Beijing to NW Mountains, rock quarry, dead-end single track, then awesome roads!

Hi Everyone,

I made a video of a nice little mountain road that leaves the S210 from the North and joins it again towards the west... it goes through some farming on the way out, I'll post the video when I get it done.

I was on my way out to explore what looked like some trails and fire roads off the S210 that I was hoping would go all the way through the canyon to the other side and link up somewhere around Miaofengshan scenic area.

The road started at a rock quarry. Lots of dogs chased me on the way up... I made a video through the rock quarry and then switched my helmet cam to take pictures. But my audio recorder didn't save the audio file! Damn.

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13170007.jpg

The gravel road deteriorated slowly...
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13200016.jpg

Nice scenery, though.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13210017.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13210019.jpg

Turned into what I was hoping would be a quite nice trail through the canyon:
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13220021.jpg

But it got worse and worse... I think it was a hiking trail.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13220022.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13240026.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13280038.jpg

I ended up turning my bike around on the trail (no easy task!)
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13290041.jpg
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13300043.jpg
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13300045.jpg
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13310046.jpg

And went back the way I came... :(
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13310047.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13330051.jpg

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...g/13330052.jpg


I took a break after all that huffing and puffing...
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p...0301133645.jpg

Then decided to use the paved roads to get to Miaofengshan scenic area...

I took the S210 to G109 to X002. X002 is the popular (nicely paved and twisty) mountain road up to the scenic areas. I found C108 from X002 and took it for a short while not knowing where it would go... so I didn't go far and then just came back to the X002 and got an early dinner at a roadside farmhouse. Now looking at the map, C108 should make a terrific loop... it's one of those nasty mountain roads that's very twisty without any forgiveness (ie if you make a mistake, you're going over a cliff and will probably die).

More pictures later and video later!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by galenernest

Hi Everyone,
Then decided to use the paved roads to get to Miaofengshan scenic area...

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So you didn't make it through the bramble bushes and had to turn back?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cryptographicide

So you didn't make it through the bramble bushes and had to turn back?

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Yeah, basically. I could have kept pushing through, but it got to the point that the trail was so narrow that I had to turn the bars back and forth just to fit them through the branches. I stopped and looked ahead to see if things would improve, but it didn't look very good... I wasn't having much fun, so decided to turn back.

Nice looking trail. Are you GPS tracking your rides? I always found it helpful to retrace where I went on Google Earth after a ride. Sometimes you find out your were only a few hundred meters from a breakthrough. You should try and get in touch with ChinaBiker, he moved a few years ago, but he had hundreds of great Beijing trails tracked by GPS.

Cheers!

Looks like an interesting ride galenernest. I recently did a bunch of exploratory rides on dirt tracks in Northern Thailand (just got back after two months riding in Thailand on my GS). One such ride started out on a mountain road, two of us were purposely looking for a dirt road that we were attempting to determine if the track joined to another dirt track on the other side of the mountain (we had already traversed the track on the other side of the mountain), and didn't have access to any GPS data or maps that indicated if the two dirt tracks might indded join up. On the track we were exploring, we came to a fork in the dirt road, and decided on the left fork which we travelled along on the dirt road with some wet sections and mud, that eventually turned to a trail then a track which eventually lead into a tree plantation of some type... multiple small river crossings which saw us riding on a single track more and more... after many km's we came across a local who seemingly worked in the plantation. He advised ius we would not be able to proceed any further, so reluctantly we turned round and rode back out. If it wasn't so late in the afternoon and close to dusk we would have taken the other fork - but thought prudently it was best to back track the dirt road out while it was still light enough. In hindsight, it was likely the other fork!

As a footnote:
Due to a set of circumstances while in Thailand, I started using OSMAnd+ (GPS) on an Android phone/device and have downloaded/installed many maps including the one for Thailand which has many dirt tracks on it. Found the OSMAnd+ app to be really useful and functional, plus the maps are based on OpenStreetMaps data - therefore the OSMAnd maps are updated fairly frequently based on users feedback and input.

I was surprised and relieved to discover that OSMAnd PRC map is working in PRC without any offset issues... I was able to ride from Boten Border crossing all the way to Ningbo. Stayed overnight in Jing Hong. Left approx 10am on 2nd March... arrived home near Ningbo at 7am on 4th March. Had I not got intercepted on the Zhejiang section of the G60 and escorted off the Expressway (twice), my ETA was meant to have been home by 8pm on 3rd March.

I did discover that some of the roads on the OSMAnd PRC map are incomplete, which does have an impact on routing choices etc.

For navigating this trip I used:

GarminXT on a WinMO device.
MapAsia on a WinMO device
OSMAnd+ on a Android device (real GPS with offline map functionality and routing)
Sygic Pro on a Android device (real GPS with offline and map functionality and routing but also no PRC maps - unfortunately)
City Maps 2 Go on a Android device (offline map functionality but no routing ability)
GT-Rider maps when in Northern Thailand.

That will happen more often. I made this experience that many trails end up at higher level fields and orchards and there is no way through.
But I advise to check out the high voltage power lines. They have many times nearby service paths for inspection that might be possible to travel with a light weight bike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShuBen

That will happen more often. I made this experience that many trails end up at higher level fields and orchards and there is no way through.
But I advise to check out the high voltage power lines. They have many times nearby service paths for inspection that might be possible to travel with a light weight bike.

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Good call ShuBen...
Wind turbine installations also have these types of access tracks... that is the situation here at least. Lots of new wind turbines being installed, all with various roads and tracks embedded to facilitate such like...

here a power trail example north of YongNingZhen along X004. At the purple arrow the path is closed by a gate. But we two guys we could lift the hinges and slip in.
It took us another 5 min to closed it again, but so we hope no one lock up this way of opening.
Afterwards you are on your own. Beware that it is steep, partly broken down, smashed by rocks and there is not any barrier to secure the path.

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A few pictures of the Doc riding the tracks he talked about in north Thailand on his BMW what he didn't tell you he was riding the BMW with the OE tyres at the time which made this type of riding very hard to do later on he fitted some 50/50 tyres after which I had trouble keeping up with him on the CRF heheh

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