Ninety-Nine Peaks [九九峰)], view the large.

On Saturday, I went with Da-xiang, a family friend to the hot springs of Taichung County’s Guguan [谷關].  The first part of our journey was spent on HWY 14, which will probably be much more pleasurable to cycle on once the monstrous HWY 6 is completed giving motorists a faster option to Sun Moon Lake.

I don’t know how all the strawberry fields, betelnut stands, and cafes will cope with less traffic coming through.

We continued on HWY 14 until turning off to head towards central Guoxing [國姓].

It was shortly after taking the picture below that we had entered Taichung County:

If you look very closely, about a third from the left, near the top of the mountain, you may be able see a white house:  That’s the goal, after that it’s mostly downhill until the relaxing ascent to Guguan.

Here’s a picture taken near the top, the road below is the one we traveled up.  It was starting to get hot during this unseasonably warm February.

This was the only picture I stopped to take during the journey down.  I took it because you can see Shuei Mountain[雪山] in the background.

After stopping for lunch at a restaurant that had more flies than customers [and that’s not counting the two sheets of fly paper on the table behind us with no extra space for flies to stick on], we were back on the road heading towards Guguan along part of the Central Cross-Island Highway [中部橫貫公路], passing farms and great scenery along the way:

There’s a handful of suspended pedestrian bridges in the area, too.  This is part of the Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area [參山國家風景區].


Stopping for a break, before the final stretch to Guguan:

After riding for about 75 km, Da-xiang and I met up with his wife, Cathy, her sister, and mother at Guguan.  They drove up there and arrived about an hour earlier than us.  After a brief rest and a couple refreshments it was time to soak in the hot springs.

We went to the Yidou Japanese-style Outdoor Hot Springs [伊豆日式露天溫泉].  The resort has seperate baths for men and women, but private baths and rooms are also available.  This was my first hot spring experience [which is outlandish considering I worked in Beitou for 2 years].   After one trip, I’m already sold on hot springs.  While relaxing in the springs I didn’t feel like I had just spent half a day on a bicycle.

Here’s a map of the route we took: