This was another excursion out along the TSLT, this is supposed to be the final leg of the journey. I haven’t been doing them in order for several reasons, one of which is accessibility. Some of the trails require that I get up for the 5:40 am bus to the trailhead, and while I am awake then, I am not always ready to go. This hike seemed simple enough, some of the views were nice, but with pollution, humidity, and unclear signage, it turned out to be one of the more difficult hikes I’ve done.
To start the day, I was already running late. I had a weird encounter at the 7-11, where I bought snacks for the hike. For whatever reason, the person in front of me continued talking to the cashier, and even as he asked her to step aside, she remained firmly planted so I couldn’t check out. I had to travel all the way to Yongning station 永寧站 on the Blue Line, roughly an hour from my home. It was a pleasant ride, but unfortunately, I made my new hiking buddies wait for me. Melissa and Rubín are lovely people from France and Spain, respectively.
Despite the slow start, the walk up the road was pleasant; we very quickly joined numerous walkers, giving me hope that the hiking path would be clear most of the way up. Another very beautiful aspect of the hike was the Tung blossoms 油桐花, which look like bursts of snow among the verdant hillsides. We ended up on a path that was littered with them, making for lovely scenery as we slowly climbed way out of the city and into the mountains. Along the way, we passed a large Buddhist monastery, river paths, and a series of mountain roads interspersed with stairs. After about an hour and a half of walking, we made it to Yuewang Pavilion 月望亭. Despite mild confusion at one point, so far, the hike was going well.
After a quick pause at the rest stop, we pushed further up the mountain to Tianshang summit 天上山. It was surprisingly crowded for the heat and time of day. I got the sense, however, that this was most people’s big hike for the day, whereas we were just getting started. After a quick consultation of the guide and map, we descended, passing through an area that clearly had been redone several times as there were two patches, one used and one overgrown with moss. Passing under the giant pylons that light the city, we found ourselves on a small summit. We were extremely sweaty at this point, and even the Taiwanese people we were hiking by seemed to be feeling the heat and intense weather.
After a short snack break, we took the path towards Wenbi Mountain 文筆山, which seemed to be a middle path that curved around a lake that apparently had a karaoke machine set up. As we walked by we heard people singing their hearts out, though it broke the tranquility of the day. We made a long push up and summited at Wenbi a little after 11 am, or two hours into the hike. Here is where things went a little off the rails. We missed a very small entrance to the next trail, instead we followed the larger path which very rapidly descended to street level. What sucked was we then had to climb all the way back up to Wenbi, and then we found the little entrance, which brought us up the ridgeline.
This part of the hike was brutal; the air was super heavy with water, and pollution was obscuring most of the view. It was a fairly narrow path along the ridgeline, though I was heartened to see others making their way along the path. There were brief moments of beautiful natural paths and banyan trees that littered the way. Eventually, the path took us through a somewhat rough-looking mountain community. Taiwan is generally a safe place, but every once in a while, you stumble across a place that is halfway abandoned, so there are signs of people but very few. We moved as quickly as we could through the mountain road and headed up the next mountain. Tragically, there was a huge trash pile along this section. It seems that the people living there chuck their trash onto the hill.
We did eventually hit another very lovely mountain path, this one taking us to Hongludi Temple on Nanshan 烘爐地南山. The path had the potential to be really lovely on a clear day, but the pollution once more hid everything behind thick grey smog. It was around this time that all three of us really felt the effects of the air quality. We mentioned that we were feeling especially weak and tired despite the hike not being the most difficult one we’ve done. We were glad to see the shiny, bright temple, and we all bought a sports drink to replenish our electrolytes. We then realized that stepping off to the temple was not on the main road but merely a nice detour. So, back up another mountain, we went.
The last part of the hike was a bit intense; we were all tired, a bit frustrated, and ready to go home. Our ending goal was Xindian station, the terminal stop on the Green Line. We followed the map as best we could, but either the area had changed quite a bit, or we missed a step. We descended into an area roughly in the right vicinity but wasn’t on the blog that we’d been following. I think, looking at my pictures and the blog, that we were in the right spot since the last portion was just a big road walk portion.
We happened to also be in the same area as a woman who seemed to be finishing her hike. She quickly picked up the lost foreigners vibe and did what many Taiwanese would do – tried to help. The problem was she didn’t understand that we wanted to finish the walk to Xindian. She insisted it was too far and all but frog-marched us over to the closest bus stop. After some back and forth, I just let her herd us to the bus stop; I was too tired to argue with an Auntie. We took the bus a few stops to our last destination. We did get to see the suspension bridge, but it wasn’t exactly how I thought it would go.
In the end, I feel like I did the best I could do given the hike. I went home, showered, had some dinner, passed out, and promptly got sick the next day. I had a miserable cough and head cold for a few days. I’m not sure if it was exposure to the pollution or just heat exhaustion catching up to me. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be revisiting this portion of the TSLT any time soon. There are more group hikes and some interesting adventures on the horizon! Until next time!