In this post we identify thousand+ km-s of scenic cycle / bike routes in the Himalayan alpine desert of Ladakh. We go as deep as possible inside valleys (end points) and across ridgelines via mountain passes connecting neighboring valleys enabling us to create long distance traverses across 17 major river valleys spanning the entire state of Ladakh.
- Valleys
- Road Network
- Target Points
- Elevation
- Settlements
- Cycle & Bike points
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Valleys
Ladakh consists of 17 major river valleys West to East – Shyok, Nubra, Indus, Hanle, Mundar Tokpo, Koyul Lungpa, Khurna, Zanskar, Markha, Sangeluma, Wakha Rong, Suru, Stod, Tsarap, Zara Chu, Toze Lungpa, Phirse Phu. We cycle / bike through these valleys as deep as possible as well as hop across mountain passes connecting neighboring valleys.
Road network
As a first step we identify the road network on which we can take the cycle or bike from Open Street Maps by querying on below key-value pairs:
Using QGIS and the QuickOSM plug-in we can query above objects from OSM to quickly generate a road network including both tar roads and dirt tracks. This gives us a comprehensive overview how we can commute through valleys and across the mountains.
Target Points
Overlaying this road network on a shaded relief map allows us to quickly identify mountain passes (where roads cross ridgelines) and end-points in valleys and slopes both which make scenic candidates for exploration. These target points provide the most remote and higher altitude points which provide scenic destinations on wheels across the most remote Ladaki hamlets.
After identifying all target points we get a beautiful overview map of scenic cycle and bike destinations both last points in the valleys as well as across mountain passes connecting neighboring valleys. Density of these points is higher in the foothills where the road network is more extensive.
Not every possible road is mapped in Open Street Maps. We can identify additional roads by analyzing high res satellite imagery where additional roads can easily be identified in non forested regions.
Elevation
We identified a total of 170 target points (mountain passes + end-points) across Ladakh which allow us to drive to the most interior regions of the Himalayas and across mid altitude passes. Below histogram shows the altitude range of these points ranging between mostly between 700m till 2500m offering excellent elevation range to explore.
Settlements
Zooming into Open Street Maps thousands of small villages, hamlets and isolated dwellings reveal themselves which form perfect pit-stops for night halt, food supply, guidance and charging electronics along your road trip.
Biking vs Hiking
Comparing both bike points (yellow) and hiking mountain passes (red) we observe that there is a good overlap between both with steeper sections accessible only on foot.
Cycle / Bike points
Northwest
Southeast
Become a patreon to get access to thousands of kms of cycle routes for planning your next long-distance touring journey.