Day five of our trip in Taiwan began by catching a bus to Yangmingshan National Park. Only we missed getting off the bus at our stop and ended up getting slightly lost. It became a theme for the day. With the help of our bus driver, then a couple of locals with nearly no English, we did eventually find the trail head that would take us to the information centre where we would plot our route for the day. We decided that our day would begin with climbing Qixing Mountain (the tallest point in the rim around Taipei and the highest volcano on the Island at 1120 meters tall).
This is a trail marker at the start of the trail. Apparently during the period of Chinese influence, these were used to mark routes through the mountains.
Unlike most trails in Canada, a trail in Taiwan seems to be a very well constructed staircase. We would encounter people along the trail whose responsibility it was to sweep the stairs and keep them free from any debry. It made for very easy climbing... but it was climbing none the less.
Josh taking a rest in the "enchanted forest." I believe Josh said this area is considered to be a subtropical jungle, and as a result it was just thick with life.
We saw lots of these butterflies along our long climb up.
Towards the top the stairs were slightly less well cared for, and slightly less perfect... but they just kept going up.
We were told the hike up would take about 2 hours, and that it was about a 2km hike. We covered the first 1.5km in about 45minutes, but that last .5km was brutal! In the end, it did take us 2 hours to make it to the top. Above you can see the stairs as they led up the to the western peak.
The last of the stairs up and the top of the Eastern peak, and the highest point of Qixing Mountain.
Celebrating the long hike up!
Once resting at the top we began the hike down the opposite side of the mountain and along that walk down we got to see a number of sulfur vents steaming and smelling. It was pretty cool, but after 45minutes of walking in the sulfur-y smell it was nice to be clear of them. At the base on the far side of Qixing Mountain we went to another info centre and asked for directions to take us to Juzihu, where we were told there was a trail with a bunch of tea houses, as well as a really good view over Taipei in the evening. The lady there told us the bus we were hoping to take loops the park in one direction only, and it was going the opposite way we were wanting to go (i.e. the stop we wanted to get to was stop #5 on the route, and we were currently standing at stop #6). Lucky for us, she said their is a 3km hiking trail to where we wanted to get to, and it was flat (no stairs). So we decided we would walk... she took us to the trail's head and then accompanied us to the first split in the trail to make sure we got the turn correct and then we were on our own. We lost the trail a couple of times when it came to the roads, and at one point flagged down a couple on a scooter to give us directions. The most helpful person I think we saw along the way when we were feeling lost was a man who looked incredibly puzzled at us when we tried to ask him for directions, but he just pointed down the trail and said "bus." It was exactly what we needed to know, and it got us to our destination. We never did find the tea house trail, but by the time we got to the look out at Juzihu it was still too cloudy to see anything so we just caught the bus back to Beitou again. Over all it was a good day, lots of stairs, lots of clouds, but lots of memories and great experiences along the way.
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