Biking The Prisoneer Highway Along the Red Pepper Mountains - 243 kilometers
JingHe -- Sun, Aug 21, 2005
What does that title mean... Well today was the second longest day and it was a beautiful one. Sadly my camera has broke so I'll have to share the images with words.

A good portion of the road today was still under construction, but the road itself was perfect. So I more or less had the road to myself. Snowcapped mountains on the right and prisoneers finishing the road on the left. At first it was a bit disconcerning to pass guys with M-16s on my bike. I had images of them gunning me down after yelling out to me and not hearing them over the drone of my mp3 player. Now I am assuming these were prisoneers working -- but I don't see much reason for the boss to have an M16 otherwise... although some managers might disagree with me...

And the red peppers: now imagine the mountains surrounded by arid grassland and then all of a sudden a bright, glowing patch of red off in the distance. It was mezmerizing -- what was this incredible bit of color in this five-tone landscape. Well it was drying red peppers. The farmers would spread huge patches of red peppers on the ground to dry them out and it would create an incredible blend of colors on the landscape.

I know its not as good as the pictures but its the best I can do ;)