Yangshuo Another late start today as we slept in and went looking for breakfast/lunch before starting. We got some dumplings from a street vendor to hold us over until we could find a place. While walking down some steps, I saw out of the corner of my eye, Emily slipping, tossing her dumpling in the air, and catching it again. It happened so fast, I don’t think I even had time to turn and look. We couldn’t find a place so settled on McDonald’s. They have a Prosperity Burger that looks like the McRib so I was excited to get it. It was not as good as the McRib unfortunately. The coffee has been good in China but the McDonald’s coffee was as bad here as it is at home. Yesterday my “new”, replacement bike was sounding pretty bad. The crank was making clunking noises when I’d start pedaling again. Stuff was creaking and cracking. Today, it was getting worse and I joked that they must have taken this bike out of retirement and it was probably ready to die. I was so happy that we were almost done because I didn’t think this bike was going to survive much longer. Little did I know. One thing I forgot to mention in the earlier reports - there have been a lot of firecrackers being set off around us during our rides for the Qingming Festival. Families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites and make ritual offerings to their ancestors. They also set off firecrackers as a “celebration”. Emily does not like “loud bangs” so this has been some exposure therapy for her. We’ve heard many firecrackers, some lasting for 30s, each day. Yesterday some firecrackers were set off right as we passed by. Today on one of our trail explorations, on our way to revisiting the cool bamboo forest from last year, we ended up going through a family’s celebration. They set off their firecrackers just after we passed. I’ve lost count of how many grave sites we’ve passed as they right next to many of the trails we’ve been on. The bamboo forest was just as nice and just as dead-endy as last year. There was a steep little chute that we had to push our bikes up last year. I thought I could ride up it on my e-bike but when I tried, the clunky drivetrain struck. Some part of my drivetrain slipped and I lost drive right near the start. Luckily I caught myself from falling. After checking to see if the dead-end was still a dead-end. When we started to head back, I tried to pedal and I just heard the sound of metal on metal as somewhere, gears slipped and were probably stripped. The cranks were spinning freely forwards and backwards and I lost all connection to the rear wheel. Luckily the place we rented our bikes from is local. We had to wait about an hour but they brought my first bike back. 🤣 The second bike wasn’t as powerful as this bike and before it died, I really wasn’t sure I was getting assist sometimes. Before the e-tastrophy, we had found some really nice singletrack and our goal after was to connect to it with some more great trails. We found an unmarked, magical and beautiful, forest. The trails were moss covered and sometimes slippery. I believe they’re used so I’m not sure why the whole area was that way. The light was also just so nice in there. We spent a bunch of time there trying to figure out how to connect it to other parts of the route but found more dead-ends. It was starting to get late so we decided to scrap the rest of today’s exploration and head back. On the way back we ended up finding some more beautiful trails with a super steep climb. Since I had a new bike, I had the battery to climb it. Unfortunately, Emily’s battery died on that climb and had to do the rest of the ride unassisted. Fortunately, it was basically downhill back. We’ve ridden through so many beautiful, rural areas juxtaposed with piles of garbage and some really rundown buildings. It’s a bit tragic. Getting to come back and revisit the area has really allowed me to appreciate it so much more. Grateful to be able to do this. Just one more day.