Panniers Full of Kindness
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Clockwise from top left: Wet and wonderful, Keelung City; a humbling perspective of Taroko Gorge — that waterfall is over 75 feet high; fueling up on dumplings in Taipei; the Taroko Gorge is best cycled on a low-traffic day; Tamsui District, New Taipei City; an urban bike path in Taichung City; Kat soaking up the beauty of the Taroko Gorge; Zushi Temple (Taoist); temple dragon, Zhongpu Township. TAIWANPanniers Full of Kindness KAT AND I HAD BEEN PEDALING the breeze shifted and magnificent story by Willie Weir all day in low gears, our loaded touring peaks appeared. The mist-filled valleys bikes making slow, slow progress. The below us glowed orange with the setting climb up into Taiwan’s Yushan National sun. We jumped up on some boulders photos by Willie Weir & Park stretched 28 miles with nary a and watched the most incredible sunset Kat Marriner downhill. display I’ve seen in all my years of And now, after pedaling and sweating travel. At one point the mist shot up for the whole day, it appeared Mother like a geyser from below, obscuring Nature would play a cruel joke. The everything. And then two minutes later, clouds moved in, obscuring the view we it cleared and the mountains around us had worked so hard for. burned orange-red again. We were both on the verge of Perfect timing. Absolutely, bonking, and the air at 8,000 feet was stunningly, memorably perfect. cold enough to send shivers down An hour later, we were bedded down our sweat-soaked bodies. Sunset in our tent with the calls of monkeys approached. The area was described as and birds as the soundtrack for our a roiling cloud forest, and true to form, dreams. 18 ADVENTURE CYCLIST AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017 ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 19 Most of our bike travels have been and “spectacular.” I had the feeling step they must pass was sleeping on the spontaneous. We would land at an “spectacular” was code for “insanely bed with her son. That way she would airport and wing it from there. difficult.” I was right. know they were ready to be adopted by But Taiwan was different. Our initial We flew into Taipei and spent a families with kids. interest in the country wasn’t about few days wandering around the city. She drove us up into the mountains cycling at all — it was dogs. Our adopted Taipei’s public transportation system where we visited a “no kill” shelter dog, Tiva, had been rescued from a is awesome, and we used it to travel that housed over 500 dogs. There were garbage dump in the city of Taichung, with our bikes through the city to the dogs of all shapes and sizes, mostly Taiwan. Her breed was listed as a Xindian District, where we met Mary Formosan Mountain Dogs, with other Formosan Mountain Dog. Christine Choi, breeds mixed in. Some dogs were Mountain Dog? I thought Taiwan a tireless missing paws or legs (often from traps). was just an overcrowded island overrun Most were black. Mary looked by industry. Oh, and I thought it was through the enormous pack, flat. taking notes and searching for Keelung Taiwan has 286 mountain summits City dogs most likely to be adopted over 3,000 meters! That should be fun. if she brought them home We decided to make Taiwan our next Taipei for training and socialization. touring destination. Kat made some T But it breaks her heart that connections and arrangements to visit I it’s impossible for her to work A people in Taiwan who were involved R Toufen City hard enough and long enough in rescuing dogs, and we both T to place every dog with a S looked into routes. family. Most cyclists do a loop N Taroko We left Mary’s place and A Taichung City Gorge A around the island. Riding E contacted Andrew, who had W around Taiwan has become I S already made some adjustments to a rite of passage for many A Hualien City our route knowing that we would E locals. The 2006 movie T be visiting another dog rescuer in N Sun Moon Y Island Etude, directed by Lake E I the city of Toufen. L Chen Huai-en, about a L P This became a pattern that made A P V young hearing-impaired I for a wonderful (and physically Yushan musician who cycles L challenging) trip. Andrew loves the T National Park I F around the island, I mountains and the small, lonely roads, S H R O captured the hearts P but dog rescue organizations are mostly and imaginations of U T in the cities. So rather than take the Tainan S countless Taiwanese. T A direct, flatter, faster route between City E There is now signed H Taitung City cities and our next dog connection, Cycle Route No. 1 (600 C Drew would route us via his favorite miles) that is on many a H mountain climbs. A I A S I bucket list. N This gave us a unique “best of” tour That had looked A CHINA AREA of Taiwan. If we had stayed up in the ENLARGED like our probable S mountains our entire trip, my knees E route until we bumped A would have blown up and Kat would into a cycling friend in our have divorced me. Taiwan’s cities are Seattle neighborhood. During large and crowded, but completely our conversation with Ryan, we 0 20 40 60 mi bikeable. You need to spend time in mentioned our upcoming trip to 0 25 50 75 km both to truly experience Taiwan. Taiwan. We finally met Andrew and his “You need to talk with my cousin family in person in Taichung, an ROBERTSON JAMIE MAP: Andrew,” Ryan said. “I think he’s cycled industrial city of 2.7 million people, every road on the island.” champion of abandoned dogs where we also attended a dog adoption He wasn’t exaggerating. Andrew (marysdoggies.org). event. Andrew has the classic look of Kerslake has lived and worked in Mary began rescuing the stray an alpine cyclist — slender, sinewy, and Taiwan for over 20 years. An avid dogs in the hills where she lived. She without an ounce of fat on him. His cyclist and historian, he maintains a spent weeks and months gaining their bike is the same. I think it weighs less blog, Taiwan in Cycles (taiwanincycles. confidence — feeding them, training than my handlebar bag. He and a friend blogspot.com). We contacted him them, getting them veterinary care, escorted us out of the city on backroads and he soon sent us three GPS and housing them in her residential and tiny paths along rice fields. routes labeled “easy,” “moderate,” home turned rescue kennel. The final It’s easy to assume that, with a 20 ADVENTURE CYCLIST AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017 population of 23.5 million on an island not much bigger than Canada’s Vancouver Island (population 750,000), all the roads would be crowded. But the vast majority of Taiwan’s population lives in the cities. And per capita motor vehicle ownership in Taiwan is much lower than in the U.S. (32 per 100 inhabitants in Taiwan, 80 per 100 in the U.S.). This leaves many of the small mountain roads with little to no traffic. It was slow climbing on our fully loaded bikes, but our friends were graciously patient. Around 2:00 pm, we all stopped for coffee and snacks at 7-Eleven (Taiwan has more than 5,000 of them) and then parted ways. Andrew and Domenic looped back to Taichung while Kat and I continued up into the mountains. Hours later, exhausted, we pulled into a small village and went to the NUTS & BOLTS Taiwan police department to ask about camping. A friendly officer got on INFORMATION something cheaper, you’ll but you can get by without his scooter and escorted us to a Taiwan in Cycles be wrong (like we were) and one. campground (closed), a school (no one (taiwanincycles.blogspot. find yourself back at the available), and finally a local temple, com). This is Andrew airport. CHECK OUT YOUR ROUTES where we were invited to stay. Kerslake’s site. It is a wealth Taiwan’s cellular networks Google Maps has Taiwan We laid out our sleeping bags in of information, from routes are amazing. The two main massively covered down to to history to culture. Want to carriers are Taiwan Mobile “street view.” If you want to an empty classroom when we heard know about taking your bike and Chungwha. Choose check out the awesome, tiny, loud music and drums. It was a group on trains in Taiwan? Andrew Chungwha if you plan to well-paved backroads before of young men. There was some sort of has you covered. cycle the remote mountain you go, surf on over. ceremony going on. An older, bare- roads. chested man repeatedly shouted (and COMMUNICATION THE TAROKO GORGE occasionally laughed maniacally) at a This is going to be hard ACCOMMODATIONS As in so many things in life, young boy. to believe, but trust me, There are plenty of hotels, it’s about timing. If you want We had no idea what was going on so Taiwan’s best cell phone deal guesthouses, and Airbnbs in to pedal Taroko Gorge, make we texted Andrew (whom we were by is at the airport. Visitors can Taiwan (especially if you are sure to avoid weekends and now referring to as “Drewpedia”). purchase a SIM card with planning to cycle the popular holidays.