For those of you who have never been in the MOUNTAINS

The number 7 cross island highway…part of it anyway. Along with some good techno…which doesn’t really match the backdrop…but whatever.

This will appear full screen in your browser…you can make the picturer “clearer” by making your browser window smaller.
number 7 Cross Island Highway: youtube.com/v/cmI_cjOXs9o

Get the Doom style motion sickness watching that, my screen refresh rate must be too slow.

Try riding it…I was sick for almost 3 hours afterwards.

I’ve done the stretch all the way from Ilan county to Sanxia … at night … frightening and sickening for the people that get car sick :smiley: I think it’s like 80 Km of curves

Oh, glad its not just me then. Does anyone else get sick playing Doom, Duke Nukem type games?

I get sick riding a motorbike…which is pretty bad. But not from video games…I play them all the time too.

Nice one Mordeth, Never done the cross island roads. They look quite narrow in parts, or is that a reasult of the editing/fast forward?

HG

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Nice one Mordeth, Never done the cross island roads. They look quite narrow in parts, or is that a reasult of the editing/fast forward?

HG[/quote]

Nope not the editing…it’s narrow as hell. Two cars aren’t usually able to pass during a corner. One will have to back up to the nearest straight so the other car can get by. Narrow.

That’s just an oxymoron.
Still, nice video.
You’ve got balls taking the corners like that.
I’d be worried about getting smoked by a blue truck.

Here’s another one for you guys…again the picture will look better if you make your browser window smaller.

This is the number 118 which connects the 3 and the 7: youtube.com/v/Q_6YH0G2AHc

it’s my favorite stretch of road, the number 7. I think I have gone up it (sometimes just to Baling) maybe 10 times this year so far… :slight_smile:
I took my Dad up there last weeked, I was on the Hartford, he was on the Vino 125. Started out reasonably sedate, but by the time we got home the tires were smoking.

I also love this ride. I usually make this my first leg of a camping trip. Try it and as you reach the intersection of 7 North/South with 7 East/West, go back West about 1/2 K. It used to be a house at the side of the road but last year, it had been made into a roadside Temple. There is a cement road going down the hill beside the “Temple” Take it. A few years ago, the riverside was sand and lots of good camping sites but a storm 2 years ago wiped the beaches out. However, they have now built a walking bridge over the river to a couple houses on the other side. You can ride the scoot across and stay to the right on the other side. Go slow and dont piss off the locals. Go upstream about 1/2 K to the end of the trail. Walk down the path to the river. At the river’s edge is great swimming and if you walk downstream over the boulders in wetter months you find a very secluded and awesome private hotspring that, until now, few knew about. It is a pisspot in the summer but in the fall and winter, it is a fantastic place to spend a night. Take a bottle and watch the stars. I have spent some great evenings there with nary a single intruder. If that spring is a bit dry, you might wander over the boulders a bit further downstream to a more open - in-stream spa. It is not developed with rocks built up to surrond it but the water is warm and welcome. I sure miss the sandy beaches below to pitch my tent but - hell. If you scoot South on North/South 7 about 20 k, you will cross a bridge with a bunch of tea kettles as adornments. On the South side of the bridge is a newer building that is a tea house and roadside hotel. They also have a nice park like setting for a tent. I usually pay 200 for a night but they dont charge me for the 2d night if I decide to stay. Damn fine folks, those. And the river and hotspring is hard to beat.
Don’t tell anyone.
Enjoy

BTW, If you travel this stretch of road West to East, make sure you fill your fuel at Baling? I dont recall the name of the last town but you will run short if you arnt careful. The last station at the last town is just before you start down a god-aweful grade. Others may know the name of the town. There is an intersection at the top just before the decline. You MUST fill up there just to the left of the intersectin before you start down the grade. Hell, just take an extra litter (and a spare drive belt in your kit) It’s a bitch to be out of fuel on this lonely and secluded stretch of road. I used to leave an extra litter hidden in the brush before the flood 2 years ago but I don’t know what to suggest now other than to take a water jug extra of fuel and be aware that fuel stations are far and few apart.

The village is called FuXing, Enigma. It’s where the OK store is at the top of the hill, right?

I can’t believe they are still doing roadworks in that tunnel, Mordeth.

God, I love riding swoopy roads in the mountains.

Actually, I found both videos a little boring. Where were the bicycles, 50cc motorcycles, 3 wheel carts, water buffalo pulling honey wagons, people threshing rice or drying veggies on the road, and kamakaze buses that inhabited these roads when I drove them in the 1960"s??

Aha. Progress. It was a lot more fun with all the obstacles. :laughing:

[quote=“Shin-Gua”]
Aha. Progress. It was a lot more fun with all the obstacles. :laughing:[/quote]

Maybe, but it’s a lot more “fast” without. :wink:

[quote=“Dangermouse”]The village is called Fuxing, Enigma. It’s where the OK store is at the top of the hill, right?
[/quote]
Absolutely correct. And unless someone has put in a station at Baling, you wont find another fuel stop for about 90% of a tank of gas. You CAN NOT get back to Fuxing from N/S 7. There is a station North on N/S 7 about 20 k up the road. If you fill up at Fuxing, you will have enough to make it to that station but not much more.

[quote=“Enigma”][quote=“Dangermouse”]The village is called Fuxing, Enigma. It’s where the OK store is at the top of the hill, right?
[/quote]
Absolutely correct. And unless someone has put in a station at Baling, you wont find another fuel stop for about 90% of a tank of gas. You CAN NOT get back to Fuxing from N/S 7. There is a station North on N/S 7 about 20 k up the road. If you fill up at Fuxing, you will have enough to make it to that station but not much more.[/quote]

Goodness, what do you have for a gas tank…A coke bottle?

Fill up at Fushing, and it’s about 80km to the next filling station, which would be on the Ilan side about 5km toward Ilan on the 7 after coming out of Beihen in Chilan.

Also, FYI there is emergency fuel in every village on the way up. You’ll pay out the nose, but it’s better than walking. About 50NT per liter last time I checked.

You’ll never have to worry about running out of fuel. Even on the most remote mountain roads, every village with more than 10 people will have a barrel or two of fuel laying around. We’ve done it lots of times, and it’s always fun when it’s the 70 year old toothless aboriginal Granny who’s sucking fuel out of a 55 gallon drum for you.

You don’t seriously think the locals up there only rely on few and far between gas stations do you? :wink:

Sorry Shin-Gua, just saw your post. It hasn’t been that long since all of the things you mentioned have gone by the wayside. When I first started going up in 87, all of the things you mentioned were still there in abundance.

And the kamikaze buses are still here. You should have been with me on the 9 down to Hualien the weekend before last. On that first big 90 degree sweeping turn coming out of Suao, I came around on the bike only to find both a gravel truck and a bus coming straight at me on my side of the road.

Don’t worry, Taiwan riding is still an adventure…Haven’t seen any water buffalo pulling carts for years though. Don’t forget Dangermouse got knocked off a mountain while riding his motorcycle by a rockslide last year, for me thats about as wild as it gets. :notworthy:

Thanks MJB;
I get to the station with about 1/4 tank on my 125. I wasn’t aware of the emergency fills but always thought that I could probably find some fuel in Baling if I was desparate. I might also mention that the station on N/S 7 that you mention has been closed if I get there too early or too late. At least that was the case last year.