Two of my classes surprised me by writing notes on the whiteboard between classes! James last day of school pictures will be in the next blog...
No rest for the weary! Travel agent James planned an epic trip for us and some friends two days after our teaching contract ended. We have never been overnight hiking, but there was one "must-do" hike in Taiwan that required carrying a sleeping bag up the mountain. Of course if we were hiking one mountain, why not do a couple of others?!
After literally a full Saturday of buying, borrowing and packing for the trip, we were ready! James rented a car for the week. We managed to pack six people as well as their hiking gear into the car. We left at 4 AM on Sunday morning.
Packed in like sardines, we drove and drove and drove some more into the BIG mountains. We finally arrived at the trail-head around 10 AM. The first hike started at Hehuan Mountain. We have been here a couple of times before but have never done this hike. The Qilai trail requires government permits just as many of the hikes do in Taiwan.
Hehuan Mountain - The start of the Qilai Trail
Great weather for the start of the hike
Well, we hiked and hiked and hiked until we reached the cabins around mid-afternoon. By cabins, I am referring to two small elevated one room buildings. There are numbers on the wall to show which space to sleep-in. It's nice and snug. To our surprise, the cabin was full of people. Somehow, the English permit system did not work correctly and we had no space to sleep. This was a serious issue because there are only eight sleeping spots and there were six of us! Of course to make matters worse, it started raining. Well, hiking back down to the car was not a good option as the sun sets in Taiwan by 7 PM and we would not make it off the trail before dark. Thankfully, the Taiwanese hikers were extremely nice and generous. Once again the Taiwanese have a good compression ratio, so we all crammed into one of the cabins. After a quick dinner we were all asleep by 7:30 PM.
We awoke to a gorgeous and clear sunrise! Now I understand the point of overnight hikes: to wake up to the clean fresh air and a sunrise. We made breakfast, packed up, and headed to the summit. After a grueling and tough climb, we reached the summit of Qilai Mountain. WOW!!!!!!!!
Qilai Trail Sunrise and Cabins
Qilai Summit
Celebratory coconut water!
The hike back to the car was quite long and difficult. Somehow, we did not notice that the first 4 kilometers of the trail were actually downhill. We definitely noticed this on the way back though. Four kilometers uphill is not a happy ending. We all made it though by mid-afternoon!
We dropped off two of our friends at a bus stop to head back to Hsinchu. The rest of us enjoyed an early dinner that was not previously dried food! We reached the hostel (the same favorite one we stayed at on a different mountain trip). We took a much much much needed shower and once again crashed before 8 PM!
The alarm went off at 4 AM. Yuck. We were driving by sunrise. (Sunrise in Taiwan is before 5 AM.) We drove and drove and drove until we reached Sheipa National Park. James and I can see the mountains of Sheipa National Park from the coastline in Hsinchu. We have been wanting to go here and do this one specific hike since we first moved to Taiwan.
The hike is Snow Mountain. It's an extremely popular hike in Taiwan as well as the second highest summit. It's even more popular to hike than the highest summit because it's more scenic. It is nearly impossible to get permits for this hike on a weekend.
We started the hike mid-morning. James and I were starting to feel a bit worn out at this point. However, the college-aged exchange student from the Czech Republic that was part of our group was feeling great. He quickly hiked ahead. Europeans have some incredible athletic ability when it comes to climbing mountains.
The hike up was slow. When the clouds parted, the views were gorgeous! We stopped the hike at the cabin. We were saving the main peak for the morning. The cabin was fantastic. It holds 140 people! It had outhouses, a kitchen, picnic tables, a changing room and running water. This is hiking in style!!!!!! We enjoyed some rest time at the cabin and had a leisurely ramen noodle and dried vegetable dinner. The other large group staying in the cabin (from a Catholic University in Taipei) paid extra money to have the cabin manager cook them dinner. We were pretty jealous of their dinner.
A summit along the trail
The cabin.
Kitchen and picnic tables
Me enjoying the rest time and reading a book.
Kitchen
Once again, we were asleep by sundown. We woke up at 4 AM again to see the sunrise. We were told the climb to the main peak would take close to three hours. Well, we powered up the mountain. It took us a little more than one hour to reach the summit. WOW!!!!!!!!! It was phenomenal. The pictures probably don't give it justice.
Sunrise from the cabin
Part of the trail to the summit was in the woods
Snow Mountain Summit! Another celebratory coconut water.
That's James!
Pretty flowers
WOW!!!!! We are so small...
The trek back down was almost all downhill. I personally found this quite enjoyable but not everyone in our party felt the same. The other friend from our church was having some knee pain. The pain became worse as he hiked back down. By the end of the hike, he could hardly walk.
We reserved a cabin in Sheipa National Park for that evening. Our third and final hike was also in this park. We were unpleasantly surprised when we saw our miniature cabin. The cabin supposedly sleeps four people but the whole cabin was about the size of a double bed. So, we went to the bathhouse for a shower and then went in search of food.
We stopped by the police station to get a map for the next hike. We discovered there was no water at the cabins along the trail. This meant we had to carry every drop of liquid we would need for the full hike. We were also shocked by the long time estimates to reach the four summits along the trail. This would be the most difficult of the hikes.
After a serious discussion about our friend's knee, our level of exhaustion, and our lack of enthusiasm to stay in the small cabin and pack our backpacks again, we made a wise decision to cancel the cabin reservation and start driving back to Hsinchu. Although the long four hour drive was rough on all of us, James and I were appreciative to be back home. We enjoyed the trip but I couldn't imagine doing another harder hike! I think we bit off more than we could chew. All I know is that James and I were pretty rough the next morning. It felt like we had just completed some four day adventure race in another time zone!
Thank you Taiwan for another awesome trip! Let the summer begin!!!
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