There is “supposed” to be a passable graded road through the mountains that connects the two paved segments of Hwy 14.
Is there, in fact, such a graded road that one could traverse on a Trans-Alp, WeeStrom, or … CPI 250 SX?
It’s dotted on all my maps. I’m sure you could get through on a bike. They make roads bigger don’t they, just expanding what tracks are already there. If it wasn’t passable, how would people in Lu Shan go shopping? They’d have to traverse the island and go to Chang Hua, even though Hualien is only about 30ks away. Go for it!
The route doesn’t go through all the way anymore. Major washouts and landslides. No plans to reopen it afaik. Also, it’s a hiking trail, not a motorbike route. And people aren’t allowed to hike through anymore either.
jaame, this is Taiwan. The landslide capital of the world. Please don’t go suggesting people go places in the remote mountains you know nothing about.
Sorry grandad, you’re right.
I mean, who had that ridiculously dangerous idea of getting in a boat and setting sail into the unknown? Who thought it would be a good idea to climb a mountain? Who thought it would be a good idea to make an aeroplane? What were they thinking, risking their lives in the pursuit of discovery, the fools!
The human desire to explore cannot be stifled by the possibility of danger. If we all stayed at home every time we thought something might be dangerous, we’d still be shitting in a hole and thinking the earth was flat.
If he tries it and it gets too hairy he can always turn round and go back.
I know Taiwanese maps aren’t exactly OS standard, but it’s marked as a road on my maps, not a “hiking trail”.
[quote=“jaame”]Sorry grandad, you’re right.
I mean, who had that ridiculously dangerous idea of getting in a boat and setting sail into the unknown? Who thought it would be a good idea to climb a mountain? Who thought it would be a good idea to make an aeroplane? What were they thinking, risking their lives in the pursuit of discovery, the fools!
The human desire to explore cannot be stifled by the possibility of danger. If we all stayed at home every time we thought something might be dangerous, we’d still be shitting in a hole and thinking the earth was flat.
If he tries it and there’s a landslide, or he slips off that barely-existent goat-trail, he call always call the rescue services out to save his sorry ass, at the expense of the tax payer.[/quote]
Enough of these passive-aggressive digs at people who simply disagree with you. MM thinks you are an idiot and can still be polite to you. It’s a sign of maturity, one that would lend credibility to your positions were you to emulate it.
Please don’t advocate illegal activity here. It’s against the rules. As MM mentions, that track has never been even an unpaved road. I looked into this 20 years ago. It was a pipe-dream of the highways department said to passable by mountain bike if you were able to carry it over some sections. There were parts that might have been passable by motorcycle but being very narrow you’d have a hard time turning around to come back when you got stuck. Residents of Lushan have always gone shopping either in Wushe or Puli and most of them are living there illegally anyway, so they don’t have much voice to demand a road be opened to Hualien for them to use.
As MM mentions, that area is prone to landslides and was hard hit by the 921 earthquake and a couple of typhoons in recent years. A lot of the trail has slid away, to the point where it’s considered even too dangerous to use on foot. They passed a law a few years back to stem the tide of fools that went hiking in the mountains even when typhoon warnings were in place. If you do that now and get stuck up there, you will have to pay the full cost of any rescue effort to extract you, whether you called 911 or not. I’m pretty sure that this law covers users of officially closed trails and roads. So, before you try your cellphone to see if you can be helicoptered out of a ravine, make sure you have your credit card with you.
No-one suggests adventure and discovery are obsolete, and I’d be the first to encourage you to attempt flying around the world in a homemade aircraft or sailing to Guam in a boat made from office supplies. There are however consequences that you must be prepared for regardless of the endeavour. I am not going to suggest any illegal acts on your part, but if it were me that were so keen on exploring this route and learning what was possible, I’d probably try very stealthily hiking it before taking anything with wheels in there.
The forestry bureau had maintained it as a cross island historical trail (have their maps in my bookshelf) but have been discouraging people from crossing for a couple years. I was talking to Richard at Barking Deer a few days ago about the trail, and his face showed it all: nasty. I’m been on some pretty hairy trails with Richard so if he agrees a trail should be closed, and would not even suggest we try it out, then I would follow his advice.
jaame, you are suggesting someone sail into a storm not that they go on an adventure.
Polite or patronising?
Redwagon, do you have a holiday home in Lushan, or perhaps even live there? You seem to know an awful lot about it and its residents.
I am simply saying that if one has an idea, one should chase the dream.
A lot of people on internet forums like to create the impression that they know a lot more about a given subject than is strictly true (including myself admittedly). We all know that saying something you made up on the spot in an eloquent, quasi-intellectual way will fool the majority. Therefore everything read on internet forums, or indeed heard in day to day life, should be taken with a pinch of salt.
What I am saying in response to Maunaloa’s original post is: I don’t know if that road is open or not, but I can see it on my maps and you should go and have a look for yourself. If it were me doing the exploring, I would ride there and see how far I could get. If I encountered a sign which said the road was closed and dangerously unpassable, or a roadblock, or a local person telling me to not go any further, or a place where the road disappeared, I’d turn back no harm done. Common sense should be employed, naturally.
Except in MM’s case, you cheeky git. He makes his living from traveling and hiking all over Taiwan, as does Richard of Barking Deer. Their advice is absolutely spot-on. Yours on the other hand, is just a guaranteed waste of time. 
MM DOES know. Redwagon DOES know. Barking Deer DOES know. You should back down now and let those who actually HAVE a clue give Maunaloa some USEFUL info.
Yep, you’re on the losing end with this one. It’s illegal to ride my motorbikes on hiking trails, there are lots of other roads you can ride your bike on.
[quote=“jaame”]Polite or patronising?
[/quote]Even patronizing isn’t against the rules here. “Grandad” is a slur to a person you know to be far short of those years. Insulting those who disagree does nothing to improve your argument and it’s against the rules.
[quote=“jaame”]
Redwagon, do you have a holiday home in Lushan, or perhaps even live there? You seem to know an awful lot about it and its residents.
[/quote]I used to visit there very often. When I was first in Taiwan I used to try and ride every farm road and trail in Taichung, Miaoli and Nantou counties on a dirtbike. Later I used to jump off Yunlong bridge, just before Lushan, once or twice a month. Lushan has been in the news several times in recent years due to flooding, landslides, earthquake damage, erosion, land rights, relocation and other issues. It gets a lot of coverage in the mainstream press, among ecologists etc. It isn’t hard to find out what’s going on down there.
What you are suggesting is a little like setting off an open ocean voyage in a kayak, on a day that a quick look at a weather forecast was likely to produce a storm. More misguided than heroic.
I’ll let Sandman’s response answer this one.
[quote=“jaame”]
What I am saying in response to Maunaloa’s original post is: I don’t know if that road is open or not, but I can see it on my maps and you should go and have a look for yourself. If it were me doing the exploring, I would ride there and see how far I could get. If I encountered a sign which said the road was closed and dangerously unpassable, or a roadblock, or a local person telling me to not go any further, or a place where the road disappeared, I’d turn back no harm done. Common sense should be employed, naturally.[/quote]
A quick look at the transport ministry’s website will explain the road conditions to you very succinctly. It’s already been explained to you that what you are looking on the map is a footpath, a hiking trail that not even the aboriginals use any longer. There is no road listed even by the highways ministry. They used to, on older maps, show a dotted line which meant they were planning to build a road there. That idea got dropped several years ago and current maps show the reality, a footpath or trail. If you’re stubborn enough to try riding a motorcycle on a footpath, even though that’s illegal, then I guess no-one can stop you. If you pull off a crossing I’ll be the first to congratulate you on this amazing feat. Just be wary of sending others off on adventures on paths you yourself admit you nothing about.
Here are some pics of that road:
barking-deer.com/nengaocrossisland.htm
Mind you on the east side it is a road up to the power plant and then a narrow farm track until it all falls into disrepair and despair. Gorgeous valley it runs through, like a wild Taroko Gorge.
Lets elect him to be our representative on this challenging crossing. Everyone pitch in 100nt 
Just for fun, jaame, here’s a pic of Richard and I crossing the third such washout on a trail that the national park thought was still safe enough to leave open. Gives you a sense of where the bar is set.
My curiosity was aroused because Googlemaps terrain view showed “road” vs. “trail” (the link in my OP). From the ground level pix, it’s clearly a hiking trail, not single-track, and in addition to washouts, there are unguyed sapling suspension bridges… too much “adventure”, as in risk of losing the moto (with owner) in a ravine, for my taste. I wouldn’t even walk a moto across that bridge, even unloaded. Nothing like repeated unloading and reloading to deflate a ride. As Richard of B.D. promotes (I assume his URL is current), the “gap in Hwy 14” is mountain-bike singletrack (“most” of the way, washouts some of the way).
Dude! Are you a pussy or what? Anyone with an ounce of spunk could ride that on a motorbike! You could even get some decent air on that lip in front of Mucha Man in the pic.
Yeah, I could ride that washout on my SYM. What was I thinking??? … and that bridge would only be fun in a strong wind.
I suggest going the day after a typhoon to spice up the adventure a bit.
I suggest going the day after a typhoon to spice up the adventure a bit.[/quote]
Maybe you could also strap on some explosives, blindfold yourself and go across backwards. That would fox EVERYBODY. Including me.