Riding another two days on the longest Singletrail

These are my 3rd and 4th days of the Shingo La trekking path.

 Link to the first part of the longest singletrail

This day began with a nice downhill from the village we stayed overnight. With adjusted tire pressure, I had my fun to shred down to the river.

It was nice to see, that I could compensate for the lack of suspension. Of course I was not able not hit the trail with the same speed as with my full suspension bike, but speed and risk during biketravels are a no go for me anyway.

After some big climbs and downhills, we reached a village with the horseman waiting for us. The house of a relative of him was nearby, and we got invited for lunch. Tashi, the horseman asked us, if we wanted to stay in his village later, because he would like to see his family. We agreed to stay in his village for a day and wouldn't regret it.

 

The trail led us back down to the river, causing us to push and carry the bikes over large rocks in the river bed. We bypassed some elderly women, who were still on their way back home from the Dali Lama public blessings in Padum. One women asked me to sit on the rear rack for a while, but I could barely move the bike with her. At least we could give a backpack of them a short ride. Everyone here seems to have the same Northface knockoff backpacks. 

After a climb back up to the higher parts of the valley, the trail went rideable again.

Villages were always exciting to bypass. Notice the roofs of the buildings: Rain is so rare, that the roofs consist only of wooden sticks and mud.

After a night of camping next to the house of the teacher, we heard the voice of rotor blades in the morning. I felt like in the intro of the Mash television series. Two ancient helicopters circled above the village, until they landed near the house next to us. It turned out, that a Czech hiker, we met on the day before, broke his leg not far away from here. He stayed in the house next to us, and was rescued by the Indian military on the next day.

I was a bit relieved, that things like helicopter rescue exist in this part of the world. For Indian citizens in serious emergencies it is even free. For westerners it's also reasonable, as far as I can recall, it was about 500-800 dollar. You can't relay on that kind of evacuation though, since the helicopters are restricted to  good weather have a maximum operating altitude. I heard of a women with a risky pregnancy riding all the way to Padum to give birth.

That day was short, and similar to the last day. A lot of up and downhills, some riverbed pushing until we left the valley to Shingo La to visit the village of our horseman.

Some days later, we would bypass this cliff and make our way over Shingo La.

This it is the small hometown of our horseman Tashi:

It is a really nice place, and we stayed there for two days.

This is the view from the other side in the evening:

And here is the location:

Größere Kartenansicht



I will continue to write about the longest singletrail I have ever ridden soon.



Tags:
longest singletrail, singletrail, zanskar, ladakh, bicycling, bikepacking, mtb, mountain, bike, himalayas, shingo la, padum, trail