Cycling Guansi Township and Hiking Yangmingshan National Park
This past weekend was finally filled with the adventures which initially led me to Taiwan. Saturday morning I set out on my trusty steed and rode south past Longtan into the mountains. After a few kilometers, I decided to pull off the main road and start exploring the countryside. I eventually settled on country road 118 in pursuit of an English translation mentioning something about paradise.
Some rice patties on the way out to the countryside
The roads started to get steep
Ah, 118 you were fun
Towards the top of the climb
Although I never found said “paradise,”after about 15 km of climbing, and exiting Taoyuan County, I decided to turn back around so I could make it back to work on time. The road had little traffic and was great for my first outing into the mountains. I was plagued with flat tires the rest of the day, one from a spike and another from fighting a pot hole at night, which I lost.
Sunday morning I woke up with the goal to get into the mountains and hike. After some quick searches, the easiest and closest would be just outside Taipei to the north. Yangmingshan National Park can be easily reached from Taipei using the MRT (Taipei Metro) and a bus transfer. I managed to convince two new people from the dorms to come with me.
Finally, after a long and surprisingly smooth trip to the park, we arrived just in time for the thunderstorms to roll in. Not today Mother Nature! Ponchos in hand, we embarked from Xiaoyoukeng and left for the trail leading to the summit of Mount Qixing.
Large stones led the way to the peak. Arrow bamboo flourished and was basically the only living plant in the area. We also passed numerous fumaroles at the beginning of our ascent. They were the result of past volcanic activity in the region and an awesome thing to see. However, the stench of sulfur permeated the lower areas of the trail and thankfully didn’t climb further up the mountain with us.
Yo I'm at Yangmingshan National Park!
Simple path to the top. Can you say stair master?
Getting into the trees
Final section to the lookout over Lengshuikeng
Once at the top, after fighting off some crazy locusts, we continued down the path to another peak before descending down toward Lengshuikeng. Beautiful scenery surprised us from time to time when the clouds let up.
Slightly wet at the summit
It was a good little hike to end the week. Happy to say I’m finally am starting to get out into the mountains. I hope to keep the momentum up and visit somewhere else cool next weekend. Any ideas?