Paratroopers, Pingtung County, and "the chase"

I wasn't sure if I was even going to make it out the door for my ride today, as tired as my legs felt after all the riding I've done so far this week.  I'm glad I did, though, because it was a great ride!  And one of the prettiest maps I've produced thus far:

Instead of your plain-Jane, vanilla out-and-back route, today I wanted to spice it up a bit, do some exploring, and not be so concerned about how far I could get in in X amount of time.  Part of this was due to my legs feeling quite zapped right out of the box; I simply didn't have the "pep" necessary for a lot of hard riding today.  But, I knew that what was missing in speed I could make up for in volume (time), so with the intent of doing 4 hours of riding this morning, I set out.

After using my customary and most-favored escape route from Kaohsiung to the south, I decided that at the Gaoping River crossing near Linyuan I would mix it up, first exploring south along the river bank to the ocean (if I could make it that far), and then heading north, trying to locate the southern end of the Gaoping River bike path that I briefly stumbled upon on a ride last month but didn't have time to explore then.

The area south of the Route 17 bridge across the Gaoping River on the Linyuan side is interesting.  On the one hand, you have huge chemical plants right up nearly to the river's edge, but right by the river there is this nice bike and walking path and park-type area (completely obscured from the road by a tall berm - you would have no idea it was even there unless you crest the berm and take a look).  A few pictures of the park area:

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 And here's their neighbor, on the inland side of the berm:

A look at the area from the north (taken from the No. 88 Expressway bridge over the Gaoping River):

Here are a few photos from as far south as I could make it along the west bank of the Gaoping River:

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It was in accessing this area that "the chase" occurred.  I've mentioned elsewhere how I've rarely run across aggressive unchained dogs in Taiwan.  Today's mutts were the worst so far - an actual chase!  Luckily I was on my bike and could leverage mechanical advantage to open a good gap, and these were lazy dogs unwilling to chase far.  I'm sure they don't see many cyclists in "their" area (it's somewhat secluded) and felt that I was trespassing.  No blood, no foul - I made it away without any teeth marks.

After leaving this area, I rode north along the nice bike path along the west side of the Gaoping River.  For the first part, maybe a mile or two north of Route 17, you have to share the berm-top asphalt path with construction equipment and trucks,but before long it is just you on a nice, elevated path that lets you take in the scenery along the river without constant worry about being cut off by a motorscooter or being crushed beneath the wheels of a dump truck sidling up to you.  It's a nice feeling!

I reached my planned crossing point for the Gaoping River (Expressway No. 88) and headed over.  On the other side I found a nice treat - the expressway for cars, trucks and motorcycles 550cc and over up above the local access road below provided great shade from the warm sun.  Score!  I also saw another interesting thing - a ROC Air Force C-130 transport plane conducting airborne operations to the south (doing a parachute drop).  Later, as I pedaled north along Highway 27 towards Pingtung city I would see the paratroopers again, loaded in the back of a transport truck and heading back to their base (brought back fond memories for me of doing the same thing some years ago in Hawaii).  Here are the photos I managed to get of the parachute operations (I was pretty far off when I was taking these):

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Looking at my route today, I think that the mountains are in reach if I head directly out of town to the east along generally the same path I took back into Kaohsiung today (this one was better than the route I used last month to go east that I really disliked) and then instead of heading north towards Pingtung City, head southeast towards Chaojhou and on to the foothills.  I am not sure what I am going to do once I get there, but I sure want to go! (It's a lot of riding just to get there, I wonder if my legs will have much zest left for serious climbing? A question for another day...)

Here are a few photos I took while heading back towards Kaohsiung while crossing the Gaoping River:

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And I will leave you with this - "Let's go get some Stupid Tea."

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