10/20
This is about a 2 day bike and camping trip to Longquan and Sancha lake that was almost 140 kms. We met at my place around 930 on Saturday morning and got on the road past ten. There was me and other American guy, a Canadian, 2 French and 2 Chinese on this trip. We took the back roads from Longtan down to Longquan which was pretty nice. Better then just going through the city for 2 hours which I’ve done before. It was cloudy and cool but at least it didn’t rain.
We decided to get lunch just past Longquan city going up the mountain. I had seen this sign that said “Restricted area. No Foreigners Allowed” to the left of the road before where a nice restaurant was located. I thought it was strange so we thought we would take our chances and check it out. Luckily we had a good meal and didn’t end up in jail. The restaurant isn’t banned for foreigners, you just aren’t supposed to go up the mountain next door which is a military base.
After a good lunch we began the climb up to the top on Longquan mountains, a normally super busy area but the season is over. Its about an hour or more to get to the top with nice scenery as you go. There’s a nice place you can stop at the top with nice views generally. Unfortunately it was too cloudy up there this time.
We biked down the mountain and stopped at the bottom at ShiJing Temple and then we still had a couple more hours to Sancha lake.
We got to the lake as it was getting dark. I had originally wanted to go to the west side of the lake to camp in a more natural location but I was concerned about the rain so we went on the east side to an area that had a roof that my friend recommended. I had a few other friends already headed there so they already started the bbq. We found some decent camping in the woods nearby and came back to eat. People didn’t stay up late because they were so tired. It was almost 80 kms to the lake with one big climb, which is a good amount if you aren’t in shape, but everyone did well.
We got up and left around 10:30. It was a really nice day and it didn’t up up raining the night before like I thought. We got lunch at the north end of the lake at a nice place before taking a different way back. We go up a bit but go through a tunnel so its not as hard or long as the day before but its still several hours back to my place. We arrived around 430 and I made a couple pizzas and then everyone headed back home. A great trip and everyone did really well.
