The road book from Daocheng to Litang has been compiled. The total distance is 150 kilometers. It has to climb Haizi Mountain with an altitude of 4608 meters and Tu'er Mountain with an altitude of 4696 meters. I decided to ride it in 2 days.
81 kilometers of continuous climbing! This data makes me feel very stressed. Starting from Daocheng, we started climbing, passing the so-called red grassland, and arriving at Sangdui Town. There was a headwind, thick clouds, and occasionally the blue sky and sunshine.
I thought: If there is still a headwind after passing Sangdui Town, I will return to Daocheng and take the shuttle bus to Shangri-La City tomorrow. However, after turning into S217, the wind started to blow and there was more sunshine. Then keep riding. There are many large rocks on the mountain. There is also a "Glacier Stone River Park" built here. These rocks were formed by glaciers in ancient times.
After passing the entrance of Daocheng Yading Airport, the slope becomes steeper. There are many Haizi on Haizi Mountain - Xingyicuo, Xiarucuo, etc. Perhaps this is the origin of the name of Haizi Mountain. On the way, I passed a high-altitude cosmic ray observatory under construction, and images from "The Three-Body Problem" popped into my mind.
Finally I saw the sign of Haizi Mountain, but the altitude mark was 4,500 meters. I met a Beijing self-driving tourist at the observation deck and took photos for me. After passing the observation deck, continue climbing to reach the real pass, with an altitude of 4,608 meters. There is a glacier relic geopark there. Haizi Mountain is known as the world's largest ancient ice mass relic.
After going downhill for less than 3 kilometers, continue climbing the steep slope. When we arrived at the Tu'er Mountain pass, the weather suddenly changed, with strong winds blowing and heavy snow falling. There are several tour buses parked here, and there are many tourists. Some people borrowed my bicycle to pose for photos. There are no rabbits in Tuer Mountain, but there are indeed a pair of huge rock masses that resemble rabbit ears on the top of the mountain in the distance. As a friend said, every scenic spot seems to have a poignant love story. This legend is engraved on the stone at the pass:
According to legend, in ancient times, the tribe controlled by Litang Toast was famous in the Tibetan area. Its territory was guarded by dozens of holy mountains and crisscrossed by more than a dozen rivers. What is even more enviable is that the tribal leader has a daughter who is as beautiful as a fairy. All day long, other tribes come to propose marriage, which makes the leader look good. But the daughter fell in love with the servant's son and fell in love with him deeply. Due to the constraints of the hierarchy, the leader firmly opposed it and insisted on preventing them from interacting, and came up with a way to break them up: let two people guard the boundaries of the tribe. If they arrive before dark, agree to marry them.
Faced with this elusive but only opportunity, we set out at dawn. We did not eat a grain of food or drink a drop of water for a whole day, but we could not reach the border before dark. Seeing that this matter did not go as planned, the lovers hugged each other and cried in despair...
Suddenly, a divine eagle flew from the sky and landed next to them, letting the poor lovers ride on his back. Flying to the border. With the help of the divine eagle, they successfully reached their destination. Finally, the lovers became husband and wife and stayed together for the rest of their lives. Later, it turned into a pair of stone pillars that rely on each other and fear each other, resembling rabbit ears, and the shape of the mountain is like a prone rabbit, so it was named Tu'er Mountain.
I saw several motorcycle riders arriving at the pass. Their bodies were covered with snowflakes, they were rubbing their hands and stamping their feet, shouting: "I'm freezing to death, I'm freezing to death." The road down the mountain was winding. It twists and turns and disappears into the hazy world of wind and snow. It’s only over 30 kilometers away from my intended destination of Xiongba Township.
I was fully armed and rode downhill in the heavy snow and wind, which was getting heavier and heavier. My hands and feet were almost frozen, and the cold wind pierced my down jacket and jacket, as if I had no clothes on. All I felt was one word - cold. When I was almost exhausted, I saw the Dadengla Mountain Conservation and Management Station. It is only 20 kilometers downhill from Xiongba Township. If it is sunny, it can be reached in less than an hour.
This is the road where we almost stayed overnight in 2012, located at the 1818th milestone of G227. Now I'm here again. That year, Xiao Liu and I turned from National Highway 318 to National Highway 227 and rode to Daocheng Yading. It started raining heavily when we got here, and I originally decided to stay overnight, but there was only a single bed, and I had a severe headache due to high fever. That night, the road crew drove us to Daocheng.
This time, I went from Daocheng to Litang and encountered a heavy snowstorm, so I happened to come here again. I wanted to take a ride to Litang, but there was no one for half an hour. When it got dark, I found that the rear tire was flat. I gave up the idea of ??hitching a ride because I suddenly understood that this was my fate with the Daden La Mountain Taoist class. Maybe, I should have stayed here in 2012. If I didn't stay there that time, I have to make up for it this time. Fate is so wonderful, it cannot be understood, and there is no need to understand it.
The mobile phone signal in Daoban is very poor. There are one or two 2G cells outside the house, which can barely make calls.
I asked a worker from the Daoban canteen to cook me a bowl of noodles. The couple has been working here for more than 20 years. Speaking of the staycation in 2012, they had some vague impressions. I asked them: "Why is this place called Daden La Mountain, and it says Tu'er Mountain?" The answer was: "Dadeng La Mountain is Tu'er Mountain, just a different name."
The snow is still falling and the wind is still blowing. The worker led me into a room that had been unoccupied for a long time. There were no lights because the place was powered by solar energy and the power was cut off at night. I didn't take off a single piece of clothing, so I got into my sleeping bag so I wouldn't feel cold.
It was about 8 o'clock in the evening when I lay down, and I slept until 5 o'clock. I don't know when the wind and snow stopped, but I looked up and saw the sky full of stars. The altitude here is 4,300 meters. Under the clear night sky, it feels like you can pick the stars with your hands. I had slept well, so I took pictures of the stars in the yard, including Orion, the Big Dipper, Polaris and Sirius, and I also saw many shooting stars. It wasn't until daybreak that I couldn't bear the cold anymore, so I got into my sleeping bag again. At 8 o'clock, I couldn't lie down anymore, so I got up and packed my luggage.
The rear tire was flat, so I brought a spare inner tube, but in this freezing air, I really didn’t want to change the tire, let alone repair it. I took out the pump and filled it with air. After waiting for a while, it was still full. It must be jogging air. I was ready to set off with this feeling of luck.
Without washing or eating, I just wanted to express my gratitude to the workers and say goodbye. In this snow-covered world, a black road stretches in the valley. The sun has not yet shined into the valley, and the air is cold. I can't ride too fast. I have to stop after riding for a few kilometers and think of ways to keep myself warm.
When I arrived in Xiongba Township, I saw a restaurant open. The proprietress welcomed me in very warmly, cooked noodles for me, added vegetables and eggs, and served them in a big bowl. I finished the noodles, drank all the soup, and felt warm.
Look at my tires. They are not flat and are fully inflated. I filled two bottles of hot water and walked out of the hotel. There is no snow here, and the altitude is low. Looking back at Tuer Mountain, it seems like the snowstorm last night, the stars in the sky before dawn, and the flat rear tire were just a dream. In this dream, there are me and The fate of Tuershan Taoist class.