Taiwu Trails (泰武)

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Ride Start:

22.589302, 120.664680

Date:

2017 Aug 17

Ride Info

I had originally planned to explore the Wan’an area across the river, but ran into a little obstacle…

There were some rocks placed to even out the dips in those things, but I wasn’t in the mood to try and cross – especially alone. Figured I’d come back another day when they rebuild the crossing. No big loss.

A 30 minute ride later brought me to the Beidawushan 北大武山 trail head. It’s been a while since I’d been out here. I was hoping they would rebuild the road that was destroyed, but alas…

22.615399, 120.702587

A few years back I explored the trails starting just off the edge of Tai wu buluo 泰武部落 (according to the sign at the entrance). I didn’t GPS my rides, so figured I’d go back there again. Start is here: 22.589285, 120.664653

The ride wasn’t terribly interesting last time. So I wasn’t expecting much. But what I didn’t really expect was a rock slide.

Yeah, I went down… 😳 

It must have happened recently. I met a farmer out there who said they’re going to clear it soon. He lives just beyond the rock slide. He told me there was another way around. I just needed to go back towards a house in the distance and I’d find the trail. Wherever that trail is, I couldn’t find it. The day was looking to be a bust in my eyes.

There wasn’t much else to do but head back and explore some smaller trails I had seen on the way in. One in particular looked promising. Sorry, no picture… 22.596019, 120.666915

The trail goes a bit and you end up in this clearing…22.597497 120.654250

There’s some farmland off to the side, but not much else. Looks like a great place to drink some beers and have a bonfire if you ask me. 🙂

At this point I figure I’m done. Nothing left to explore. But then…on my way out I saw this seriously overgrown trail. It obviously hasn’t been used in a while. Probably a rock-slide somewhere along the way. But what the hell, why not give it a try?

I didn’t take a picture of the entrance, but it looked a little worse than this

Most of the way was dirt trail with some ancient, broken concrete in places. It was slow going most of the way. The trail was filled with plenty of ruts; some of the pretty deep. It was wet and muddy in some places – and the spider webs didn’t help. I eventually only stopped to clear the Golden Silk-orb Weaver spiders. At any rate…I was having fun!

I was still pretty worried it would abruptly end and I would have to turn around. Going back up would be quite the task. One I didn’t want to think about. Luckily, after about 45 minutes of this, the trail started to get larger and looked traveled. Seeing tire tracks gave me some relief. So I stopped to eat and replenish my fluids.

Now to the good stuff. Before I got here I saw another trail leading somewhere. My best guess would be to an old farm building. I saw something around there in google’s satellite view. And after this spot there were several places where the trail broke off into different directions. I believe one of them goes to Wan’an. The route I took led me to a tiny village at the foot of the mountains near a military base, here: 22.610916, 120.632611

I plan to go back to that village on my next ride to explore these trails more. Going up should be a nice challenge. Will report back in another post!

Notes

• I wouldn’t try the second half of this ride unless your bike has full knobby tires.
• If you don’t like spiders, don’t do the second half
• Once they clear that rock-slide in the first half of the ride, there’s a good deal more riding to do beyond.

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