up during the last twenty minutes or so of the ride. Definitely a route I’m looking forward to doing again in the future. I’ve neglected taking photographs while cycling recently but was quite happy that I brought my camera with me for this route. The whole Supersampler idea didn’t work out. After just six rolls of film the camera’s ripcord film advance mechanism decided to stop working. An interactive map of the route is available on Bikemap.net.

The Fog Lifts and the Sun Makes an Appearance

I’ve got Yellow Fever

Todd Alperovitz — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:09:36 +0000

The G2C R7.1 with SRAM Apex

A couple weekends ago, I met up with Taichung City slickers Michael T. and Drew K. to go shopping for a new bike. After checking out T-Mosaic and a Specialized shop we were off to 185 Warehouse in Dakeng. There I test rode one of their house brand [Generation 2 Cycles (G2C)] bicycles – an aluminum alloy frame with carbon chainstays, fork, and seatpost outfitted with SRAM Apex. I talked to the product manager James Murray, who is one of only six people I’ve ever met in Taiwan that’s taller than me and he told me they had a large frame available, in the color of my choice, and could outfit it with SRAM Apex for under $45,000 NT.

I went to back to 185 Warehouse three days ago with Michael to pick up the new bike. James made some fit adjustments for me and made sure everything was working properly before I left for the 40km ride back to Nantou.

Apex’s 50/34 Crankset and Front Derailleur

The clipless pedals – a set of Crank Brothers were inherited from Drew. I had no trouble getting in and out of them initially until faced with a traffic light with (gasp!) stopped cars and scooters. I got my right foot off the pedal no problem but shifted far too much weight to get the left one off. I made eye contact with a woman with her arms around the waist of her boyfriend on the scooter next to me. She was definitely contemplating putting her hands up to prevent me from falling onto the two of them. Luckily, the left foot came out just in time to catch my fall.

The Apex shifter with DoubleTap technology

I found the improved power transfer geometry of the road bike to be much easier to maintain a speed of 25km/hr than my previous MTB, which would get about 15km/hr at the leisurely rate I was peddling through Taichung City and the municipality formerly known as Dali City.

The Rear Cassette is the first 11-32 on the road

Yesterday, I took the bike out for a test ride up my favorite workout route up to the Pingding Sacred Tree. The route was slightly different than usual, here’s a map of the route on Bikemap. It’s not a long route by any stretch of the imagination, but has some nice scenery, a steep climb, and is void of traffic.

The Pingding Sacred Tree [坪頂神木]

Climbing to the Sacred Tree was a little harder than usual. I did more pedal pushing with the road bike than I am accustomed to with the MTB. I also needed to hop off the bike a couple times to shake out my legs. My body isn’t used to climbing on a road bike and quite frankly – I’m really out of shape.

Off to Nantou City? Or South Jhongliao?

I used to take descents with reckless abandon on the MTB up until Cathy became pregnant with our daughter. Since then, I’ve been riding downhill much more conservatively than before. Monday was no exception on the new bike. I didn’t know how it would handle the curvy descent into North Jhongliao so I mostly kept my hands on the brakes the whole time.

On the 投17-1

Somewhere on the 投17-1 [actually, exactly where I took the picture above], I set one of my CamelBak insulated water bottles down after drinking from it and rode off without it. I drove back after the ride to go look for it but it was long gone.

The Living Lab

I have one major regret about buying the road bike – and that’s that I don’t have any free time on weekdays to ride!

Sunday Cycling – Pingding/Zhongliao [M] Loop

Todd Alperovitz — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:29:56 +0000

This morning I embarked on the same route I cycled last week. This path brought me up to the Pingding Sacred Tree and down through Zhongliao [中寮鄉] on a slightly extended edition of a path I usually take.

Following the painted arrow towards Nantou is my usual route, but I hardly work up a sweat going in that direction anymore.

The gentle curves of Country Road #17:

There are many farms along this rural route, here Longan [龍眼] grow along the side of the road:

Y:

Stopping at Guangfu Elementary School [廣福國民小學] for a brief rest:

And spotting some Jack Fruit [菠蘿蜜] growing behind one of the playground’s basketball hoops:

Here’s a Common Tiger [Danaus genutia (黑脈樺斑蝶)], not to be confused with Danaus chrysippus, or a female Hypolimnas misippus. Those dark bands are a dead giveaway and from several meters away I recognized it and knew I haven’t taken a decent picture of one yet. Here’s the best I could do after an extensive crop after shooting with the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8:

The longest, straight road on the route:

The beautiful and clean Pinglin River [平林溪] below:

The same river, right before the road takes a short climb to County Road #139:

One last shot of Zhongliao before I head into the more developed Nantou City:

And finally, no trip would be complete without a stop to buy some pineapples to take home. The seller doesn’t use any chemicals on his crops so definately stop here if you find yourself in Nantou City and have a craving for pineapples. The stand is located on Nansiang Road [南鄉路] across from house #200:

Here’s a map of the fun:

View Larger Map

Daily Photo – Pingding Sacred Tree

Todd Alperovitz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:25:20 +0000

During Sunday morning’s bike ride.

Saturday Cycling – Tung Blossoms and Baguashan

Todd Alperovitz — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:13:56 +0000

Usually before I go cycling I’ve already decided several days ahead of time where I’ll be going. Today was different. I hadn’t decided where I would be going as I finished breakfast this morning. I got on my bike and headed in the direction of the Pingding Sacred Tree, as there are many choices of routes available once there. I felt a rumbling in my stomach, so turned around to go to the big 7-11 on Zhongzheng Rd. This particular 7-11 rates high in terms of clean restrooms. Had it not been for the unexpected bout of abdominal bloating, I probably would have gone to the Pingding Sacred Tree and come back through Jhongliao like I usually do.

After leaving 7-11 I decided to head in the direction of Baguashan [八卦山]. I entertained the idea of cycling to Changhua and ascending Baguashan from the Giant Buddha Statue one of my six year old students can’t stop talking about.

While cycling along Provincial Road 14 [14丁] it began to rain lightly. Soon however, it began raining heavily. I hid under the awning of an abandoned building and began small talk with an older woman hauling vegetables in a small cart behind her. She pointed up to the sign for the Tiao Shui Ancient Path [挑水古道 (seen at the top of the post)]. A few banners for the 2009 Hakka Tung Blossom Festival [2009客家桐花祭] hung from a few lamp posts. Remembering a news report I saw last night about the Tung Blossoms of Nantou and Yunlin Counties already in bloom, I decided to head up the path [See the map on the lower-righthand corner of the page to see if they are in bloom in your area].

Quickly I discovered that I made a great choice to go this way:

The Tiao Shui Ancient Path is a road leading up to two wells, both 10 meters deep dug at two springs. Although unsure of the year of completion, the path is thought to be at least 100 years old.

If riding your bike up, save enough energy to carry it up the stairs to the top:

The top of the path will take you to County Road #139 [Bagua Road (八卦路)/ Dachang Road (大彰路)] where you’ll be treated to several beautiful rural scenes like this:

If you’re hungry, you may want to stop at Fengshan Temple [鳳山寺]. There are a lot of food stands there catering to the weekend cyclists crowd.

I made a brief stop at Houtanjing [猴探井]…

…to make a panorama of the Changhua Plain:

View the large.

In addition to tea farms, there are also a lot of pineapple farms:

No trip to Baguashan would be complete without a stop to chat with Mr. Huang, the owner of Nantou Red Soil Coffee [南投市紅土咖啡]. I just noticed Mr. Huang and I are sitting in almost exact mirror images of eachother in this picutre:

Here’s the map of today’s fun:

View Larger Map

Friday Cycling – Up Pingding and down along HWY 14

Todd Alperovitz — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:40:17 +0000

For the last couple months any cycling I’ve done has completely been limited to my commute to and from work. This morning, I managed to change this recent streak with a trip along the Caotun Bike Route [草屯鎮自行車道]. The first portion of the trip was up to the Pingding Sacred Tree [坪頂神木]. Usually there are cyclists resting on the benches near the tree. This time I felt lonely being the only one there, so after sitting a couple minutes and a few sips of Super Supau I was on my way.

The road down to Nanpu [南埔] has a handful of Cherry Blossoms [櫻花] in bloom along the way:

I still haven’t gotten a tripometer/speedometer for my bike so I don’t know how fast I went down this hill after I took this picture:

Once down, the bike route takes visitors past several of the area’s farms. Here’s one filled with Rapeseed Flowers:

A very serious racing pigeon operation:

One portion of the route [unlikely marked correctly on the map I made from the trip] takes riders along a narrow path which runs parallel to an irrigation ditch.

The bike path sign points towards this water mill. I assumed I was supposed to keep going past the water mill.

The path continued up to an industrial facility guarded by several [thankfully chained] dogs. The road ended at a long concrete stairwell going down. I went down the stairs without my bike to see if I was going the right way, but the path led to an irrigation ditch. The dogs were still barking loudly in the background. I went back up the stairs and got on my bike again. It seems the only unchained dog had noticed me. He appeared more docile than the others. As I rode past him, he gave chase to me. He was barking and trying to bite my leg as I peddled quickly while the others dogs gave him encouragement. Luckily, he stopped after about fifteen meter chase. After taking a brief stop and checking the view I figured out where I had to be:

The bike route connects to HWY 14, anyone who has been to Sun Moon Lake is probably familiar with the route. But don’t worry, bikers of this route only have to share the busy highway with automobiles along what is probably the most dangerous, steepest section of the road. Seeing the fork to turn at will be the happiest moment of your trip:

Along County Road 6 you’ll see Pinglin Bridge [平林橋]…
and The Twin Dragons Tunnel [雙龍隧道]:

The route follows a few local roads after County Road 6 connects with HWY 14.

There are plenty of farms and interesting old houses along the way:

I crossed the Wu River [烏溪] at Tongxin Bridge [同心橋] and followed the last portion of the trail along Shizhuo Lane [石灼巷]. Here an abandoned car is claimed by nature:

This is the end of the route, the road ends not much further down. It is a very anti-climactic ending to the bike route. The road ends somewhere close to the border with Guoxing Township [國姓鄉]. I mostly followed the same route home, the total distance was about 50 km [30 miles] roundtrip.

Sunday Morning in the Hills

Todd Alperovitz — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:08:43 +0000

The farming community of Nanpu [南埔] on the lowlands while the unmistakable Ninety-Nine Peaks [九九峰] are visible in the center-right [View the large edition of the panorama].

Sunday morning’s weather was gray, cloudy, and drizzling. I headed in the direction of Nanpu because the skies over Baguashan [八卦山] looked a little more threatening. The climb up was the same as the previous visit. Instead of turning off the for the steep bike path down, I continued till my first rest stop – the Pingding Sacred Tree [坪頂神木].

Local governments all over Taiwan are feeding the cycling craze by adding paths and repaving roads like the one above to encourage physical fitness and rake in tourism dollars.

I shared tea and conversation with a group of cyclists resting there. One had recognized me from my morning commute from Jhongsing Village to Caotun.

I took a road that I figured would take me in the general direction of home. On the way, thanks to the weather, I was treated to a lovely view:

View the large.

A small community nestled in the hills:

Shortly after turning left here….

and taking a picture here…

I was passed by this pack of cyclists one last time [I don't know who was following who, they would pass me going uphill but you better believe they were no match for me downhill]:

After seeing this I knew exactly where I was:

You may remember it from this post on Michael Turton’s blog.

It’s trips like this I wish I worked a four-day week:

Soon I came across a sign pointing to Jhongsing Village, down this lovely one-lane mountain road:

There’s Sun Thing Happening here:

It was about 9:15, it’s too bad Sun Thing Happening [陽光的事] wasn’t open yet as this is the only cafe from here to my house [with the exception of a brand new one a block from my house that I've never seen any customers inside] and I was really craving a hot coffee. I don’t know if the coffee is any good, but the name is catchy.

Won’t be taking this road home:

This road had collapsed from heavy rains during a typhoon two months ago. Being outside of Taipei City I am sure this is a low-priority to be fixed.

On the way down a passable road, I stopped by Guanyin Temple [觀音寺]:

These Cherry Blossoms [櫻花] are either very early or very late:
More damage from the previous typhoon, this time on a two-lane road with the sections of road missing about the width of an automobile:

As you can see from the picture below, the damage is far more extensive than the first photo reveals. It will probably be fixed around the same time the next typhoon season begins: