Litang, Sichuan, China

We just got to Litang. We camped in a yak pasture last night at 11,400 feet. It rained quite a bit and dropped a little snow in the mountains. I didn't sleep well cause my throat hurt. I need some vitamins or something. Finding fruit is nearly impossible. Actually, finding lunch doesn't even work anymore. We see maybe one or two towns a day.

Each day gets more and more epic than the last. We keep climbing up higher and higher passes and the weather keeps getting colder. One day we dropped to about 9,400 but then got right back up to 14,960. That day was hard. We didn't hit the summit until 6 pm. It gets dark about 7:30 or so. But even when the days are hard they end up cool. We finished that day with 15 km of downhill into a cool little Tibetan town. All the houses are huge and are made of large stones and look like castles. It was bizarre rolling into it.

One day Spencer got a couple of flat tires, so while we were waiting Kyle walked into some small village to find us some food. We got invited into someone's 'house' and they made us greasy french fries (kind of) with yak milk. Yak milk tastes even worse that it sounds. It's really salty. This house was very ornate and very dirty at the same time. We ate in a huge room that had several seating areas, a tv, a wood burning stove, and colorful columns supporting the ceiling. There was maybe one window and 15 different colors of bright paint.

Tibet is open for tourists, but you have to have a tour permit and have a guide with you. So it doesn't work with bikes. This year, for the first time in a long time, the Chinese government, in their infinite communist wisdom, closed off several provinces and Tibetan portions of several other provinces (which kills the tourist industry for these towns). These happen to be the provinces we want to go through. We were told by several travelers that we wouldn't be able to get into Sichuan where we wanted to, because it is a Tibetan region of Sichuan. Websites, travel forums, the Chinese government, all told us we couldn't. But then we did. So we're illegally here, I guess, but we keep running into cops and they don't seem to mind. Today we hit up a checkpoint and the guard told us that when we hit Litang we needed to go east. We said ok. But we'll go north. We were stopped by a cop in Litang, he wanted to check our visas and that was it. North it is.

We camp as often as we can, because it's cheaper and more fun. Ok, most hotels only cost about $2.50 per night, but it adds up. Lately we climb all day long and then get a descent at the end of the day and end up in a town. Since we don't ever get lunch, we eat dinner and then it's just easier to stay in a hotel. I end up showering once every 3 or 4 days.


They draw on their mountains, just like in Utah. Except their language looks more dangerous.

A little 'girl' (I think....) sitting on her great great great great grandfathers lap in that house where they fed us lunch. Old people here look so old. But they wear it well. Especially the men, they have such cool style.

Kyle riding across a bridge.

I realize this shot is getting old, but we keep getting higher and higher.

In a hotel in 'Castletown' after a very long cold day.

Spencer and I swam in this river. I think it was around 13,000 feet. It was cold.

Our hotel in 'Castletown'.

Kyle.

Spencer and Kyle pulling up to our yak pasture campsite.

My bicycle.

Tibetan prayer flags are everywhere.

Pictures of Northern Yunnan

The first pass of the day is in the background center. You can see the road, and it looks flat, but it isn't.

Our first campfire.

We see these 'Gompa's' everywhere.

The highest I've ever been. 13,600 feet.

The village we descended to and stayed at the hot springs. That is part of the gravel road on the top right of the picture.

Summit shot.

We' re not in Tibet, but we're in the Tibetan region of Sichuan, so all the people are Tibetan. Their righting looks like daggers and their houses are huge white buildings. And the people are beautiful.

Xianchian....maybe....

We crossed from Yunan province into Sichuan province. We hit a checkpoint about 140 km before the border, they checked us and let us through. They had to have known where we were going, there aren't any other roads to turn off on. Then today we hit another checkpoint by a police station and nobody was around so we ducked under it and here we are. We're still a little skeptical that we're in it for good, but we're really hoping. None of us have any desire to go back the way we came. We climbed up and over 3 or 4 or 5 insanley huge passes. We went up over 13,000 a few times. It was all gravel road and the descents were bumpy and slow and not the usual payoff that a descent offers.

We had our first campfire the day we left Shangri-la. We tried to buy some fire wood off some local guy, but he just gave it to us.

Yesterday was the hardest day we've had. I jacked up our breakfast order. Everyone ordered soup, but I ordered an omelette with tomoato and onion (which is very common), but instead they gave all of us omelette soup. Fried egg with tomato and onion in water. I'm not a fan, and I'm no longer allowed to order breakfast. Then we climbed for about 7 hours straight on a gravel road. We'd hit a pass, which always have tibetan prayer flags strung everywhere with incredibly gorgeous views of rocky peaks, and then descend a little only to climb again. We didn't find food at all during the day. I finished off my chips ahoy from wal-mart (I'm really good at budgeting good foods) and ate a ton of candy. We then had a bumpy 1 hour descent into a town where the only dinner we could find was a cup of noodles. We did get to stay at a hot spring, which was nice, but it was a very exhausting day.

The altitude hasn't been affecting me too bad. I had a headache one night, but I slept it off. We're gaining and losing so much in a day, but never staying terribly high. We just dropped below 10,000 feet for the first time in 4 days, but I'm sure we'll get up and over that again very soon.

Seeing Todd at the Tiger Leaping Gorge and talking about running made me really miss it. While riding up these mountain passes all day long I stare at the ridges and really wish I had the time or energy to run them. Alot of the mountains yesterday reminded me of the Chugach mountains in Anchorage. Grassy rocky tops with the tree line quite low and maybe a little snow on the north side. I love those mountains.

Zhondjian

We're right now in Zhondjian, or Shangri-la as the Chinese are wont to change names of cities at their slightest whim. There is a restaurant here in town which makes fantastic french toast, and they quit serving breakfast in 30 min, so this will be short....

After leaving the Tiger Leaping Gorge we climbed like crazy and topped out around 11,000 feet. Everything is more beautiful from this elevation.



Spencer helping thrash wheat heading out of Dali. They pile it in the road and let the trucks and Spencer do the work for them...

Myself, Kyle, and Spencer looking at our first big mountains.

Spencer at our campground by the river.

Me in the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

A Chinese bathroom.

Myself and Todd, random friend I ran into in the middle of China.

Us at the end of the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Angelina from France, Kyle, Breckan and Spencer at the guesthouse in the gorge.

Kyle climbing towards Zhondjian (Shangrila).

Me looking down on the road we climbed up.

3000 meters. The first 60 km of this day was uphill. We climbed nearly 2000 meters that day. The scenery at 10,000 ft is fantastic. This was probably one of the prettiest days I've had. I pity those who cycle tour in southeast asia and don't get into the high mountains. This feels like the start of the trip I've wanted.

The women in this area where these huge hats. We see a ton of women dressed in traditional clothing. It's beautiful. They're a very beautiful people these Tibetan Chinese. We guessed this woman was 450 years old, give or take 150 years. Her great great great great great great grandson made us ramen.

Spencer.

We passed this wedding couple several times on the highway. At first they were taking pictures in traditional white dress, then later we saw them again and they were decked out in this.

Tiger! Leaping! Gorge!

We just spent two days hiking the Tiger! Leaping! Gorge! We felt the name was awesome enough to warrant a exclamation point at the end of each word. The place is pretty beautiful. My camera won't work on this computer, so I'll post pictures when I can.

We dropped our bikes off at the bottom and hiked into the gorge carrying only a warm layer of clothes. There are guesthouses all along the trail so we didn't have to carry food or water. Snickers bars were a dollar, but I still bought a lot of them. It's not that we don't find plenty of food here. It's easy to find. And it's typically good. But I don't ever crave anything that I eat here, so I never feel satisfied. It's irritating. And it's easy to talk about all the food we love and miss back home. What I wouldn't give for some wings right now....

The gorge was fantastically beautiful. There were tall rocky mountain tops all over the place with a beautiful river at the bottom. The trail, very surprisingly, had very little trash on it. Alot of the locals have horses which they try to rent out to hikers. So the men with horses walk behind the old people, stopping when they stop, just waiting for them to give in and get a ride. There was some uphill, but it wasn't bad. I don't have mountain legs anymore, but we all did just fine.

Every summer in Alaska my good friend RLD sets up what he calls the Quintessential Alaska Adventure Running series. It's a week worth of running classic routes in Alaska, and it is super cool. RLD does a fantastic job setting this up. Two years ago when I did the Chugach Front 5000ers and the Winner Creek High Country routes I met this guy from Denver named Todd. Todd was a really nice, super tough guy and we ran together for about 34 hours that week. It was a memorable few days in the mountains with beautiful weather and good company and is one of the coolest things I've ever done. Two days ago when we got to the Tea Horse Guesthouse on the trail for the Tiger! Leaping! Gorge! we were sitting around eating, Spencer was talking to some American's who are 6 months into a year long world tour, Kyle was talking to some Brits, and Breckan and I were playing rummy (she was killing me). In walked this guy and this girl, and I said to Breckan that that guy looked familiar. She brushed it off, and probably hoped I wouldn't say anything because those conversations always end awkwardly. But I asked anyway because he looked so familiar, and it was him. He's only in China for about a 10 days or so, but we hung out that night and then hiked for about 3 hours the next day. It was really random and really fun. Good seeing you Todd.

The route we're planning on taking up through China is kind of closed to tourists right now. We're lacking some information, and it should be opening up soon. So we're crossing our fingers that we can keep on with our plans. Otherwise we're going to have to head further east than any of us want to.

The big dipper in southern China is upside down. It's presumably the same in Thailand but I don't remember seeing it, so I can't be sure...

It's been getting colder the higher up into the mountains we go. We've been hanging out at about 6,500 feet and have been putting on jackets and pants at night. I love the cold, so I'm not complaining.

Dali - Day Two

We found Kyle this morning. We knew he was close, but didn't know when it would happen. We were eating breakfast at a German woman's bakery (I had real blue cheese and several different orders of homemade bread, it was fantastic) and Kyle rode past. So we're going to stay in town for lunch so he can rest a bit, he's been pushing it hard, and then we'll ride out this afternoon.

Dad asked how we were going to get to India, how we would get around the mountains. We originally wanted to go through Tibet, but it isn't open to individual travelers, so we're going to go through northern China. We'll be in China for a long time. The next country we enter will be Kyrgyzstan or Kazakstan or something like that.

Mom asked if I get sore. Not really. Some mornings I wake up and my legs are a little sore, but not too bad. And it usually goes away once I start riding. My legs usually feel worse after a rest day than after a day of riding. My lower back hurts sometimes during the day if we do a lot of climbing. But it's never too bad to complain about. I think maybe I can adjust the tilt of my seat and that may change it a little, as in I'm using my back to keep myself on the back of my seat (maybe I'm making this all up, but it kind of feels like it might make a little sense). But I like the seat tilted the way it is because it helps keep my nards from falling asleep. Which really is more disconcerting than uncomfortable. So I prefer the back pain....My knees feel great. My stomach has been treating me well.

I really can't think of a better way to travel. Hot air balloons look fun for about 5 min., buses and trains zip past too many cool things, cars keep you confined to your personal space (how can you really experience a new culture when stuck in your own space?) and walking is way too inefficient. Besides, bike rides are fun.

Dali

We're in Dali, China. It's a backpackers paradise, complete with guys who say 'bro' and 'solid' alot, and tell us that they are 'here studying' 'oh, there's a university?' 'yeah, but i'm studying tai-che and martial arts'. They're all idiots. There are also a lot of chinese tourists. I've never seen so many fanny packs. It is a pretty town, and since it caters to tourists we can find stuff like pizza and cheese. So we took the day off and ate pizza and we're about to go get some cheese.

This morning on our way here we saw a Wal-Mart. We couldn't believe it. I'm not a big fan myself, I think I've been in Wal-Mart 4 times in the last 2 years (including today). Before we got inside we saw about 45 old women line dancing in the parking lot. I think the Chinese do Wal-Mart better than American's. I bought Chips Ahoy cookies, pringles and a snickers.

Getting into Dali we finally got a glimpse of some big mountains. Really big mountains. They're just west of town and they tower over the city. They make the Wasatch look like kiddie hills. We're excited to get up in them.

The chinese hawk loogies alot. I don't see them spitting too often, but they make that hawking sound very regularly. Enough so that I notice it, alot.

It's getting chilly in the evenings. I haven't had to pull out a coat yet, but maybe a long sleeve and some pants. I only have one pair of pants, so I just have to hope it doesn't rain while it's cold. So far so good....

Day 15 - Ning Er

At least I think we're in a town called Ning Er. It's all very confusing. A town that used to be called Simao is now Pu Er. And the town we're in used to be called Pu Er but now it is something like Ning Er.

We only did about 60 km today. We had planned on jumping on a bus this morning because China is ridiculously huge and we can only renew our 30 day visa once. But we missed the bus and didn't want to wait 9 hours for the next, so we'll try again in the morning, in the town we rode to today.

The food has been good to us. There are never any menu's to order from. We walk into the kitchen and point to what vegetables and meats we want. They always cook in wok's and it's always very very oily. But it's almost always really good. I crave salty alot more than I can satisfy, but we've been finding good ice cream. So it balances out.

The Chinese attitude toward the bathroom is strange. Little kids don't wear diapers, they wear pants with a split down the crouch and up their bottom so when they have to go, thier parents just hold them in a squatting position and let it happen. On the street corner by a garbage can. In front of the house. Sitting inside the bus station waiting for a bus. Whenever the kid needs to go they just let it happen. And I've mentioned before my newfound preference for the squatter. I really like them. But China has taken a very good idea and made it really disgusting. They don't give any water to flush and it's not so much a hole in the ground as it is a ramp. And with no water to wash it down and nobody feeling the need to ever clean one, you can imagine what they are like. I'm pretty sure I can hold it in until Turkey.

The Chinese people we see are more hill tribe people than anything else. They don't look like what I always picture when I think of Chinese people. Their skin is much darker in western china. There is virtually no western influence. All over Asia there are American brands. But in China Coca Cola isn't even recognized as Coca Cola. It's called something else. Same with Pepsi. We maybe run into one person every other day who speaks a tiny bit of English. And we can't find any eggrolls....

There is this Thai holiday going on right now call Songkren, or something like that. It's basically a big water fight. For like a week or something. It's slowly moved up into China. We were riding the other day through a town and as we got close to it some kids with squirt guns shot at us. It was hot out and felt a little good. Then we ran into more kids. Then they started throwing water balloons and emptying large buckets of water onto us. Literally running up to us, stopping about 2 feet away and then throwing water balloons right into our faces. The first 45 times was kind of fun, kind of. Then the next 170 times it got really old. We were soaking wet, but for some reason everyone thought they could somehow get us more wet.

pictures

Breckan riding through Thailand in front of the worlds sexiest buddha.

Me in front of some Laotian dirt town.

One of our Laotian campsites in Ban Tham Fa. It was a schoolyard.

The Laotian town we stayed in was having a huge 2 day party because they finished building a wall around their temple. This was the wall. It was even better looking in real life.

Spencer on a road in Laos.

Spencer and I in front of our first mile marker for the China Border.

Breckan and I on a China road. This is the old highway. Never any other cars.

We passed truckload after truckload of watermelon's. There were also several huge piles of watermelon randomly on the side of the road. Watermelon truck accidents, we presumed.

Spencer and our cop buddy who escorted us to pizza. Afterwards we went to his friends house and they taught us how to say 'beef', 'pork', 'good' and 'can I put my tent here?".

Me riding across a very old decrepit looking bridge.

Breckan in the cop car.

Spencer and Breckan in front of the guesthouse were Spencer was sick.

Spencer and Breckan in an early morning fog. It's really dewey in the mornings. Everything left outside the tent is always soaked.

Spencer riding through the mud road. We left the jungle areas today and spent alot of time in arid mountains. They felt alot like Southern Utah mountains.

Spencer and Breckan riding their bicycles.

Spencer fixing a flat tire. The first one any of us has had.