Did We Get In?

We might of done it. It is beginning to seem like more and more of a possibility. Every cop car that passes and only honks us and every checkpoint we roll under, makes it seems like more of a possibility. I hope it worked.

About five days ago, after our trip through Tiger! Leaping! Gorge!, we faced a hard decision. The hardest one we have had to make this entire trip. We had planned our trip around the fact that Tibet proper would be impossible to sneak into, but the Tibetan regions that surround the province of Tibet would be open. In January the Chinese government locked down the province of Tibet and all surrounding regions. We went on with our original plan hoping our route would reopen soon. It didn't. It still officially hasn't. Tibet opened up on a limited basis, but our route through the tibetan regions remained firmly locked dow. Everyone told us our route was impossible. It couldn't be done. We'd have to go weeks out of our way. Sorry.

So there we sat outside of Tiger! Leaping! Gorge! The road forked. One road went the open way; the incredibly out of the way route. The not scenic, not Tibetan route. The other road was the one we planned on pedaling down. The one that led to giant mountains. 14,000 foot passes. Tibet. No one can go that way, it's closed.

We got on the internet and found a forum that linked to a french cycling forum. A poster had written two days before, in french (thanks babelfish), that he had cleared the checkpoints on the route he had wanted to take. He had made it in. It worked. "Oh come on!" I said. Let's make this work. Let's do it. Everyone agreed. We would be committing. If it didn't work, we would be wasting a massive amount of time and effort. It would have to work.

We set off and instantly began climbing and climbing and climbing. We climbed all day and never went down. We climbed for over 5 hours and when we were done we were 11,000 feet above sea level. The jungles gave way to tibetan plateau and tibetan houses and huge spaces. The next day we set out late and rolled past yaks and storms sweeping the plateau. We camped and had a camp fire. The next morning we passed a checkpoint and were nodded through. Then we climbed some more. 13,500 ft. Over the pass and down. We spent the night on a river and made ramen and watched the stars. The morning brought more climbing and no food. No water. No towns. No cars. Nothing. 13,800 ft. The pass brought no site of towns. Only more wilderness and a dirt road. We rode for hours without cars. We stopped and pumped water.

Around 4 pm the gas ran out of my tank. I think it did for Breckan as well. We were spent and were in the middle of no where and we hadn't eaten in 8 hours. Up and over another pass. Still no towns. Breckan was draggin so we started talking about food. Breckan loves talking about food. It passed the time. Finally at 6:30 we spotted a town far below us in the valley. The descent was maddening. The road was gravel and large rocks. It went on for two hours. We pulled into the town in the dark and then climbed some more. The stars came out. We rode towards what we thought was a hotel. 9 pm.

Here's were it gets awesome. The one hotel; the only hotel in town, was built on a freaking hot spring! It had a giant, neck deep, hot tub. The had only ramen, but they had a hot tub. It took 30 minutes to wash the dust out of our skin. Ramen has never tasted so good and giant tibetan hot tubs have never felt better. We stayed in the water and watched the stars circle over head. We were in. We had done it. "Oh come on!"