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| 4:52 p.m. - Construction on something on Rte. 109, a road that connects east Taipei with Shenkeng township to the south by going over a mountain. It's an easy challenge climb. This is facing north back at Taipei and Xizhi. |
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| 5:27 p.m. - Riding through Shenkeng almost always involves a stop at the old street for their delicious, famous tofu. Directly south of the big tree at the old street is a climbing road that I've always wondered about, and when I checked the map I found it supposedly leads to Maokong. Going up the climb, the road switches north and just above a cemetery I took this shot pointing north at the Rte. 109 descent into Shenkeng from Taipei. |
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| 5:45 p.m. - Towards the top of the climb, confirming the road would go to Maokong (red lines at the bottom of the map), but doesn't indicate what comes next. The climb up was reasonable. The descent, at least to the road in Maokong I was familiar with, is much shorter. Which means . . . |
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| 5:50-5:52 p.m. - Holy shit! A warning sign of 60 degree grade! This is why I'll never do this road again. I made it down, but it was beyond my bike-handling skills. It was full-on brake and letting go for inches at a time to go down; trying not to fall over while braked (in fear) while also trying not to plunge too fast when easing off the brakes. I tried dismounting and walking, but even that didn't work. There were portions where the road was concrete with grooves hammered across for traction. It was hard for cars to go up. Actually one idiot driver coming up had the audacity to ask me if the road went to Shenkeng, but I was too focused to be incensed and managed a thumb wave indicating it did. I would never try going up the road. In S.F., there were hills so steep that I felt like I was about to fall over backwards. On this road, I have no doubt that I would fall over with any let-up in momentum. |
