May 19, 2022: From Xinduqiao to Xiangke Zong, about 85 kilometers
Yesterday, during the rest, the weather changed from cloudy to light rain. In the morning, my friend and I wandered around and bought some traditional Chinese medicine plasters from the pharmacy because my legs hurt more after waking up in the morning, and it was very painful when the quilt covered my feet. In the afternoon, I didn’t go out and kept massaging my calves, hoping to relieve the pain. The others took a chartered car to Yuzixi to have a look, but my legs were too painful, so I didn’t go. In the evening, we found a restaurant nearby, which was quite good, but I forgot its name.
Today, when I got up, the temperature was only 7 degrees, and it was cloudy.
We set off at 8 o’clock, and it had already started to drizzle. Then we went to the restaurant from yesterday for breakfast, which happened to be on our way.
Today is still a day of cycling in the rain. Just after setting off after dinner, my friend’s bike got a flat tire again, and we stopped to fix it. Now we are much better at fixing tires than before, and we have also bought spare tires for emergencies.
Then we climbed the slope in the light rain, rode for more than 2 hours, 14 kilometers, and arrived in front of the Gao’ersi Tunnel. We stopped by the roadside to rest for a while, then changed our wet clothes, added some thicker clothes, and then started to enter the tunnel. The temperature is relatively low after going out of the tunnel and downhill.
The Gao’ersi Tunnel is more than 5 kilometers long. Fortunately, it’s all flat road, and there’s no need to climb the slope, but there are many cars. We all try to speed up to pass through because the tunnel is long and the temperature inside the tunnel is also low.
After leaving the tunnel, it’s more than 30 kilometers downhill all the way to Yajiang County. In the middle, more than 20 kilometers away, we stopped at Bajiao Building Township to have lunch.
Because there are still 18 kilometers of uphill to Xiangke Zong after arriving at Yajiang, and the weather is raining from time to time, we dare not stay, and continue to Yajiang County after dinner.
After the slope was released, it was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon when we arrived at Yajiang County. At this time, the sky turned clear, and the raincoats were taken off and tied to the pack to air dry.
When walking on the Yajiang Bridge, it was both sunny and tired.
After passing Yajiang, the slope began to climb again. The plateau weather changed very quickly, and the sunny weather generally wouldn’t last more than half an hour before it started to rain again.
After climbing a few kilometers, I ran out of strength, and the weather also started to rain lightly. I and a few friends I met on the road started to push the car again.
Pushing and pushing, I found that there were about 3 kilometers away from the destination. Then a sudden rain, once again soaked the whole body, at this time in addition to fatigue, only felt cold.
Dragging the tired and soaked body, I finally saw the sign of today’s destination, Xiangke Zong.
The rain is still falling, the altitude here is about 3500 meters, and the temperature is about 13 degrees. The hands are frozen and cold.
At about 5:40 in the afternoon, I finally arrived at the inn. The temperature was low. I took off my wet clothes and went to get hot water. At this time, my hands were so cold that I couldn’t even hold the cup steadily, and I was shivering all the time, feeling like I was about to lose my temperature.
I changed into dry clothes, put on a fleece vest outside, and took out the insulated woolen hat and put it on my head. It was too cold.
After more than an hour, two more friends who were cycling the Sichuan-Tibet line came to stay.
A little after 8 o’clock, the inn owner came to call us to eat. As soon as I heard that it was a fellow villager, I hurried back to the room after dinner. The inn here has an electric blanket, and I got into the warm bed, and then transferred the pictures and wrote today’s travel notes.
It has been a week since I came out of Chengdu. I have a sore mouth due to excessive internal heat, and the biggest problem is poor sleep, as well as facial swelling caused by high altitude.
I looked at the weather again and found that the rainy season in most areas has started earlier this year.
In previous years, the weather on the Sichuan-Tibet line in May was relatively good, and it would only be like this in June and July during the rainy season.
I came to ride because I saw that May was not the rainy season, but now I have caught up with the rainy season. Alas! The luck is full! Now I ride in the rain almost every day, and the scenery is not good, it’s all fog. I looked at the road ahead and it’s basically rain.
Today, I pushed the car a bit more, and my legs hurt a lot. I decided to rest in Xiangke Zong for another day to recover my legs. The next few days are basically climbing in the rain, and the difficulty is greater.
Hold on! As the saying goes, since I’ve come, I’ll stay!
The next stop: from Xiangke Zong to Honglong Township. About to arrive at the City in the Sky, Litang.