A good hike

Over the weekend, I went with the HP mountaineering club to Wuling Farm - nestled at the foot of Snow Mountain. I was here last year as well, we had this aborted attempt to climb Snow Mountain - 2nd tallest in Taiwan. No permits were issued that weekend because of a nearby typhoon even though the weather was perfect then. Sigh, beaurocracy... *shrug*

The weather this time around initially didn't bode so well, even as we drove in on Saturday it was heavy mist (didn't help that I was just watching this horror movie called the Mist on HBO).. But it was perfect on Sunday - climbing day.

Had an ex-Houston based colleague who's now working for a Taiwanese software company in town and he wanted to join too. Except he had a meeting til noon on Saturday. So we arranged a separate car (which cost a ridiculously exorbitant cost of 5000nt!), it was a nice Mercedes Benz (a little old though, with a driver that kept getting lost!) and I offered to ride with him since I speak Chinese and also means that I get to sleep in a little and not have to leave with the HP folks at 7am :)

Our driver got us to Wuling Farm by 2.30pm (he was in a rush as he didn't want to drive home alone in the dark and in the mist - chicken shit! and I suspect he feared getting lost as well).

I skipped the shower (hey, I was in the Mercedes Benz for most of the day anyways) and we were all in our sleeping bags in our tents by 9pm. I shared a tent with 2 other women (slim, petite) who snored like men! Both of them! Yes, I caught no sleep all night. Sigh.

Waking up at 4am, we started for Chiyou Mountain 池有山which is one of the 4 biggest mountains in that range. It's also a 百岳, a list of 100 best peaks in Taiwan. Not that I'm bagging peaks, but this makes my 3rd 百岳.

It was perhaps a 7km walk to the foot of Chiyou, and then a 4km hike up, sounds easy? This 4km plus 1km elevation means it's a steep hike. It's also mostly rocky, pebbly path, so it was a slow slog up for me. We took 8hours to get up, and 4.5 hours down. Yeah, we walked for 12.5hours.

Frank was really nice, patient, we walked slow and he was really good about it. And we rested a lot too. Took numerous pictures. I could enjoy nature and the walk up... It was really nice. At a rest spot, we were surrounded by 黃鼠狼 or Chinese mink or weasel. They ran around us, but were too shy to come close when we tried to bait them closer with food.

We had excellent views of Snow Mountain, Daba Mountain and all the beautiful peaks surrounding us - most of the way up, which helped as a distraction when your legs are so tired.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157622615968746/

Thank you Jesus. This will be the last hike of the year, I was going to say last tiring activity, but then Blues just MSN asking if I wanted to go Palau, Dec 5 to 12? Hmm...