Taiwan:

1. Rock pixie forest trail: (Sha Li Xian Lin Dao) Real jungle, real monkies, real dirt, real speed, all just a short hop from Dong Pu hot springs. Take the bus from Taichung to Shui Li and change buses there to a bus to Dong Pu. total 3 hrs by bus either spend a night soaking in a hot spring in a hotel there or go into the jungle and camp.

It’s all uphill to Ali Shan and the track joins Hwy 21 at 136km marker 37km from Ali Shan. You could also take the bus to Jia Yi and then take a bus to Ali Shan and it’d be downhill all the way home. The track entrance is on a sharp corner 200m after Dong Pu tunnel on hwy 21 if you’re coming down from Ali Shan.

The trail is really steep in parts, it’s rocky at the top but gets becomes a smoother and faster dirt trail with a couple of jumps at the bottom, nothing technical good one if your more into the jungle experience than technical riding. MAybe only 10km in toatla offroad but the jungle is really nice. Unless you hate carrying gear take a tent and camp.

2. White Hair Mountain Forest Trail.(Bai Mao Shan Lin Dao)

A 20km off road ride on a beautiful forest fire track just 8km from the main Taichung - Puli road, take a bus towards Puli get off at Guo Xing and ride to the trail head.

November is the month for the cycle trips, but sometimes you don’t have to travel miles to find adventure.

Stephen is perhaps the only person I know who cycles the whole way on all trips no matter what the distance. He led the hard core crew of JD, Marie, Travis Jane and Neil on bike from Taichung through Da Kun, along small country lanes over the first range of mountains to the East and onto Leng Tian near KuKuang where Highway 8 the central cross island highway and Highway 21 meet. Highway 21 runs north to south towards Puli and Sun Moon Lake, but first it crosses a mountain pass of about 1000m.

Being the complete reverse of Stephen I take a bus to the trail no matter how close it may be, so along with the other slackers Roland and Ping we headed for the Taichung - Puli bus station down on Shuang Shi road along from the train station. Of course being truly slack we were running over an hour late; 10′o clock comes early for some.
Packing the bikes in bike bags we boarded the Puli bus and slept the hour-long trip to Guo Hsing, the town the other side of the pass.

Jane sent a text message just after we boarded the bus that they had arrived at Tian Leng on time and were headed up to the pass where we were to meet. While the hard-core crew were reaching the pass, we the slackers on the other side of the mountain were just arriving in Guo Xing and arranging for Ping to hitch to the top because we were afraid that she would hold us back even more, we were later to find that our fears were misplaced.

"…I did the slackers mountain climbing trick by hanging on at the open window…"

Surprisingly for Taiwan where hitching usually takes about 1 minute we had to wait a while, perhaps two people on bikes and a girl with enormous luggage is not an appealing sight for a prospective chauffeur. So we left her with instructions to get to the pass, Roland and I head off up the hill. She eventually scammed a lift and as she passed by I did the slackers mountain climbing trick by hanging on at the open window, I eventually let go because I felt a little guilty leaving Roland to pedal up alone.

What with a broken chain and broken brakes we were pretty slow and it wasn’t long before Ping and the gang zoomed by on their way back down the mountain, fed up waiting for us at the top no doubt they had decided to do the trail in reverse starting at the bottom.

"…really useful things like food and alcohol."

Joining up as one group for the first time we rode together for all of four km along the trail before we camped by the river, luckily for the slack crew the others knew how to make a fire and had really useful things like food and alcohol.

In the morning with Stephen organising the trip up the mountain then back to Taichung, I was looking for recruits for the slack group. My sneaky plan was to ride up to the top without packs and then come back down again and take the bus home. It sounded too easy for some and Travis and Jane were takers.

Riding bikes half the weight without packs up the steep rocky track was a great opportunity to race JD, Marie, Neal and Stephen still carrying their packs, I didn’t miss the opportunity to race by them making comments about how easy the climb was, then stopping to let them catch up so I could do it again.

Our original plan was to go as one group all the way around the loop back to the road about twenty km, then we would double back to get our packs before heading down to get the bus. However as the slackers led the packers Ping decided to carry on ahead while we waited for the others to catch up. Having given her my XtC NRS to ride as I was test riding the Expedition NRS which is a fantastic bike by the way, she was a new woman and even though we were only a couple of minutes taking photos noone could catch her and she missed the turnoff towards the road heading up to the closer temple at the top of the hill. So we had no choice but to take the easier route, disappointment weighed heavy on us as we headed up to the temple for a big noodle lunch and a long rest.

"…overlooking a picturesque pine forested valley."

Temples in Taiwan are fantastic places and at this place the details of which like the name I obviously didn’t bother to make a note of, is a classic example. Run by a very friendly old lady it’s set overlooking a picturesque pine forested valley. There are two dorms very definitely split male and female but free to stay in. We offered money for the huge meal we were given we were told that it was fate that we had arrived here so of course the vegetarian food was for free. We did however make a contribution to the moneybox for the gods.
Ping showed me how to pray for fortune good fortune; I may have got this wrong because I didn’t listen very carefully but I understand that first you make a wish then throw two pieces of wood on the floor, they have a flat front side and a curved back side. If they land one face down the other on face up three times then you take a stick from a box full of them which will direct you to a box with instructions on what you need to do for the wish to come true, seems much more fun than the church I used to go to in England.

"…I wished that I would become the most important man in the world…"

So I being a sudden convert to Taoism I wished that I would become the most important man in the world and everyone would listen and agree with what I said. I took the two pieces of wood and threw them once, one up, one down ¡K.. was it going to happen for me??¡K..another time and again one up one down, I always knew I would be important one day¡K..one last time and¡K.both face down. I lost my faith as quickly as it came and gave up. Ping told me I could make another wish and try again; I couldn’t be bothered.

"…the downhill always makes the uphill worthwhile."

So off we went down the hill, booming down that rocky track on a full suspension bike is one of the best buzzes you can have, skidding around corners gripping on for dear life as the wheels slide across the rocky surface, taking jumps at speed getting air and feeling your stomach hit your throat, the downhill always makes the uphill worthwhile.

Ping now obviously feeling totally in control with a different type of XtC working for her unfortunately OD’ed and had a fall. She took it well and was back on in a jiffy. Actually falling off and the pain it entails is what makes biking one of the most exciting sports around, knowing that mistakes hurt means taking it to the limit means more than in safer sports.

Picking up the packs at the bottom and heading back to Taichung by bus we heard that the track to the road had been washed away in the Typhoon and the others had had to backtrack and once back at the road hitched a truck to the top of the pass before freewheeling into Taichung¡K..bloody slackers!