Connecting the gap in Hwy 14

Funk’s got it, rather that would “coyote everybody”. A Wily E. Coyote deal.

Edited to add 3D.

Meep, meep. :cactus:

We hiked this route from the east side up to the central ridge about 18 months ago. Went with an enquiring mind about mountain biking it coast-to-coast later at some point. If the landslide pictured is on the east side and predates 2008, then I know the one. The locals had put a side route around the slide, so you didn’t have to cross, but it’s a steep up and down diversion, and wouldn’t be much fun to haul a mtn bike over. Straightforward hiking though.

From the ridge, the west side looked a fine singletrack ride down, although we didn’t hike it.

jaame gets hit unnecessarily hard in this thread. He’s wrong about the motorbike, but hey - just another victim of taiwanese cartography.

A lot has happened in the past 18 months. A year ago I hiked across Yushan National Park on the South Section II. A year before that on the Batongguan. Neither can be hiked now and likely won’t be for years to come.

Last spring I drove the South Cross. I never will again.

Typhoon Morakot changed many areas forever. You should know that. You should also know that its destruction is not over. A lot of areas are just literally hanging in there until the next heavy rainfall.

Oh, I do know all that, have no fear. That’s why I made clear that I hiked it 18 mths ago - got no idea as to the trail’s current state. That Morakot hey, what was it thinking of?

If I need directions I’m not asking jaame “he can always turn round and go back” lol

Is it that bad? I thought it was just a washed out bridge on the Taitung side. Is it closed indefinitely ala the Central? How much of the South Cross is still open?

I missed out on taking it during my moto trip last summer before Morakot…I got bored with camping alone and headed back north after crisscrossing the mountains down to Chiayi. I regret that decision now.

It’s closed between Xiangyang and Yakou. The section just above the Yakou Shanzhuang and the tunnel is closed because of a landslide that keeps getting bigger. And the east entrance to the tunnel is buried.

I’ve hiked the 14 from west to east about five years ago. You needed a guide but it wasn’t too bad. There were some pretty major slides though that required major detour. I’m sure its a lot worse now. There is no way you could ride a motorcycle through there.

Some maps also show planned roads from Yuli across to Kaohsiung Co. and from Wanrong to Nantou. Fortunately, those will never be built.

Well, in the case of Taiwan it is probably a good thing that the cost of tunnel boring has gotten cheaper than building pass roads and then maintaining them. The mountains are largely piles of shale rather than what we think of as rock, so they are very prone to damage, and not just to the roads themselves. I do like how the lack of a road will keep all but a tiny handful of people out of the mountains, and that there is somewhere safe from hordes of tourists and the inevitable garbage and noise. Somehow it makes the island bigger.
What I think is a shame is that pass road construction everywhere will stop, as one of my favorite pastimes is to ride them. I’m saddened to know that there will probably never be another pass road built over the Alps. :cry:

[quote=“redwagon”][quote=“Feiren”]

What I think is a shame is that pass road construction everywhere will stop, as one of my favorite pastimes is to ride them. I’m saddened to know that there will probably never be another pass road built over the Alps. :cry:[/quote][/quote]

I hear you. I secretly think that the closed No. 8 should be re-opened exclusively for cyclists. And the Nanheng. OK, we could let a few hikers in as long as they didn’t complain about us flying down at 50kph.

[quote=“Feiren”]
I hear you. I secretly think that the closed No. 8 should be re-opened exclusively for cyclists. And the Nanheng. OK, we could let a few hikers in as long as they didn’t complain about us flying down at 50kph.[/quote]
Well, that’s unlikely. There might be a hope for reopening to unpowered vehicles but you know how that will go. A track that is safe for the average cyclist (read: incompetent trendies with an overriding sense of entitlement) is wide and flat enough for a scooter. You know what comes next. Good luck asking for wheeled-only access. Hikers have rights too. Next thing you know you have scooters, bicycles and hikers on the path… mayhem.

Passing a signed path to the Cioliou Falls above Yanchao (Kaoashiung County) with a couple of Taiwannettes, I got them to enquire of the locals. “Very dangerous, would need a guide”, etc.

“Yeh, yeh” I thought, since in most non-remote areas of developed countries around the world an officially signed path is going to be grandmother-friendly.

Went back on my own later and, though only a few k, it was indeed a bit hairy, with overgrown “Knife edged” ridge paths, steep descents, and a few slides, though mostly protected by rather ancient fixed ropes. Pools at the falls were nice.

Went back after Morakot and I could not find a single trace of it. Part of that will probably be the typhoons destruction, but I suspect a team has been in to erase the remains and remove the fixed ropes, so as to avoid the need for rescues. If that’s what happened I’d guess a lot of paths around Taiwan will have been similarly decommissioned.

Its still signed in Yanchao though :unamused: