18-Jul-2015 -- This is the 9^th out of 17 reports of confluence visits while cycling from Kashgar (喀什) to Xī'ān (西安). I cycled through the Chinese provinces of Xīnjiāng, Qīnghǎi, Gānsù, and Shǎnxī, 3600 km in 25 days. The story starts from 39°N 76°E. The previous report is 37°N 98°E.

In the morning, we started cycling from Wūlán (乌兰), which is 60 km to the west. Most of the time, the road was ascending. Half way, we passed a pagoda forest.

At a distance of 10 km to the confluence point, we left the main highway and followed a little road consisting of concreate slabs for another 3 km. As it can be expected for a dead-end, the road got smaller, unsealed and soon we were cycling along a tiny track through the meadows. It wasn’t easy to make the right decision which valley we should follow. I guess that we didn’t take the optimal route, because we had to climb and descend a couple hills during our subsequent hike.

We parked our bicycles at a distance of 1.7 km to the confluence point at an abandoned farmhouse and had our lunch break there, which consisted of 4 cups of oat cereal. We packed our backpacks for the hike and set off at 1 PM. We hiked over beautiful meadows, sometimes steep upwards and then we followed the ridge up- and down until we found the confluence point almost at the top. Standing at the confluence, we enjoyed great views into the surrounding valleys. Directly at the confluence point, we encountered edelweiss.

After the visit, we walked back to our bikes the same way we had come and coasted back down to the main highway. In the evening, we reached a dusty place called Chákǎ (茶卡) where we spent the night in an overpriced hotel.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to the main road: 10 km
• Distance to a track: 1700 m
• Walking distance: 1700 m
• Distance of bicycle parking: 1700 m
• Time to reach the CP from the track: 60 min
• Time at the CP: 2:17 PM
• Measured height: 3910 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
• Position accuracy: 3 m
• Topography: mountains
• Vegetation: little bushes, edelweiss, grass
• Weather: partly cloudy sky, 25° C (felt temperature)
• Given Name: The Edelweiss Hike Confluence

The story continues at 36°N 100°E.