This past weekend I went mountain biking at Moganshan National Park. It's about a 3 hr. drive from Shanghai.When I lived in Vancouver, I used to ride the North Shore all the time. But since moving to Asia, I've been on my bike maybe 5 times, the last time which was at least 3 years ago. So I knew I was in for some pain.
The trail started with a 3 mile uphill climb. It wasn't even that steep, but for me being out of shape, half way up I started feeling it. Now, I went with a bunch of guys that ride every weekend, so for them, this was nothing - they may as well have been riding on flat pavement. However, for me, 3/4 of the way up, my lungs felt like they were on fire, and my legs were like jelly; I thought I was going to die right there.
But somehow I finally managed to make it to the top (barely). The payoff was worth it though. The downhill was amazing - steep and technical in parts, wide open and fast in others. Riding through lush green bamboo forest, it looked like a scene out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
We make it to the bottom and then I'm like, "What? We need to climb again???" I'm thinking, "Please kill me now..." Another 3.5 miles later, and we're at the top of a different peak. Again, the downhill was awesome. I was pretty glad when we finally made it to the restaurant where we were going to have lunch though, because I felt like I just got my ass kicked for the last 4.5 hrs.
After lunch, we headed over to this huge secluded natural reservoir and had a swim. It was almost unimaginable how blue the water was, and it was so nice to have a cool off after all that riding.
Afterwards, we loaded up our bikes onto the van, popped open some beers, and made the long journey back into the city, exhausted but happy.
It was a pretty awesome day.
Thanks to Thomas at the Specialized shop for arranging everything, and for looking out for me to make sure I didn't fall off the cliff somewhere along the way.
If anyone is interested in going on some great riding (or needs a new bike), stop by the shop at:
221 Jianguo Lu (near Shanxi Lu). Tel: 021.6471.1165
2 comments:
Did you take those pictures? It looks beautiful!
Actually, truth be told, someone else took these pictures - I was too busy trying to keep from falling off a cliff.. But it DOES look like that everywhere around you. It was pretty amazing..
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