MongoliaX2014 // Mountain bike touring in the land of Nomads // Legends of Genghis Khaan // Microadventures by Brian Peric

I left this journal blank. It was a great summer in Mongolia and in South Korea. I worked out a plan to cycle to the eastern Gobi Desert (Sainshand) and visit Terejl National Park (photos below) in the same 7-day route nearing the Chinese border (Zamiin-Uud Замын-Үүд). I met new friends in Ulaanbaatar again this summer. Travelers arrived from Estonia (Lauri Mihkelson), Germany, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland, Holland, Serbia, Korea, Japan and Mongolia (Mongolians are naturally the kindest hosts in the world) (: I stayed at Zaya's Hostel in central UB. There, I split the MongoliaX2014 into three (3) Microadventures: Terejl National Park (1), Gobi Desert-Sumber East (2), and visiting Khentii grasslands on a return trip through Avarga mineral lakes (3). 

First into the Terejl National Park (1) to see the running horses, bright green pasture Steppe hills and mountains, some herders and flocks, road workers from China, and wooden bridges towards the Turtle Rock. There, I camped there nearby a Shaman ground where pine trees were wrapped in colorful ribbons and cloth alongside the snaking hiking path towards Turtle Rock of Terejl Park. This location is just 60km (Park entrance, 3,000 Tugruts) 80km outside of Ulaanbaatar riding east on Peace Avenue directly from downtown (State Department Store - MAP of central Ulaanbaatar). The city of Ulaanbaatar is changing and developing - I noticed the paved roads of this capital city have improved since I started my trip in 2012 (massive holes filled in). The city was safer than two years before, as police or security officers would wait outside major shops or patrol through downtown on sidewalks. 

Second, riding southeast into the eastern Gobi Desert (2) along the TransMongolian railway route to China. Along this route, I met the most cycle travelers in all my travels. A family from Serbia with trailers on the road for 5+ months with their 3-year old son in tow; a Dutch couple on Recumbent bicycles having a blast riding to/from Ulaanbaatar to Sainshand in the Gobi all summer long. A Swiss couple (Jean-da and Leo) several years into their Round-The-World Tour, they are still traveling as I update this journal, bonnes voyages mes amis! I also picked up a ticket for the TransMongolian railway and bribed ($2.50) my way onto the train back to Ulaanbaatar to have lunch with a Japanese friend named Tomoko before leaving for Khentii grasslands, a Japanese cyclist/engineer who has ridden in Antarctica and designed a Fat Bike.

Third, riding east and west to and from the Khentii grasslands and offroad to the Avarga mineral lakes (3).  This section of the journey was different than the first two in several different ways.  I met a cool family outside of Baganuur, they resided along the highway and the grandmother had her year-round Ger tent setup with a large pasture of milking cows and horses from neighbors would often get mixed into her herds and shooed away by her grandchildren and their friends. From Baganuur, I continued east to Khentii leaving TOV central province into the greater grasslands which sprawl out for thousands of kilometers. I met 

An Ovoo - Shaman or Buddhist spiritual mound on mountain crossings (Davaa)

My first tour across Mongolia (2012)...

MongoliaX2012 - Solo independent crossing by Mountain bike (MTB). Mongolian tracks which can take you across the country, I tried and completed 2,500km or 1553 miles of them on the first trek I called the MongoliaX2012. Following my own route cooked up on Google maps and uploaded into a Garmin 705 cycling GPS. I completed that journey 53 miles further than the current record holder (Ash Dykes) for solo, unsupported crossing of Mongolia - but he pulled a cart, I cycled, trekked and pushed my bike to complete the shoulder-breaking journey two years before him with the aid/freshment/conversation and exchange of gifts with Mongolian Nomads from TOV province to Bulgan to Khovsgol Lake to Barunturuun to UVS province to the furthest point inside Altai Taven Bogd National Park in Kazakh Bayan-Olgii. I went the length of Mongolia from central to northern to far western solo/unsupported (for myself), but made the best of cultural connections to do it. I returned this summer to complete another 1200km to reach the Gobi Desert (Sumber - Eastern) and across Mongolia to the far east Khentii grasslands. 

My second tour across Mongolia (2014)...

The easier ride this year, 745 miles/1200km mostly on pavement, 200km out to Avarga mineral lakes). I traveled to see Mongolia, meet international travelers, relax in nature, and enjoy. (:This trek was more about feeling Mongolia - the clean air, finding and utilizing clean water sources either through filtering rivers (MSR microfilter) or carrying 10 liters of unfiltered well water (filling a few liters in villages, it's clean and delicious direct from a deep spring) or sometimes topping up on near-surface well water used by horses and humans (in which I always filter before drinking or use in cooking). I cooked this year in Mongolia, previously I carried no stove, pots, fuel or perishable food that required cooking for 45 days crossing the country. I enjoyed cooking meals this summer, and prepared them over LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas/natural gas) and a simple LPG burner head, on a stainless steel pot, and carrying a spoon and a small knife.  

BECAUSE IT WAS THERE...

I have completed through solo crossing thr 4-corners of Mongolia 3700km or 2299 miles (2300km offroad) unsupported in 65 days (7 rest days included).  Like many of the travelers I have met in Mongolia (including David Yu - Los Angeles Med Surgeon/friend/new sponsor), we always want to return to the magic of Mongolia. I did it because as George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) said when he climbed Everest...Because it was there.

Terejl National Park on day 1 of my 20 day tour. 1200km was no problem given the surfaced roads going East/Southeast to the eastern Gobi Desert along the TransMongolian railway route.

I didn't carry rear/side panniers, I chose to use a 35L backpack and sleeping bag stuff sack contained all my clothing except the Goretex jacket. Upfront in the Ortlieb Frontroller Classic panniers I packed spare parts/tools/food/dead notebook computer/medicine/First Aid/and snacks.

The pavement, the landscape, the horses free to roam the park. Terejl was a good place to be.

Out of sight in lower right, a dead dog in this river. Very important to filter all water sources downstream!

I roll to ride Mongolia.

This is my dream, or one of them for bicycle touring in a foreign country in the summer. 

At night, I gathered twigs as kindling, and unfortunately there are Mongolians who picnic and throw trash in collective piles, I burned some plastic bottles as ignition and packed out a pile of other garbage left behind. Remember to always pack-out what you bring in on camping trips and microadventures. Leave the place cleaner than you found it, it helps the next person who wild camps in these beautiful locations. (:

Shamanism is alive in Mongolia

A lone calf walks by the Ger camps. These host international travelers taking Jeep-guided tours for the day or several days from Ulaanbaatar. You can actually do a lot in this area, Terejl also hosts a beautiful monastery - just a few kilometers beyond the Turtle Rock. Follow the gravel road Northeast and you will find it there. There are horseback tours arranged with you tour company in this area as well. Enjoy.

MongoliaX2012 - 1553 miles, 2500km, 40,000 meters, Offroad, 45 days. A first "solo crossing" for me. (:

Post by Brian Perić.

Post by Brian Perić.

Post by Brian Perić.

Traveling is about the friends you meet, the places you see, the experiences you keep, the dreams under your feet traveling for a few months at a time. This is traveling adventure that is familiar to me. Going some place far from home and familiarity is exotic and it can be life fulfilling as a journey. These journeys don't have to end, they are a step to a new beginning.

More adventure coming soon, thanks for visiting (:

Haute Route - Life is a Pass // Adventure Mountain Biking // Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route // France & Switzerland MTB Alpine routes //

Haute Route - Life is a Pass from Filme von Draussen on Vimeo.
[Author notes] Two friends set out to ride the world's most famous ski tour - on their mountain bikes. Their story is about exhaustion, glaciers and big challenges of an unexpected kind.
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[Wiki] The Haute Route, (or the High Route or Mountaineers' Route) is the name given to a route undertaken on foot or by ski touring between Chamonix in France and Zermatt in Switzerland.

Mongolia X Journal 20 // Driving two wheels // Challenge and Freedom are one - opportunity to see the world //

This place is enormous, who built the tracks and what horses have ran across them centuries ago, the trails of Genghis Khan and the Nomadic way. I can ride for hours endlessly seeing new horizons ahead of me. On mountain ranges that climb from 1300 meters to 2600 meters, it's a challenge and freedom as one. Every day is the same routine for me, but the environment makes it new, fresh and invigorating. Rain and sun, wind and cold, it all changes around me as I ride Northwest. When the conditions are dry, I can stop and rest on my backpack on the Taiga Steppe grass, other times it raining and wet, cold and windy and I am sweaty, tired and dirty and wouldn't even think of stopping right now - I ride and stay warm. White dots, some in pairs and some in a linear line along the mountains, near streams where tributaries flow back and the surface aquifers provide source of local water. Cycling across, up and over. Grades, altitudes, GPS mapping, peering down at the map while I ride or take my camera out of my chest pocket and snap a picture (above). Occasionally, I encounter a Nomad herding his flock of several dozen obedient sheep and goat tracking in lines together, mulching the grassland with pattering tiny hoofs. I set myself a goal everyday, and try to scribble notes in my journal, pin point the map, and get some good sleep when wind whips and moans around mountains, I have only myself in some areas where it's clear and above the dirt track national highway.

I am writing old and new, thoughts of the Himalayas and present X journal in Mongolia. I turn pages and use my whiteboard marker like a paint brush. My thoughts are clear and punctuate the paper with experiences only a few years ago, I dreamed of. Now, I am living the Challenge and Freedom are one - opportunity to see the world. If one door closed this summer (making it to Alaska), another door opened (booking a flight to Mongolia); so I take any opportunity to the see the world from a mountain bike. I want something challenging and extreme - dropping in, into culture and new languages, into new ways of life (or ancient reflections as I see here), and this requires a great deal of commitment and it is important despite the hardship, to connect in the Element. Land, animals, terrain, weather and climate all seem as vivid as they can get. I am certainly pushing hard, driving two wheels, and have a great deal ahead of me this summer.

Faraway from Asia where I live (and where many readers are reading this in North America), is home. I dream of going home and traveling by mountain bike across Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, British Columbia before sweeping through the Rockies to Banff, Alberta and crossing the Continental Divide. I remember motorcycle touring through Banff, Alberta in the spring of 1996 and riding up from Billings, Livingston, Bozeman and Butte, Montana on Interstate highway 90, and turning North at I-15 towards Helena, then turned out to Highway 89/200, and continued Northwest towards Freezeout Lake and Choteau, through the Rocky Mountains past Lower Saint Mary Lake and past Flathead National Forest onto Highway 89 to Kalispell, and Highway 93 to Highway 3 in British Columbia to Cranbrook...

Memories of marathon journeys stay with me long after the ride was through. Mongolia by mountain bike (where most people I met suggested "machine" which means use a motorcycle) is definitely more challenging and each passing day, gives me more challenge and more freedom that I had the day before, or the weeks before I came here. So, without regrets I ride for the challenge this summer and support two great foundations IDEAS and ETE and Lynskey Performance, USA for supporting. Hope you enjoy reading the X Journals from Mongolia - More adventures are coming soon!!!

On the trails of Genghis Khan.

Made it ahead of the dust storm, Northwest Mongolia 2012

Sandstorms of western Mongolia

Mongolia X Journals 18 // Endless Drifting after completing

I find myself deep adrift in another world. East Asia, South Korea. Miles from the outside, clear air drifting over deserts and arid grasslands of Mongolia. My eyes are fixed on that movement, the survival I face, alone and with Nomads, the horses, the sheep, the tough yaks and camels brought along by horsemen and further ahead on the track, I see goats scurrying and munching mountain sides in symmetrical rows and tracing patterns. The land is natural under my feet. There are no paved roads, lines, traffic lights or the fog of drivers and pollution here. It's still out of reach for civilization and much of the land is needed for the animals who roam and feed their Nomadic people. The Russians have left the country, the Chinese are over the borders. Solidarity and democracy and pastoralism where the roaming sheep and goats outnumber people. This is a good feature of Outer Mongolia. Unforgettable. 

Sponsor support came from Lynskey Performance, USA

Today, I feel a vast emptiness bigger than deserts and I am home now in South Korea, while the North cajoles the idea of a nuclear war, I fall out of order losing touch with the westernized, commercialized South while we look out from stone wall apartment blocks and sliding glass windows at similar structures in rows of apartment columns, this could be the U.S.S.R. And in the back of my mind's eye, I can still see a golden sun and washboard roads, the rocky track and dust blowing behind a UAZ-452 people mover revving up over the mountain peak past the Ovoo, the spiritual cairn with horizons coming and going all the way from Lake Baikal in the North across the border in Siberia to the clutches of sand desert Gobi in the south. 

Here again, it's South Korea and the air is dry carried over the Taebaek and Cheongoksan mountains nearby. Here we are "Yellow Dusted" all springtime with a hazy cloud of pollutants that recently choked airports to close in Beijing and cause serious respiratory hazards in the elderly and those prone to allergies, my children were sick for weeks from this foul air. Far away and unclear, East of China, East of Mongolia, East of the Gobi Desert - the Far East is where we live. All spring is "outdoor activity on hold, or exercise with caution" since air masses are mixed with sandy dust and toxins from Industrial two-face, China.

I've been in physiotherapy for 4 weeks, best time spent in my life of recovery. A doctor who cares and knows my injuries, he can feel them with his hands and works the muscles and tendon like kneading a loaf of bread before throwing it through the fires of the oven. Everyday I leave the clinic I can walk straighter, feel less pain, do more than I did since I spent the summer hunched over while scaffolding 40,000 meters across 2,500 kilometers of the Northern Steppe in Central Asia.

I hurt, I feel pain now like I never did before. Today, I don't ride bikes, I don't speak to sponsors and I drift further away from finding them with my own personal life rolling through turbulent storms, electric clouds, dark shadows and light casting nets over my happiness and drowning it in a wild river. While trapped within nature's grip, I feel peace slipping through my hands when the next CNN report sensationalizes and draws more world attention to their news, their advertisers. While over here, we are struggling to keep watch over our families, homes, jobs and security - this is life in a divided Korea, today a risk environment for future warfare. Now, I must report to work and get the classes done, professional, work and family life, money and debts paid - the fine art of balance on a thin red line.

I now live again behind concrete walls, the internet, the social scene is displayed on a computer monitor, thousands flock to see, hear and click "Like" and add a new page to follow. I do the same as the sheep following the social road through a digital whiteout, a blizzard of connectivity and temporal connections. I miss living from my tent in the deserts, the grasslands, the yelp of dogs and bleeping of sheep coming round from their pastures in the middle of the night when stars twinkle bright and you feel alright. 

I miss the creative space of nature in wide open pastoral lands, where I could camp somewhere each night between 1,564,115 square kilometers of a single country, mostly open Steppe, arid grassland undeveloped, as were the tracks serving as national highways connecting life routes of trade and traveler. Small-bore 150cc Chinese motorcycles and the occasional 350cc single cylinder Russian motorcycle - a IZH Planeta 5s moving slowly, bobbing through holes and around overturned stones with a newborn baby wrapped in blankets between mother and husband, headscarf and sunglasses, jackets and heavy Mongolian overcoats, saving them from the cold nights, the harsh sunlight, and biting flies as they roll along.

It's tough living far from your cultural roots for so very long, the distances grow bigger each year and you always plan to go back, but you can't. And inside the Southern half of the Korean peninsula, the geographical space begins to shrink into one culture, one moment in time. You drift here, they don't see you, you work and serve the needs for hundreds, time ticks by, you drift by, nobody says goodbye. The wave of endless life, replaceable and timed out in the moments eventually lost in the sea of drifting memories. Mongolia was exceptional, I want to return.

What is the next expedition? 

--
Brian Perich

Adventure Cyclist, Explorer, Father, University Lecturer

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