Route

06 Dec 2013
Sticky Post By Posted in 2011 Summer, Amdo, China, Kham, Kham Tibet, Landscape Photography, Photography, Photos, Print Sales, Qinghai, Route, Sichuan, Tibet, Western China With No Comments Permalink

New Print Available

Sticky Post By On December 6, 2013 With No Comments

On January 21 2014 I board an airplane for Dhaka. From there I will be working on another self-funded project. During my off days of working I plan on doing some motorbike trips around the country on a local bike. At this present moment, I don’t want to give away too much information but the planning is in the works.

There is a new print listed on Etsy and all profits will help go to the funding of this trip. A perfect holiday gift for anyone that’s lived on the road, or needs inspiration for 2014. I just can’t bare to do another Kicstarter at this moment, or rather, save it for something I’ve got brewing up on the back burner.

Happy holidays everyone, and I hope to get the rest of the Uzbek writing completed as I anxiously await my new China Work Visa. It’s been a very consuming process. Special love and thanks to those that have helped me with it, whether mailing items or allowing me floor space to sleep as I had to exit China to resolve the matter. New strict regulations. I guess if it was easy to obtain, everyone would have one. And of course, why should I expect anything “easy” or simple, ever.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/171865510/a-very-windy-road-along-the-border-of?

wandercyclist_5013

29 Jan 2012
Sticky Post By Posted in China, Photography, Photos, Route, Western China, Xinjiang With 22 Comments Permalink

December 7 2011 – Fukang to Nowhere (10hrs of riding for 20km West)

Sticky Post By On January 29, 2012 With 22 Comments

Highpoint: Not falling in the icy river as I bash my triple outer ring against rocks and upon moving it off seeing remainders of the aluminum glittering on the rock (will file 2 teeth upon arrival to Urumqi).

Lowpoint: Pushing the bike up a 10km iced/snow pass to a dead end – oops! Wrong way! Then another 10 back (slipping) down.

Tomorrow’s Banana: Arriving in Urumqi (Although I should of arrived today.)

The weather is mild in the beginning and I decide to take a small back road to Urumqi…heading South and over some mountains. There is a disconnect on the map, but come on…I’m sure there is some way to get there. Right?

It’s a steady uphill ride along closed mountain vacation spots. If you saw the video I posted a few weeks back of the “Xinjiang Traffic Jam” of the shepherd and his flock – this was the day.

Weather begins to turn as I climb and around 3ish I’ve lost all blue skies and everything is freezing.

That was the last town I pass and the road ends at a drying up river. Well, it’s a river bed with about 2 dozen different water flow paths. I can see the road on the other side so I try to pass by jumping from rock to rock. If I fall in, I’m F*&ked…SERIOUSLY.

WHAM!!! The outer crank wheel collides onto a stone. As I’m balancing on stones, trying to get the bike…shit, I don’t even know what I was doing…just not trying to fall over into the freezing water. I made it out about 5 meters before I just realized this was completely stupid.

I back track…there has got to be a road. Earlier I had seen a cowboy cross the river on his horse and a motorcycle. Going back to there I find a little path to get me across.

Riding Kham and U-Tsang trained me really well at crossing streams, rivers and glacier melt. The first time I tried crossing water, those frozen feet taught me never to just STOP ever again. If the weather is nice and I’m concerned about the photo gear…I’ll take the shoes and socks off to cross.

After crossing and looking back.

This is the point where I’m starting to question where I am. Maps and compass and I’m still having some doubts. I should of asked the people in the town BEFORE crossing the water. Whatever, I’ll keep going on.

The ridge on the other side is speckled with homes and there is a part of me that thinks I should of not crossed the river bed. I’m not sure why I do this but I’m pretty sure I convinced myself that this way would get me to where I’m going.

Ok. Very little tracks in the road. Some villages and homes. Some shepherds. This bike is getting pushed through this range. All 10km or so of it!

I keep looking to right and see the villages on the other side on the ridge. I’m going deeper and deeper and pass another village.

Ending up on the side of a mountain with not a lot of hope ahead, I walk 3km without the bike and just a compass to figure out what the hell is going on. This newly dug up road is not taking me SW.

Try the other road 1 km back. I end up in a little valley and I know for sure this is wrong, there is no way to continue on. I go back to the last village.

I see two men and I remove my glasses and hat and let them know I’m a foreigner. They show me where I am. I have to return to the village on the other side of the water. I’m on the wrong side! (Ha! Ironic when I just wrote a post about never doubt a babe’s navigation/map reading skills. Well, this time I goofed!)

Down the mountain I’m slipping all over the place and nearly land flat on my butt a couple of times.

Damn you water…I have to cross AGAIN!

It’s near 5:30 and I only have about 2 hours MAX of daylight. There is no where to stay here and it’s freezing. I would freeze to death up here…I have to get somewhere so as soon as I get back across the water it’s a race to somewhere.

I talk to a Kazakh man at the village about where I’m going and where I’m coming from. Explaining I want that small road to Urumqi. He tells me the road is too difficult and long and that I need to return to Fukang. He points to the ridge when talking about the small road I’m looking for. Sure…okay…I’m NOT returning to Fukang and ride back up the hill to look for the small road.

With my luck…I see an empty coal truck come along and he takes these tire tracks that I would of NEVER seen if he hadn’t came along. There comes another truck and he takes the same route.

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS…FOLLOW THE COAL TRUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am racing light now…as I follow the tracks behind the empty coal trucks.

After a few km I’m on a “road”? Let me just say, imagine what a road would be like in the mountains that only coal trucks take…there, that’s the description.

It’s getting cold and dark…and colder. I’m starting to worry and look for somewhere to set up camp. Not just out, but abandoned buildings or hideaways under the road.

It’s all coal mining out here and I begin to go down the pass at sunset. I pass a coal mine with little concrete, abandoned, building across the road. Shit! Someone sees me and is watching. I want to set up camp in that building but it’s not going to work. The empty coal trucks go to the west, I see loaded trucks coming towards me. Continue to follow the loaded coal trucks.

It’s dark and I’m going down a nasty road. Bouncing everywhere, skidding in loose stones, avoiding the ditches and trenches. Hands are frozen and feet are freezing.

This goes on for a couple of hours, it’s pitch black.

Around 9:30, after about 2 hours in the dark…I hit tarmac. Relief. I have no idea where I am or what way to go. I’m at a fork. Which way shall I go. There is traffic coming from the North…okay…I guess this is the way I go.

EVERYTHING is frozen on my bike. I have to take extra care…she whines every time I touch the brakes and luckily my chosen route is down down down. Smooth tarmac and shading my eyes every time a car passes to keep my shitty night vision.

Around 10:30 I arrive to a little side of the highway stop…thank god. I ask a shop keeper about zhusu and she directs me. Find a nice quaint and warm place on the second floor. We lock my bike up on the first floor that has a massive pot-belly coal burning stove. My poor bike is so frozen and is crying to me for a cleaning.

I really really thought I was going to freeze tonight. Honestly. It goes down as one of the top 10 worst rides. 1-Cold 2-Lost 3-Dark 4-Frozen Bike 5-Anticipated hitting Urumqi to only take a long way around to get a very short distance from Fukang. I only got 20km West of my morning starting point…after riding in the mountains for over 10 hours! Idiot!!!!!! Masochist!!!!!!!!!!!

Scarf down noodles downstairs while the little boy practices his English along with a video on the tv.

Yeah, I was kind of worried about losing my fingers tonight. I still have all 10…because, well, if I lose one or two…how will I transmit my stories!!!!!

Waking up in the middle night soaking in sweat, wiping it from the back of my neck than I get down to my undies. Which, obviously I wasn’t thinking straight because that is a big no no in these types of places. Gross. Someone send me a home TB test!

24 Dec 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in China, Friends, Route, Scary Moments, Sichuan, Western China, Xinjiang With No Comments Permalink

Xinjiang route dedicated to Masato, a friend/cyclist, hit by a car

Sticky Post By On December 24, 2011 With No Comments

July 2011
It was near the border of Yunnan and Sichuan, I had taken a back road from Zhongdian…it was where I lived with the nomadic milkmaids, and I was on the side of the road snacking.

I was beat. It had been constant climbing…a steady incline…and needless to say I had lost, then found broken, my only pair of prescription eyeglasses. Luckily I had a pair of sunglasses but can be inconvenient at sunset and after…that’s another story of how I toured China with no eyeglasses for 2 weeks. As I sat on the side of the smooth tarmac without another soul in site I see a loaded cyclist.

You have to be kidding me!

His name is Masato (Japanese) and he had been living in Chengdu and was touring Western China. He could speak almost perfect English and his Mandarin was quite good too.

We decided to meet at the next town to rest after exchanging phone no.’s. He was headed to a park/Mountain…I think it being called Yading. I decided to go there to after chatting with him.

I found myself on a mountain pass and the wind was strong, the sign said around 4700m, and the sun was setting. To make a story short: he texts me letting me know he is down the mountain and found a luguan. I’m trying to get over this pass and before I know it I’m descending 10km in blackness with no eyeglasses…and I’m freezing. I don’t stop to dress because I’m racing to get to the bottom because of vision problems.

Anyhow, Masato and I stay at the same hostel for 2 days, then travel to the Mountain Park together with a group of Koreans…we all become quick friends. Masato and I stay together at the hostel, as we ran away from the Korean snore’er. We stayed one more day at the original hostel and he left 1 day before I to head to Litang.

On the way to Litang, I met 3 Chinese cyclists coming from Litang. They told me they had met Masato and he had lost his hat. I assumed they meant his helmet and that was such a pity. Masato and I still communicate via
SMS. In Litang, after I met the infamous Brandon Wallace, and we went to a little restaurant together…one of the locals thats famous with the foreigners told me he met Masato and he had lost his knit cap – not his helmet.

Masato and I reunited briefly again in Kanding, where this photo was taken.

Anyhow, Masato headed to Chengdu and then to Xining then onto Xinjiang. You readers know that Brandon and I headed to the land of awesome.

When I was in Tibet, I got a message from Masato. He was in the hospital and had been hit by a car on the way to Kashgar. He was recovering from surgery and would have to return to Japan. I just received an email from him telling me his back has been broken and has metal plates. He told me the police informed him a Uyghur man hit him and did stop to help take care of the matter – thank goodness. The roads out here, and in Inner Mongolia, go on and on and on and very straight at times. So, people do not practice safe driving out here.

I want to say that not a day goes by on the road that I don’t think of Masato. Thoughts of Masato also reminds me to stay off main thoroughfares. I may get lost, or add days to my tour without real km progress, but…I’ll take my time to prevent my possible death…

So to YOU…MASATO…my Xinjiang route is for you, my friend. Get well soon and I wish you a speedy recovering.

07 Oct 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Bicycle, Break Time, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Route, Western China, Wind With 2 Comments Permalink

I’m Sorry, I May Have Lied…to myself.

Sticky Post By On October 7, 2011 With 2 Comments

Upon the turnback in Tibet and reaching my mileage goal (Which is a funny story. I thought I had told everyone it was 15,000 miles, so there was no celebration but more feelings of defeat) I was pretty set on resting the bike and getting a backpack for Xinjiang and the K’stans…because, well, winter is upon us.

If you don’t know anything about Xinjiang, it has 2 seasons…summer and winter. It’s famous for it’s wind and sand storms, i.e. blowing a train car of the tracks and I heard a story of a British cyclist being killed in a wind storm taking the Southern Route of the Silk Road (NW Qinghai) in no mans land.

Well, I have 2 weeks until I set off. In the meantime I’m getting a TB and Hep test…as I’m still physically not up to par. They recommend people that hangout with homeless people get tested. I WAS living on dirt floors with nomads. Also, TB kills a lot of people in Asia and Africa. I had a lot of Tibetans coughing near me, on me, snotty nosed kids sneezing and their mucous getting on me, or mixing my tsampa with their bare hands. (They also don’t use toilet paper)

Also, I’m having new wheels built, my repaired Brooks saddle is on it’s way from England, and…I bought replacement handlebars. The Soma Sparrow 560mm.

The idea of hitchhiking around Xinjiang is exciting because it’s different and the idea of walking around without worries of my bike getting stolen OR broken…is great. BUT, the idea of being in an automobile passing by nomads and locals…tears my heart apart. Also, I don’t have my get-away ride anymore and it’s a little more difficult to go meandering through open’ness or getting up mountains. The photos people love, and I love, are taken from when I was solo and invited in with people. Being in a car, bus…that’s not going to happen…or maybe it will?

I’ll be monitoring the weather conditions every day and there is a storm coming in, maybe I just stay put. Whether on bike or foot. My Work Visa doesn’t expire until Jan 28th, so in all reality…I could spend winter in Xinjiang, head into Kyrgyzstan (Jan 27th) and be in Kazakhstan in early March (that’s close enough to Spring to not freeze, right?).

I’m hoping someone out there, in cyber world, can offer some advice or wisdom…or an answer will come to me from the heavens.

In the meantime, I hope you take a look at the photographs for sale…I really really need some winter gear. Or you could mail me your old stuff.

Godspeed.

05 Mar 2011
Sticky Post By Posted in Photography, Photos, Route, Taiwan With 10 Comments Permalink

Day 6: Beinan to Kenting 第六天：卑南到墾厅

Sticky Post By On March 5, 2011 With 10 Comments

At this point the days are starting to merge into one another. All this mountain riding and lack of human interaction really causes things all to become a blur. We powered through to Kenting and the wind coming from the South was killer. Arrived by late afternoon and that was awesome…a long day of rest.

Breakfast is always my favorite part of the day when touring.




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