The Conquering of Wulai to Yilan

Today began part 2 of the Conquering of Wulai to Yilan (Tonghou Trail).  2 weeks ago we attempted this journey but only made it to the trail head after a long 20km uphill bike ride followed by a large thunder storm which forced us back the way we came (turns out this was probably the best thing that could have happened).

We all met at 10:30am at Gonguan MRT station.  There were a dozen of us (I think).  Jeremy had arranged a truck to transport all of our bikes to the trail head where we were forced to turn back.

After 3/4 of an hour on the public bus, we reached Wulai.  We grabbed some food and grabbed a taxi to take us up to the trail head.  The combined cost of the truck and taxi was $10 each.  Amazing deal.

The truck driver had mistakenly unloaded all of the bikes 10km short of the actual trail head that we wanted to be dropped off.  He almost drove off but we told him this was the wrong place so he loaded all the bikes back into the truck.  At this point we also met up with Samantha.  She had ridden here on her own from Xindian (I think).

View from the police checkpoint.  Taiwanese have to register but locals don't have to

I'm guessing that highlighted trail is the road from Wulai to where we were.

A local making tea by the riverside at the trail head.

Unloading the bikes.  The taxi ride to this trail head took 45 minutes.  I was amazed at how far we'd biked the last time we were here!

The trail meanders alongside the river for the majority of the trail, making for some beautiful scenery.

The start of the trail.  Flat and an easy ride.  Good times.  That's Samantha taking the picture on the right.

Damien, Evan, Chandra, and Jeremy stop for a photo op.

There were patches of blue sky but thankfully the sun wasn't beating down like last weeks bike ride.  It was still really hot and huimd, but not burning hot.  Maybe 28-30 degrees?  Hard to tell because I was drenched in sweat.

Our first river crossing after maybe a few km.  There were large cement conduit things that allowed us to cross without getting wet.  It was a preview of things to come.

this might be a good spot for a group photo before it rains... (it usually dumps rain around 2-4 pm every day for half an hour or so)

Left to Right: Me, Chandra, Evan, Steve, Jeremy, Damien, Debbie, Ratesh, Maxime

beautiful trail

large waterfall on the right was tossing water onto the constructed path

Second river crossing.  Luckily some rocks had been built up and we were able to cross without removing our shoes and getting wet.

Maybe an hour into the hike.  Middle of nowhere.  Love it.

You can see Maxime riding on the right along the path.

Taka's pedal on his bike broke about a quarter of the way in.  crap!  not a deal breaker fortunately

loved Damien's shirt.

Another spot for a break and some snacks waiting for the group to regroup after some tough uphill bike & hike.  Thanks mom for the Humpty Dumpty snacks!  I finally got around to eating them.  Really hit the spot and I was able to barter some away for almonds.

Now the uphill started to get real.  This was a good 100 or so steps up some pretty steep hill.  Not possible to push the bike.  Carrying was the only option.

A few steps had path to the right to push our bikes.

Re-filled my water bottle here.  It's fairly safe because we are almost near the top of the mountain so we can be pretty sure the water is clean.  My water bottle also has a built in water filter which does a great job and takes some of my paranoia away.

Our first river crossing where it was not possible to cross without getting our feet wet.  Maxime took it to a new level.

It was refreshing to take off our shoes and get our feet wet!  The water was cool but not too cold.  Under the jungle foliage it was really humid so this was a refreshing break!

Scenic like a movie

The start of one of the more particularly difficult parts of the hike.  It's difficult to see, but there's a rope along the trail and the trail is only about a foot wide.  Not so difficult to walk, but a real pain with bikes!

full screen panoramic

The adventure continues trying to get everyone's bikes across this narrow bit of trail

one of my favourite photos from the trip.  The tree canopy and the river here were stunning

We've started to really ascend towards the top.  It looks nice but it was backed by some pretty rough hike & bike "climbing"

We had a little bit of a break here because unfortunately Debbie slipped and put a pretty good sized gash into her leg just below her knee.  It was wrapped up and she did a great job of still moving onwards despite I'm sure a very painful leg.

Injury number 2.  Not sure about the details of how it happened but Samantha ended up hitting her face against something and it smashed her left front tooth up into her gums about 7mm (good size).  She had a great attitude about it and kept smiling but I'm sure she's visited a dentist by now.  I'm thinking she'll have to get a new tooth made.  I've had a similar tooth accident and I think it comforted her knowing that my teeth were fake, and you couldn't tell.

We've cleared the summit!  The trail started to head down.  It was quite narrow here and the grass was really overgrowing the trail but it felt amazing stepping out of the jungle and into this open air along the valley.

exhausted and my glasses fogging!

Ended up half riding half walking down this trail.  It was too narrow to really ride safely.  You could easily teeter off to the side and go down a pretty far ways.

I think that's Deb on the right with the white shirt, and you can barely see Damien (black dot) along the path further down towards the "v" in the hills

If you zoom on this pic, you might be able to see half of the group crossing the river down there.  After that river was the beginning of the easier half of the trip!

oh there we go.  a more zoomed in version.

Shoe removal was required for this portion.  Some people had sandals and didn't have to remove their shoes.  I was thinking of bringing my sandals but there's a bit heavy and I didn't want to have the extra weight on my back.  My shoes were absolutely soaking the last ride and it didn't bother me so I thought if it happened again I didn't really care.

It's me!  Stole this pic from Jeremy's facebook.

As we left the river crossing, the mist really started to come in fast.  By this time it was 5:30pm.  It's completely dark by 6:30pm so we thought we'd rush the last 5km to the bus station (or so we thought...)

A small parking lot at the trail head from the East Coast side.  It felt like we were going to enter an alternate dimension with the thick fog making it really difficult to see.

A few km later and we were still going downhill.  It was getting dark quickly and people started activating their lights.  Only about half the people had front headlights.

Getting dark really fast

Jeremy ended up getting a flat tyre at probably the worst possible time/place (middle of nowhere, at night fall).

The first sign of electricity and light, we pulled over so that Jeremy could patch his tyre properly and so we could figure out what we wanted to do because we were still in the middle of know where.

We thought Yilan was only 5km away but after riding for over 5km we could see that were were still a ways away from the city.  At least7km.  I checked my GPS and we were in the middle of nowhere.  No roads plotted on the map.

This place we stopped at was a sort of camping/resort place.

After speaking with this woman, they agree'd to help escort us down the hill.  We wanted to pay them but they refused.  Really great hospitality.

Because of Debbie's hurt leg, she piled into the back of this quad with her bike.

Here we go!  It was around 7:30pm by this time

We made it!  After following the quad for 20 or so minutes we made it to proper pavement (it had all be gravel/rocks previously).  Now that we had street lights we could do the rest of the trip without our escort.

Civilization!  You know you're back in town when you got a 7-11 :)

Left to right: Taka, Maxime, Chandra, Debbie, Steve, Damien, Evan, John, Samantha, me

Welcome to Yilan!

The bike ride from the base of the mountain into town was great.  Slightly sloping down hill pavement.  So easy to ride, no traffic, and a cool breeze.  We passed by a farm and I could smell the pleasant aroma of chicken coops.  Reminded me of Chilliwack.

We arrived at the Yilan Bus Stop at 9pm.  After a bit of a hassle with the tickets we waited for about 1.5 hours to catch our bus.  We could only bring 2-3 bikes per each bus so it took 5 bus trips to get everyone back to Taipei.  Luckily the bus ran every 10-15 minutes.  I rode back with Chandra and Steve on the 3rd bus.  During the 1.5 hour wait we went to "Two Pecks".  A place known for their deep fried Taiwanese fast food.  I ordered 4 chicken "pies" to split with Damien, Jeremy, and Steve (aka Ji Pai - large chicken breast filet deep fried with crispy coating).

Fortunately with this bus, everyone gets a seat.  I felt bad for the people in front of us because I'm sure we smelt RANK.

Because everyone arrived back in Taipei spread out over an hour, I ended up biking hom from Taipei 101 (another 10km).  Some of the guys met up for food afterwards but it was already past midnight and I had work in the morning.  SO I didn't have any other pictures so I thought I'd just apply this corny photo filter on this group photo!   Another amazing biking adventure.  Unforgettable and I thank everyone who made it possible.