The Long and Hilly Road: The first 200 miles.
Well….Where do I begin? I haven’t made a post since just before we left Beijing, so there’s a lot of catching up to do. Unfortunately I’m very tired after completing a strenuous 70 miles today (and over 200 total for the trip so far), so I’ll have to keep this relatively brief…But the good news is, we have finally reached our first break day in Chengde, so there are definitely more posts to come as everyone has their own individual stories to tell. I’m going to try to give a brief recap of our first 4 days on the road, put up some pics for everyone to check out, and then get a long, much-needed rest. So here we go…
We left Beijing on Monday, which was a National holiday here in China. The weather was beautiful (90+ and sunny) and spirits were high, despite the very little sleep we got the night before. Our fearless guide, Doven Lu, showed up at our hotel at 9am and we got on the road by 10…
The Man Zou Team
At 11:00am, I had my first accident…no joke. We came up to a light on the outskirts of the city and I couldn’t get out of my peddle and down I went. I had just put a mirror on my bike (to be able to see cars approaching from behind), which was destroyed in the accident…Not exactly the best way to start the adventure.
My first, and hopefully last accident.
Within a few hours we were out of town and the landscape quickly transformed from urban to rural. Everything was going great until we hit “the mountain.” It was seriously intense. After a few miles of climbing, I completely ran out of gas and had to stop as the heat, weight on the bicycles, lack of sleep, and the seemingly endless mountain ahead collectively broke me down….I couldn’t believe it: the first day and I was unable to go any further….But after a long rest with Sean and Doven on the side of the road, we walked our bicycles for another 1/2 hour before deciding to stop at a “Holiday Inn” on the side of the mountain.
This was no ordinary Holiday Inn, however…Apparently in China, this is what they call a house with extra rooms and the ability to cook a warm meal. Anyhow, we were treated with care and we all slept well (other than being awoken to the sounds of walnuts being swept up at 5am, just outside of our rooms).
During breakfast, we made the decision to get rid of the front two bags on our biycles and 1/2 of our gear. The weight we were carrying was just too much…I guess the mountain taught us that lesson right off the bat. So we organized all of our gear and Doven told us he would arrange to send everything ahead to Shanghai…The only thing was, we had to finish climbing with everything because we had to ride to the next town that had a post office…So needless to say, Day 2 began with a bang…The great thing about climbing mountains, however, is the incredible downhills that await on the other side…Somehow it all seems worth it when you’re going 30mph down the hill, looking out over the beautiful mountains of Northeastern China.
One small section of "The Mountains" we have been riding through.
When we got to the bottom, we immediately went to the first town and happily sent away all our unnecessary items. The rest of day 2 is kind of a blur…Lots more mountains and grueling terrain, but beautiful the entire way. Check out the pic of us at one of the tallest peaks we climbed:
Riding up mountains on bicycles makes you sweat.
We decided to stop after 46 miles of hard riding, just before dark and a massive thunder/lighting storm that hit that night. The next day we awoke early to try to make up some ground and get to our next destination, Simatai. Here’s a pic of Sean, Kevin, and Doven….about to hit the road for another long day:
Another day...Will there be more mountains?
Day 3 was much more reasonable riding terrain, but just as scenic. We cycled hard to get to our destination of Simatai, with a beautiful view of the Great Wall. We took some time there to relax and enjoy the scenery (and shoot our daily interviews) over a couple of beers.
We turn the cameras on Cinematographer Ian Connors for his first interview ever...Up on the hill, you can see the Great Wall.
Day 4 we pushed it really hard, going over 70 miles (and only a few mountains!). Unfortunately, one of Sean’s spokes broke and we had to negotiate a ride with the locals in a small village as his bike wasn’t rideable (more to come about this experience tomorrow). The good news, however, was that we were able to put all of our bags into the car with Sean and we were able to cycle much faster (which ultimately enabled us to get to our destination tonight). And now, alas…our first rest day.
Anyhow, that’s all I got for now…Time to go to bed…More to come soon.
Thanks again to all our sponsors and Man Zou!
Reidster getting checked out by one of the locals on a break.
