Day 6 Daocheng-Litang-Yajiang-xinduqiao-Kangding (436 km)

It's very cold in the morning in Daocheng. We went to eat a long-awaited hoof flower noodle, bought grapefruit and some snacks in Daocheng, and the family of three drove to 3 18 National Road.

The silent highway stretches wantonly on the plateau at an altitude of 4000 meters. The road is covered with boulders, ranging from fists and washbasins to a car. If these stones appear in a river valley, they will be unremarkable, but such a large area covers the whole plateau. I guess only glaciers are so clever. The little beast insisted that he had seen this scene in a book called Four Hours of Glaciers. Finally, I didn't find this book. It is estimated that what he said should be a picture book such as Ice Age.

It suddenly occurred to me that a close friend told me about the Cretaceous glacier relics on Taibai Mountain and his girl.

When I stopped at the roadside, I took my little beast and wanted to go to Haizi next to me to smash some ice cubes and come back to play. But the ice is completely frozen, and the thick ice is extremely strong. A few kilograms of big stones were smashed to a white spot, so we had to give up.

After the garage passed Haizi Mountain, blossoming said that Tuoji Mountain was in front. I thought she had read the raiders carefully, and later I realized that there were a pair of rabbit-ear-shaped boulders on the top of the mountain from a distance. There is a huge glacier relic behind Rabbit Mountain, and round stones cover the whole valley.

Litang County is near Gaocheng Litang, with an altitude of 4014m. Litang literally means copper dam, and Tibetan means a dam as wide as a bronze mirror. The scenery outside the car turned into an endless plateau meadow, and there was no car on the straight road for a long time.

We stopped to take pictures. On a quiet road, you can take pictures even if you are lying in the middle of the road. Similar reports often accuse tourists of this kind of death. But if you really get to Litang and haven't met a car for an hour, you will know that it is not dangerous to park in the middle of the road. And the view is very, very broad. You can see whether there are vehicles coming on the expressway more than ten miles away.

After Litang, because the tunnel was under construction, the mountain climbing road was quickly abandoned and the maintenance stopped long ago. This is a terrible mountain road. Most of the bad roads later were related to the construction of tunnels. Snowflakes are flying in the air over the pass. The snow in the mountains is very different from that in the northeast. Snowflakes in the northeast are beautiful hexagons, crystal clear. However, the snow on the plateau is like snow beans, less romantic. However, I was very excited when I saw the little beast snowing for the first time, so I directly opened the skylight to pick up Xiaoxuedou to play.

The snow is getting heavier and heavier, and passing cars are blocking the number plate. I promise it wasn't intentional. Passing through Kazla Pass, my fat Rui also wore a white mask, and my son came back with a big box of snow, but I didn't know that I would often deal with ice and snow on the road for hundreds of kilometers.

Appreciating the plateau clouds and clouds along the way, the blue sky seems within reach, and I often feel that I am walking in the clouds. Snow-white clouds surge in the valley beside the highway.

Another tunnel is under construction, as always, the rotten road over mountains and mountains. The mountain road collapsed due to lack of maintenance and tilted outward at a large angle. There are two big trucks coming, pulling full loads of goods. The big truck was driving near the mountain root on his left, occupying my driveway and being relatively uncompromising with my front. I got off the bus to negotiate with the other party, and the big cargo driver said, "I pulled a lot of goods, and my center of gravity was very high." Going outside will definitely turn down the mountain, and only your car will risk going outside. But I had to get on the wrong bus carefully. The road was oblique. I can see the abyss next to the roadbed directly from the window. I watched with trepidation as the rocks crushed by the wheels rolled down the cliff.

The rest of the road is wet, muddy and winding. We climbed over the mountain pass in fear and saw the sign of the eighteen bends in Tianlu. At the foot of the mountain is Kangba Hanzi Village. There are various inns on the roadside for friends riding donkeys to stay in. It is estimated that the cyclist should have a rest and reserve some physical strength before going here. The bicycle wheel of the roadside sculpture was stolen and the altitude dropped rapidly. In a blink of an eye, it has been surrounded by a green tree, and Yajiang has arrived!

Crossing Yajiang, a comfortable national road. It didn't take long to turn back to the old highway. Mud, snow, landslides. . . It was bumpy all the way, thanks to those big goods consciously occupying the inner lane near the foot of the mountain and pushing me to the edge of the cliff. Because the roadbed collapses, the outer lanes are inclined outward without exception, and there is always a feeling of going down the mountain when driving. The road surface is potholed, and the technical term is called cannonball pit.

My car is a city SUV, and the load-bearing body is twisted and creaked when crossing the pit. A Pajero flew by me, and a professional four-wheel drive off-road vehicle can keep driving at a high speed of 40-50 kilometers under such road conditions. Looking at Pajero's distant back, the four-wheel suspension system of the vehicle has been greatly expanded. The car body keeps smooth, much like a fast cat. I don't think Pajero's nickname "Bobcat" is a hollow name.

After the rough road, stop and play with the snow. Over the snow-capped mountains, I soon arrived in xinduqiao. Xinduqiao, the so-called photography paradise, lost the ornament of Populus davidiana, bare and silent. There is not even a decent hotel.

At night 17:00, I decided to rush to Kangding for two hours. However, we forgot the "Zheduo Mountain", one of the most difficult mountain passes on National Highway 3 18, which brought a series of troubles later. From a distance, Zheduo Mountain was shrouded in clouds, and large clouds rushed over the mountain ridge and spread straight down. Zheduo Mountain under the blue sky and white clouds didn't smell any danger.

This last photo is the only one left on Zheduo Mountain. It was so dark that I could only see the winding lights. The whole process of climbing the mountain was so tense that I didn't want to take pictures. It was getting late, and we drove to the middle of Zheduo Mountain, where it was snowing heavily. The road ahead is blocked by a row of big trucks, and the driver honks the tweeter from time to time. The sound became more and more harsh in the dark. The road surface is covered with snow, and it is extremely slippery after rolling. My car is stuck on the side of the road, and there are big goods in front and back. I got out of the car quickly and installed a snow chain. When I set out, I foresaw that there might be ice and snow roads, so I bought a beef tendon snow chain in advance, which is better than the chain and convenient to install (it is a bit troublesome to disassemble). The key is that it can run to 60 km/h without damaging the tire.

It's freezing cold outside the car, but fortunately I got a pair of thread gloves. I watched the installation video before, and with ice snow cleverness and years of locomotive work training, I quickly installed the left front wheel. I stood by at a loss but didn't know how to help, so I could only help me with a flashlight.

Suddenly, the little beast cried in the car. I thought he was playing with handrails or something, so I ignored him and asked blossoming to go back to the car to look after him. I cocked my neck with a flashlight to continue the installation. Snow chains must be installed quickly, otherwise you won't have time to stop and install snow chains when the whole team starts. When I was sitting in the car with muddy snow chains, I found the two of them crying in despair. The little beast cried and said, "Dad, I don't want to stay here. Let's turn around and go back! "

On such a dark night, there are no lights at the end of the mountain, whistling snowflakes and the harsh whistle of big goods. Invisible pressure makes the "little beast" feel desperate. It seems that the team is going to bring a political commissar. I neglected the ideological mobilization work and the team almost broke up. Actually, I'm looking forward to this experience. I hate being trapped in the snow-capped mountains for a day and a night. There are more than 50 liters of fuel in the car, which can start the car for at least 30 hours (the water tank will overheat? It's so cold, I wish I didn't freeze. ) I have enough fruit, fresh water, noodles, canned lunch meat, compressed biscuits, dried eggs (from Master Shen) and enough fuel tanks in my car. If we have more vegetables, we can eat hot pot. In the worst case, there are tents, sleeping bags and shovels in the car. After the vehicle runs out of fuel, a windbreak and snow fort can be built. What's there to worry about going out with a critically ill patient like me in a doomsday crisis?

I smiled and asked the little beast, are you cold? Hungry? Still thirsty? What do you think we have besides staying in a hotel? The little beast thought for a long time and said that there was no TV. . . . I was immediately angered. Ok, the cell phone signal is not good, or I'll show you cartoons. We have everything else. What are we worried about?

There was a traffic jam for about two hours. It is estimated that all the trucks in front are equipped with snow chains. This kind of chain is usually rented, rented on one side of the mountain and returned to the waste collector on the other side of the mountain after climbing the mountain. Traffic jam is a sudden snowstorm, and a large number of trucks stop to install snow chains, resulting in the accumulation of vehicles.

The motorcade began to move slowly forward. From time to time, there are shameless bullying, land patrol, F 150 and other cars that think they have good performance, overtaking from the opposite lane to force traffic jams, and the road surface is in chaos. Be careful to climb over the top of the mountain. The downhill slope is too slippery to suddenly accelerate the brakes in case the vehicle gets out of control.

However, when going down the mountain, the big trucks kept spraying water to cool the hot brakes, and the steam from the brake discs was sprayed out, mixed with fog, and the visibility of the whole road was insufficient 10 meter. Every time there is a mountain wind blowing, I see that there is no vehicle in the opposite lane in the gap of steam, and the throttle is stepping through the steam area. It was so dark that I felt resigned to my fate. Every time you catch up with a big product, it's like gambling.

Halfway up the hill, there was no snow on the road, but a thick fog came. Great, I can't see anything. Drive to the side of the road, remove the snow chains, and judge the direction of the road ahead by the shiny reflective signs on the side of the road. A highly tense hour finally drove to the foot of the mountain.

We went directly to Kangding New Town. It's really good to find a hot pot restaurant and a nearby hotel to eat fish pots. It's the most affordable hotel in this trip. It can be felt that Kangding's local consumption is not high, and it has not driven the price increase because of tourists. This is a livable town.

I took off my coat in a hot pot restaurant and found myself covered in mud. I felt very manly to protect my women and children by myself. After staying in Kangding for one night, we experienced the excitement and tension all the way, and everyone was very tired. Let's wash and sleep. . .

Because everyone says there will be traffic jams in Erlang Mountain, it is suggested to bypass asbestos. Tomorrow, I'm going to Gongga Snow Mountain in Hailuogou. The little beast and blossoming insisted on eating, drinking and having fun for the rest of the journey. They will never walk such a difficult road again.

I had to promise them to go to Hailuogou No.2 camp and soak in hot springs to see the snow-capped mountains.

To be continued. .