Adventure Cyclists

[So I've gone back and fixed this post which was during a time when China has blocked blogger and I had someone very dear to me post it via email - Kyle 9.05.09]

5.20.09

Hey yall!

So from time to time China, in it's infinite communistic wisdom, has been know to censor certain information from it's general population (case in point; preventing the entire country of China from ever accessing Youtube!). This week it appears as if they have a personal vendetta against Blogger (with sighs of frustration) Nonetheless I'm itching to share some stories....so here we go.

These past 10 days have been nothing short of hardcore and as such, we have decided to change our descriptor from cycle tourists to adventure cyclists. We have been in a nonstop battle with every possible element (sickness, extreme cold, sand blizzards, howling winds, near famine, snow storms, insane altitudes, the crappiest roads ever constructed...just to name a few). I think the theme of this posting will be based on quotes from these past 2 weeks that have stuck out in my head....

"What kind of hotel collects money at 11:30 at night?" - Spencer

Our hotel decided to raise the price from 35 yuan ($5) per room to 35 yuan per bed and strategically collect the money from us at 11:30 at night (after we repeatedly tried to pay for the room earlier that night). We got the police involved and the man firmly stood his ground without budging, given the fact that we were comfortably wrapped in blankets next to our personal yak dung fire. We then did something that no one would have ever imagined 4 foreigners would have done....we got out from under the covers, we got our money back, we packed our bags and we entered the blizzard of a snow storm that awaited us outside at 14,000 ft. We jumped on our bicycles and with our headlamps barely illuminating the road, we cycled to the outskirts of 'town', until we found a field to set up our tents.

Us: 1 Hotel trying to rip off foreigners: 0

"That's the beauty of being self sufficient" - Spencer

This is where we ended up

So we spent the past 10 days cycling through No Mans Land and by that I mean the sticks, the middle of nowhere, the boonies, absolutely no one would hear a tree if it were to fall where we'd cycled (if trees actually grew at this altitude). The road was noncompacted mushy gravel/sand and instead of the usual going up the hill and back down the hill routine, we just topped out and stayed at the top of the mountain/plateau. Whereas before we would top out at 15,000 ft and all stop for a picture and maybe a victory snack, we didn't even think about stopping because the entire 400 km was a huge series of passes that fluctuated between 14,500 ft and 16,000 ft and the wind and horizontal snow was relentless (not to mention the cold). So here we are in the middle of nowhere bundled up in every piece of clothing we have (we did just cycle pass the equator a few months ago), with a gailing wind blowing snow in our faces at an extremely high altitude. It was like trying to cycle on the beach....

One night we set up camp near some bluffs to protect us from the wind. That night ended up being a battle against one of the nastiest sand/snow storms I've ever experienced in my life. The wind literally filled all of our tents with sand (I was bailing my tent out by filling up a cup and emptying the sand in a ziplock baggie). Then the wind ripped my rain fly completely off my tent.....so try to picture this.....I made a barricade inside of my tent with my panniers to protect me from the sand. Then my rainfly flew off (literally ripped my stakes out of the ground), so I've got one arm outside of my tent, preventing my rainfly from flying into the abyss, the rest of my body is crouched behind my internal barricade with my eyes squinting from the blinding sand storm. Then came the snow....or more like hail....and I had about 15 seconds to reattach my rainfly and makeshift some stakes before the snow absolutely pelted us. It was one of the longest and hardest nights we've had and we awoke the next morning feeling like we'd lost a nasty fight with a gravitron machine. Here's what we looked like in the morning.

"I'm taking the next truck to Golmud" - Breckan

It didn't help that we were barely able to pedal 40 km per day due to the nasty road and even nastier weather, which made it seem like we'd never get out of that stretch of vast nothingness. On top of the weather, there were no more than 2 vehicles passing us each day and none of them were willing to stop for our waving arms (still not exactly sure why they wouldn't stop....it's not like 4 people on bicycles were going to rob them or anything). Regardless we were in it for the longhaul. On top of that...we were carrying all of our own food, which tasted more or less like cardboard.

"I thought China was going to be nothing but eggrolls and sweet and sour chicken"

"I haven't found a single egg roll nor Mongolian beef...I'm actually surprised if the restaurant has fried rice!"

"You know the food is bad when you're in China and you crave Panda Express!" - Spencer

This was our conversation after inviting ourselves into a Tibetan house, where they put us up in their barn with drying yak dung and their ancient grandmother who had a cough that sounded like death itself. Here we are in the barn

So after 10 days of slugging through some of the worst cycling environment possible, with our backs and butts aching from the neverending ruts in the roads and our faces chapped and windburnt, we finally reached pavement!

It was a glorious moment and we were so excited that the next day, Charlie and I pedaled some 120 miles and in the process dropped off the Tibetan plateau and into the surrounding desert (enter instant warmth). It was the first time we've dropped below 14,000 ft in nearly 2 weeks and accordingly, it was the first time I'd take off my patagonia polypro longsleeve to expose my forearms in nearly 2 weeks. I'd been riding with long john bottoms and 3 layers of wool socks, those were instantly peeled off and we were back to riding with shorts and t-shirts within 1 hour of dropping off the frozen mountainous terrain. We also saw our first trees in almost two weeks.

So we reached Golmud which was surprisingly not a lot like Vegas. In the middle of the desert (and the middle of nowhere) there is a quaint little town with 2.5 million people and best of all....a Dicos. It doesn't take much to please cycle tourist....I mean adventure cyclist....just a cheap hotel, a decent grocery store and access to something that resembles western food.

"You know the toilets are bad in China when you would rather squat in a ditch than use the toilets" - Charlie

I've cycled a grand total of 2415 miles thus far...and we've just begun!

And once again, here's some pictures....

Some random Tibetans and me doing the baseball pose

Tibetan kids that surrounded Charlie and I while we were fixing our bikes

Tibetan Ninja

The polygamist Tibetan rocking my headlamp and shades

One of the polygamist's kids

Charlie and I helped these yak herders (kids) get this yaks head dislodged from the fence

My bike sitting high on top of the Tibetan plateau

Me and some Tibetan (they know how to rock a stylish hat)

Four cute kids