Day 2: Wenchuan to Huanglong

I slept quite sound but finally woke up from the truck horns blasting on the road opposite of my front door. I quickly packed my stuff and carried it downstairs. The restaurant staff had been friendly enough to allow me put my bike into the restaurant room overnight but had strangely enough forgotten to lock the door. So I pushed the bike outside and fixed my gear before I woke up the owner and settled the bill. I returned to the city center 2 km back and took some snapshots. The city looks nice enough and the whole reconstruction effort (including houses, roads, bridges, tunnels and public buildings) is truly impressive. I just hope construction quality, especially of school buildings, is better than last time. What surprised me is that they even reconstructed the traditional Tibetan village towers (the purpose of which has yet not been fully uncovered).

Happy Tibetans Statue by fahni, on Picuna

Tibetan style reconstruction by fahni, on Picuna

Not so tibetan style by fahni, on Picuna

housing projects by fahni, on Picuna




I had some fried rice at a restaurant tended by some giggling teenage girls and after that got some mianfei lube job for my chain before I hit the road in earnest. The road from Wenchuan to Songpan is beautiful and follows the flow of a river.

more towers by fahni, on Picuna
On my way I saw two groups of touring bikers coming towards me on big bore touring bikes, so the route seems to be quite popular.

more mountainous by fahni, on Picuna

I played catch with a mid-sized truck which was carrying a truck of exactly the same model on his back until I reached Songpan.

first yaks by fahni, on Picuna

Songpan by fahni, on Picuna


Just after Songpan there was the first toll gate and not quite sure what the situation is like in Sichuan, I lined up just to earn a confused smile from the clerk before she told me motorbikes are not charged and waved me through. It took me two tries to find the correct road to Huanglong. But as soon as I found it, I started climbing.

start of the pass to Huanglong by fahni, on Picuna

The bike had been slightly sputtering for the last 50 km which I had attributed to the altitude. And I had not been wrong because instantly, this sputtering became more severe and I lost more and more power as I climbed higher. The road to the Pass is not that long and at the beginning there is this very nice view of a small monastery.

Tibetan monastry along the way by fahni, on Picuna

I continued climbing and the view widened. I stopped for a picture and climbed a few meters by foot to have an even better view. By that time I must have been at around 3700m above sea level and I felt it hard. These few steps cost me a lot of breath. I decided to smoke a cigarette to train my lungs to live with even less oxygen before I proceeded. When I had reached the summit I felt quite cold and the bike had lost a lot of her puff. I hopped off the bike to put on my down jacket and change to winter gloves when I was spotted by a group of american tourists who had flown in from Chengdu (there is a new airport just down the mountain) just an hour before and were probably even more struggling with the thin air than I was. Three of the men had a look at the bike and could not believe I was doing such a tour on a 150cc. But after all, I had made it to the top of the pass which - with just under 4000m (damn!) - was supposed to be the highest point of my journey.

top of the pass to Huanglong by fahni, on Picuna

down I go by fahni, on Picuna

I headed downhill on the other side but could not evade a thunderstorm anymore. I stopped, took out my rain gear, put it on (by that time there was already hail) put the raincovers on the saddle bags, started riding again - and the thunderstorm was over...

A little latter I reached the valley and drove by the entrance to Huanglong Natural park, the ticket office, the cable car building, a few big hotels, a few shops and found myself alone on the road in the middle of a beautiful alpine forest. So I took the first path into the forest on my right and after 200 m found a perfect camping spot. I unloaded my gear and decided to head back to stock up on supplies (beer) for the night. When I reached what I had thought was a supermarket ("Dicos") it turned out to be a KFC clone. That was fine with me. I had a set lunch, bought beers and some water on my way back to camp alpha and started to put up camp.

camp alpha by fahni, on Picuna

I had just set up my cheap one-man tent and stored my gear when it started raining again. Nothing serious, just rain with a little thunder thrown in for good measure. But it turned out that my tent is not really designed for rainy conditions (WTF?) It was not dripping through but the material got VERY wet on the inside.
Still, I was fine, reading a little, sipping beer and after nightfall listened to some podcasts until I fell asleep.

after the storm by fahni, on Picuna