Next Hike: Tuesday January 3rd, 2012

The viewing tower atop Mount Daluntou

NOTE Tomorrow’s meeting time: 8 am at Jiantan MRT station ticket barrier.

I’ve stopped posting notice of new hikes up because the weather has been so nasty it’s hard to plan far in advance, but hope to start posting upcoming hikes up here once again. Anyway Tuesday the weather is looking OK, and I have a few photos of the place we’re exploring that are worth putting up here, so here goes.

In Pamir Park

   This MODERATE hike is in the Wuzhi Hills, just outside the southeast border of Yangmingshan National Park. We start at the unusual Pamir Park above Waishuangxi, and climb up the steep wooded ridge via a network of largely forgotten  dirt trails. At the top is a lovely wooded stream valley and a fine viewpoint from a huge outcrop of rock jutting out of the steep valley side.

On the trail

   Not far from here we reach Fengguikou at the highest part of the Taipei – Wanli road (on one of Taipei area’s best-known cycling routes) and, assuming the weather is holding out, we’ll connect with the main peaks of the Wuzhi (Five Finger) ridge: Daluntou and Dalunwei. These are baby peaks by Yangmingshan standards, and this second part of the trail will be on surfaced paths and raised wooden boardwalks (i.e. not muddy) but it’s a surprisingly lovely walk, if much more popular than the little-explored first half of the walk.

A magnificent viewpoint near the highest point of the hike

   This is a hike in two halves, and you should be prepared for some rough dirt paths, a fair bit of climbing, a stream or two to cross (without a bridge) and of course mud. The second half is a lot simpler, although expect steps and some more climbing here as well. This last half of the walk has many options – the favorite would be to descend to Neihu via the very popular trail on Jinmian, with the rocky climb down at the end, but what we do is (as usual these days) dependant on weather and time.  

A viewpoint near Mt Daluntou

   I’ll post the meeting time etc up tonight or tomorrow morning, but it will be Jiantan MRT Station north exit (the one for the bus stops and Shilin Night Market) at around 8 am. I’ll check the bus time and get the exact meeting time posted up later.

On the trail above Pamir Park

Meanwhile here’s a few photos from previous walks, to whet your appetite!

Part of the very popular and fun rock-face trail down from Mt Jinmian to Neihu

Mount Daluntou

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

 

Silver Stream Cave and Four Beasts Mountains: Two Fantastic Walks in the City

 

Climbing the easiest (!) of the five routes up the Nangang Cliff

The natural cleft known as 'A Thread of Sky'

Despite the horrible weather, there have been a few breaks in the rain, and since I’ve had an unusual amount of free time (few piano students over the Christmas hols, and no way to practice my own piano, since my right little finger is still too tender to play) there have been a couple of chances to get out hiking – if only in the area around the city.

Silver Stream Cave

   Joining Stu, Ross and co. from Taiwan Adventures  on one of their group hikes on Christmas Eve, we went to one of my favorite places around the city, Silver Stream Cave, but by a completely different route from the one I usually take. I still much prefer my usual (far wilder and more natural) route, but that would have been much too muddy after all the recent rains. Anyway, the hike was billed as a ‘social’ hike, and was as much about networking (and possibly hooking up – it looked like there was a little of both going on), and all in all it was great fun.

In Silver Stream Cave

     Actually I was so busy trying to be social that I became completely disoriented and it was only when we actually reached the base of the waterfall itself that I realised that we’d been following the route I know so well – from the opposite direction – for the last ten minutes. Apart from those ten minutes however the trails were all quite new to me – a reminder (as if I needed reminding) that there’s always tons of new routes to discover in the Taipei area.

It's a simple but fun climb to the top of Tiger Mountain

The view over Taipei from little Tiger Mountain rivals the one from the much more popular Elephant Mountain

I’ve been meaning to return to the Four Beasts area (the pair of ridges that rise above Taipei 101 in east Taipei) for a while, and as luck would have it, a lack of hikers meant we postponed this week’s weekday hike to the area until Wednesday 28th, which will surely go down as one of the finest-weather days of the entire winter.

The first of the many rock faces of the morning's hike

  

Higher up, the scrambles become more tricky

The second of five routes up the final cliff; to my great shame I chickened out of this one and walked ten minutes along the bottom of the cliff to the easier (and safer!) route at the far end...

The fifth route (of five) up Nangang Cliff is the easiest, but it's also great fun to climb, up a long, steep cliff face, topped by this ladder

We were just a small group meeting at Houshanpi MRT station, but the sky was cloudless and the temperature almost spring-like. The Four Beasts is a wonderful area to explore any day (be sure to try to get further than the standard ascent of Elephant Mountain), but today it was a really memorable. There’s nowhere within easy reach of the Taipei MRT network (and actually there’s nowhere in the city, full stop) that approaches this little range of rocky, wooded peaks for sheer variety. From challenging (and fun) rocky cliffs (several are near-vertical and present one of the stiffest challenges to hikers of any trail in the whole Taipei area) to the mass of charming, colorful and occasionally bizarre man-made constructions dotting the wooded cliffs, there’s a wealth of things to discover.

Nine-Five Mountain, the highest point in the hills at a humble 375 meters

  

View from Mount Nangang

  

 

The summit of Thumb Mountain

  

 

The most famous spot on the Four Beasts: the Big Rocks viewpoint just below the summit of Elephant Mountain (photo taken earlier this year)

The steep and easily-missed path climbing to the top of little Lion Mountain

Panther Mountain (photo taken January 2011)

Today we basically followed what I like to call the ’Grand Circuit,’ a 4-5 hour loop combining all seven main peaks of the two ridges that I worked out for Taipei  Escapes 2, but it’s hard to go wrong wherever you hike here – and impossible to get lost – simply head to Taipei City Hall, Yongchun or Houshanpi MRT stations (the last is probably the closest), walk towards the wooded peaks to the south and start exploring. There’s an extraordinary range of curious attractions, natural beauty and trails of all standards here.

Just keep reminding yourself you’re still in the city!

GETTING THERE:

Four Beasts Mountains are easily reached (as I mentioned above) from Taipei City Hall, Yongchun or Houshanpi, and the trailheads are kind-of-signposted from there, although it’ll take a bit of trial-and-error to find them; Tiger Mountain trailhead, in the back of a large temple, is especially tricky to find – take a good map  (or a copy of Taipei Escapes book 2!) if possible.

   Silver Stream Cave can be reached from at least three places. The walk I did with Taipei Adventures started at the end of shuttle bus 9副 and 9 區, but these are very uncommon (each only running 2 services in the morning). It’s much more convenient to take (as we did) a taxi from Xindian District Office (about NT$120) to Daxiangshan (大香山), and follow the signs for first U-Theater (the drumming troupe rehearse and perform in a stage in the woods deep in the hills) then to Silver Stream Cave, which the local authorities Romanized directly from the Chinese characters as something like ‘Yinghedong’ which means nothing to most Westerners or Chinese alike.

   Alternatively, a more adventurous route to Silver Stream Cave is described in Taipei Escapes 2.

Taipei Adventures is a new company set up by Stu and Phil Dawson, Ross Tweedie, and Neil Wade. Apart from leading trips into the high mountains (their Snow Mountain trip is a regular event at the moment) and offering online and iPhone guides to Taiwan, run free day-hikes, easy to strenuous, around the Taipei area.  Click on the link above to get to their website, or here to get to their online Taiwan guide.

The Yangmingshan Project V: White Cloud Hill and Banling Trails: the Wilder side of Tianmu

Emerald Mountain Waterfall, just above Tianmu

I find it amazing (although, for selfish reasons, I think it’s also very fortunate!) that almost all of Tianmu’s health-conscious inhabitants (and indeed many residents from elsewhere in Taipei as well) limit their longer walks in the area almost exclusively to that long, dull trudge variously known as the Tianmu Steps, the Pipeline Trail or Tianmu Old Trail. It’s not a bad way to get from Tianmu onto the mountainside, and after the steps the contour path along the steep hillside is admittedly very attractive, with its wide views over the city, but the fact is there are (at least) another three ways to get from Tianmu up onto the Chinese Culture University area of the mountain by footpath or trail, and two of them make for an excellent loop walk, which a couple of us enjoyed the other day, during an expected and welcome break in the long streak of thoroughly grotty weather we’ve been slogging though the last couple of months.

The Yangmingshan Project IV: Jiaokeng Old Trail

Slipping around on the Mudbath Trail

 

I used to consider it a good rule of thumb that even if the weather on the high tops of Yangmingshan National Park was horrible, the Pingdengli (平等里) area in the southeast corner of the National Park was nearly certain to be a good, relatively dry stand-by.  Not true, it seems, this winter; the cold season is only just getting started, but (aside from our amazing good luck on Mount Nanhuda, way down south, a month ago) our last dry hike is fast becoming a dim memory – somewhere back at the end of summer, I think.

High Mountain trip plans for Winter-Spring 2012

The awesome Mount Dabajian (taken on a 1999 hike!)

Hot on the trail of the great treks we did on Chilai and Nanhuda Mountains in November, I’ve been busy planning a series of Winter/Spring trips to the high mountains. I’ve come up with four routes for starters, with provisional plans for a fifth if it can be arranged. Here’s the rundown. All willing and EXPERIENCED hikers are welcome, and all you have to do is pay your share of the costs for the trip (there’s no organization fee) but numbers for all trips will be limited. Let me know if you’re interested! The following dates are provisional, but unless something bad happens (or I get an offer to do another recital!) these dates should be safe.

Mount Nanhuda (南湖大山)

Climbing the North Peak ridge (Day 2)

Mount Nanhuda, the fifth highest mountain in Taiwan (behind Yushan, Snow Mountain, Mt Xiuguluan and the little-climbed  Mt Mabolasi) seems to be amongst the best-loved of all Taiwan’s highest mountains, and I’ve heard many people over the last decade or more claim that it’s the one of the most beautiful. Unfortunately it’s a much longer hike than either Yushan or Snow Mountain, taking four days. Some crazy locals make the dash to the main summit and back in just three, but that’s really pushing it - five days would probably be the best option, allowing a full day to fully explore the spellbinding moonscape of the summit ridges around Nanhu Hut at the top, and maybe bag a fifth or sixth ‘Top Hundred’ peak as well. 

Mount Chilai (奇萊山)

One of Taiwan’s more notorious high mountains, reams have been written about ‘black’ Chilai and it’s been a goal of mine to climb it for myself for many years. About a decade ago, during my first spate of high mountain climbs, I did almost tackle it with a local hiking club, but I came down with a nasty cold two days before the off and missed the trip.

   The problem with Mount Chilai (or Qilai) is probably less due to the actual dangers of climbing it (although the North Peak does have a few dicey moments!) than with the experience (or lack of) among the people who used to climb it.

The Yangmingshan Project III: Mount Huangzui

The summit of Mount Huangzui

 

The main purpose of our series of ‘Yangmingshan Project’ hikes (of which only three of the six planned actually took place so far, due to some unseasonably crap weather) was  simply to get fittened up for a pair of challenging hikes in the high mountains in the center of Taiwan later the same month, but it’s also been a great opportunity to remind myself just what wonderful walking country Yangmingshan has, especially off those well-tramped and widely despised stone trails.

   It’s also good to discover that two of the National Park’s wildest regions – the strict nature reserves of Mount Huangzui and Lujiaokeng - seem to be much more accessible to general hikers nowadays than in the past, when it seemed

Fenglin Waterfall

Fenglin Waterfall, one of the finest in Yangmingshan

 

Beautiful, 25 meter-high Fenglin Waterfall (楓林瀑布) isn’t Yangmingshan’s highest waterfall (that honor goes to Alipang Waterfall (阿里磅瀑布), which is nearly twice as high), but it’s certainly one of the nicest, and getting there makes for an interesting and in places mildly adventurous 90-minute walk.

The Yangmingshan Project II: Seven Star Mountain and Mount Chigu

Descending from Seven Star Mountain towards Lengshuikeng

Just as the first hike in our attempt to conquer all the peaks in Yangmingshan in a series of hikes this month reminded me just how fun and rewarding hiking Taipei’s National Park can be, our second installment hammered home the two main reasons I don’t often venture up there any more – the often miserably overcrowed buses up there (and down again), and the bloody awful weather!