Portrait of an LBX

National Highway G110, which runs from Beijing to Lhasa, is not a fun road. We were forced to ride it for several days for lack of other options out in the desert, and we regret almost every moment of it. On our second day in Inner Mongolia, the pavement disappeared and we were left with dust, trucks and a driving headwind. Here, a masked Dave struggles with the final stretch before our expensive lunch in a concrete imitation yurt.

Sometimes the ride just grinds you down, down, down and right into the sandy desert ground. We fought a driving headwind all morning on our second day in Inner Mongolia, making progress at a snail's pace. In the afternoon, the pavement on the national highway disappeared, and we were left with desert dust, rocks and coal-carrying trucks. The headwind of course, never abated. Suffice it to say, it was a bad day. Photo by Pete.

When Pete's chain popped off, got caught on the pedal and ripped his rear derailleur apart, we were fortunate to be within striking distance of Wuhai (烏海). There we searched in vain for a bike shop with some spare parts, only to be mobbed by the largest gathering of looky-loos we've seen in a long time. Most people scatter when we turn the tables and point our cameras at them, but not this guy, whose hat reads "Wuhai Jewelry Shop." Fortunately, on our way out of town after MacGuyver-rigging the bike ourselves, we passed a Giant shop where we were able to switch out the part.

Workers paint one of those brilliant slogans that the Chinese government is so well known for on a wall in Ningxia. This one appears to relate to the railroad.

Evan's tent sits among sand dunes in our first evening in Ningxia. A note to potential sand-campers: if you've been fighting a fierce headwind all day, don't set your tent up in the dunes. Evan and I awoke the next morning with an inch of sand in our tents that had blown in through the mesh the night before. Dad and Ellen somehow escaped unscathed.

Evan, Ellen and my dad stand atop a hill overlooking the scraggly desert where we pitched camp in our last night in Gansu. Our last couple weeks have been marked by headwinds, great campsites and a rush to cover the distance back to Beijing in time.

A herder takes his sheep and goats to graze by Goat Gorge (羊峽) in Qinghai.

A Tibetan rider gives his horse a good whack to the neck after getting thrown in a village horse race in Qinghai.

A Tibetan man waits to race his horse bareback in a village horserace in Qinghai.