Biking - Ma On Shan to Saikung the hard way!

Its been a while since I did a good biking blog!  Not that I haven't been biking,  its just that I've been sticking to boring routes between Shatin and Tai Wo for the most part the last few months.  A quick flat ride where I can punch out like 13 km in an hour.  Not very noteworthy so I haven't been taking any pictures to share.

But the weather was TOO nice this past weekend for me to want to stick to the beaten path... (especially considering that the beaten path would be full of dumb asses on rental cycles blocking my way). So instead I decided to get adventurous again. 

Its been a while since epic biking trips like these -

http://www.alivenotdead.com/etchy/Biking-Blog-The-Toughest-Hill-in-Hong-Kong--profile-1036464.html http://www.alivenotdead.com/etchy/Belated-Biking-Catchup-5-Watch-that-first-step-or-I-almost-threw-up--profile-589479.html http://www.alivenotdead.com/etchy/Weekend-Biking-Sunday-Hills-of-Death--profile-219010.html So I had a yearning for my next Everest...   

I have always wanted to try biking to Saikung,  but I have heard that Sai Sha road, the main route connecting Ma On Shan to Saikung is too dangerous to bike on (I think a minibus hit a cyclist a few years ago and now they ban cyclists on weekends?)

But I've never let a lack of viable road options stop me before (see above links)... I found a hiking route over the mountains behind the town of Ma On Shan (not the peak of Ma On Shan itself of course, but slightly to the west of it).   

The route looked something like this on the map -

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4622402

OK, I left it in English units,  its 6 miles (10 km)... not short, but not too much.  But of course there's the mountain climb to contend with...

1300 ft elevation change! that's 400m.   are you ready to go up a 100 story building?! (and back down).  Can I handle it?   Of course I can!  (I've actually done the first two miles before a year or two ago too).   Further things to be concerned about that I didn't let stop me - I think technically you need some kind of permit to bike inside the country park system here... and also, perhaps even more importantly, a large portion of  the path I was taking was a HIKING path, not a bike path...  which leads to all kinds of fun when you get to the stairs... but let's not get ahead of ourselves!

First part was a paved road up to Ma On Shan Village.

Because of all the recent rains there's basically a stream running down most of the length of the roadside drainage ditch.  very picturesque!

"That's what she said"  (I assume they mean be careful of the rod that opens the lid?)

My last view back towards Tolo Harbor, Ma Liu Shui and CUHK before getting to he park entrance.

At the end of the regular road there's a BBQ picnic site... For some reason, despite HK's strict gun laws, they feel the need to remind people not to bring their assault rifles here (I'm guessing probably some guys at some point in time brought some airsoft guns or something and tried to do war games in the park and shot someone's eye out and ruined it for everyone...)

This area actually used to be a mining area so there's some old abandoned buildings along the way.  this one's wall and roof collapsed a long time ago.

After the two lane road went down to a one lane road and then into a half-lane road... it eventually just turned into a dirt road.  Still pretty navigable.  And I can proudly say that despite taking frequent (~6-12) minute breathers along the way,  I did ride the whole way, no walking the bike up to this point.

But not long after this, the hill got steep and the path switched to irregular steps made from loose stones.  at this point I had no choice but to walk my bike up... (when I was lucky I could role it on the side of the path,  but on a few stretches I basically had to lift it up the stairs one at a time because there was no way to roll around the steps.

After the first few dozens stairs,  I got to this creek crossing (with requisite flash flood warning)  then I finally saw the sign that said 'no biking in the park' (which of course is way too far into the park for anyone to consider stopping and going back).

Many hundreds of stairs later, I reached the top!  a nice rest stop to take a breather. 

Notice that big brown lump on the ground next to the trash cans?

Yes, a bull!    Just hanging out and relaxing in the shade.  Not sure if he's 'wild' or just free ranging... but no one was minding him and he didn't mind anyone else...

I came from the left side,  if you go straight back it goes to Three Fathoms Cove... and to the right is Saikung.

After the top I finally noticed that my pedal was trashed.  (I think it landed on a rock while going up or down some stairs).   Actually I think it was already cracked while I was riding up and the rocks just took it the rest of the way. The plastic ring around the front gear set also ended up breaking this day... this bike already has some front bearing problems, and now this...

But it was totally worth it... once you get up to the top, there's a nice relatively flat grass land plateau... I didn't get any good pics, but basically for at least a few minutes, its good cross country mountain biking too!  no rocks, nothing steep,  just nice fresh air, green grass and easy trails to ride on.

Eventually you reach the money shot:

Overlooking Saikung and you can see High Island Reservoir in the distance. (as this was late afternoon, it was getting a bit hazy unfortunately!)    The best part was that it was nice and breezy up here... perfect for cooling off after a hike or bike up here.

Looking back towards Ma On Shan to the North.

Unfortunately it was pretty steep going down so there were more of the pain-in-the-ass irregular loose rock steps...  I passed a few people on the way down who asked me how difficult it is to drag a bicycle down this trail... I noted that the going down part was a lot easier than the going up part. :-P

Eventually I made it back to civilization:

Too bad I don't like exotic seafood....  :-P  as you can see my bike is a bit worse for wear, but made it in... 3 pieces. :-P

I'm not going to have time to go biking for a few weeks, but before I do, I'll need to get my pedal fixed at least....  assuming my bike is still where I left it and in ridable condition, I'll consider riding around Sai Kung's other, safer roads while I'm in the neighborhood! :-P