Location: Pingtung County
Distance: 46km Elevation Gain: 1,034m
In our series, we have covered two road bike routes in the Kenting area of Pingtung, which can be seen in #041 and #042; both are great rides. These two will act as a reference for the access points for our coverage of MTB routes in the same area. Public transport access is Fangliao train station.
This time, we are focusing on two off-road routes, which are spectacular. Combined, they cover a distance of 100km on the round trip with over 3,000m of ascent. No problem for a pro rider to cover this in one day, but for mere mortals, we have split it into two separate routes. The first section, which is the southern part, can be found in Kenting MTB Part 1 #057.
It may seem counterintuitive that we recorded this ride starting from the same location as Part 1 in the hot spring town of Sichongxi, but heading south to north allowed us to spend the night before in the town, which is a great place to stay with lots of accommodation and food options.
This was my third attempt to look for this track, and now that I have completed it, I can better understand why it was so difficult to find on previous attempts. The start point is a left turn just after the 7-11 in Sichongxi on Da Mei Rd., which runs parallel to a river of the same name. The only reason there is a road here is that it allows Taiwan Power employees to access the pylons, which is also the case for the section running south from here.
You have several kilometers of mild gradient on a surfaced road before it turns to dirt and gets a lot steeper. It’s important that you pay attention to the track on the way up, there are several trails off to the left and right, which dead-end at a power tower and this confusion about the right track is the main reason why previous attempts failed. This time I used Mapy.cz app on the phone to aid navigation.
The track ascends to 600m at its highest point over a distance of 11km, and in a few locations, there are great views down to the west coast. To reach here did involve some scrambling up a dirt ridge, which is not fun when you are hauling a bike, but was definitely worth the effort.
From the top, we had a 300m descent into a valley over 3 – 4 km before starting the second ascent back up to 500m. Once you get over this hump, it’s a really nice downhill till you pop out on Provincial Highway No.9 at the 448.5km marker. In total, around 22 kilometers of off-road riding, and then it’s just a case of looping back to the start point on the main road.
Having now completed the ride, I can testify that it would be both better and easier to do it in the opposite direction, starting from Provincial Highway No. 9. This would give you an easier time ascending to 500m on the first climb, then descending to 300m before the second ascent up to 600m.
Whether you do this north to south or vice versa, it’s still great, and combining both sections over a weekend would be time well spent.
