Day 4
I got a handful of hours of sleep in me. I had plans fall through, which led to my chaotic sleep schedule. You know, whatever for adventure.
The coming crazies aside, today looked like it was going to be a good day.
Like all my adventures thus far, I have been able to make friends randomly here and there. I met a bunch of people when I went to Summer Sonic in Osaka. One of them happened to be kicking it back in Taiwan. She invited me out hiking with her friends, two locals. Game plan: hike the Keelung Trail. The route we would take was a clockwise loop route from 金瓜石(진과시, Jinguashi). The three peaks: 茶壺山 Teapot Mountain, 半平山 Banpingshan, 燦光寮山 Caiguangliaoshan. Go time!
Well, after a long bus ride over to Jinguashi.
The beginnings of our route were stairs and tons of them. Piled on and on and on. But hey, scenic views.
That was Wilhelm, our resident photographer. He had DSLR action going for his photos so like I’ll let you know when those ridiculous shots become available. We got some stretching in after all those stairs to keep the blood flowing well. Stairs no more, we actually got some trail going. Oh yeah! While moving along here, my stomach made it clear that it would be a good idea to snack along the way. I’m not the kind of guy to get into fights so I let him have his way. I feel it was a pleasant outcome on both of our lives.
Teapot mountain looks like a teapot depending on which angle you view it from. I particularly thought it looked more like Goofy from the closing portion of our route loop. To each, his own. What was universal was the aspect of everyone having to climb through it. Once, one actually gets to be on the rock, it is easy to recognize that it is very much a pile of rocks. That sentence was so poetic, I know. Well the climb was pretty easy but once on it, I realized the only way to the other side was to lower myself into the cavern formed inside it and then back out on to the other side. I felt like a spider working my way around a ball.
On we went. The trail by this point was a string of ups and downs and before going over the peak at Banpingshan, we all decided lunch was a good idea. So we snacked with scenic views all around us.
The heavens were upon us as we chowed down our trail mix. Scaling up the mountain looked a little daunting but the climb was actually super fast thanks to multiple well placed footholds. Within seconds, I found myself looking over the land and the coast along a nice little ridge at the top.
We made our way over to the final peak from Banpingshan. Unfortunately, the last ascent was not as enjoyable because he had to trail our way through so much tall grass. What was worse was all the mud that was hidden by the grass. #annoying
But hey, the view from the end was pretty killer.
I already mentioned how much I hate descents, right? The end of the a keeling trail was not even that terrible, either, but descents just suck the life out of you. Well, at least seemingly. It seems that because I no longer have a goal to conquer, I’m left with making my way to the door out of this moment. But like the way out involves quicksand, desert like temperatures, and the gravity of Jupiter.
Recognize that photo? It probably looks like every other photo of 九份 (조이펜, Jiufen) you have have seen. The exit from our bus took us directly to this Kodak photo spot. You may or may not also know that Jiufen, more particularly a tea house in it, modeled as the town for Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away”. I’m a fan of his work so you know I was going to get the photo below of those crazy crowded stairs through the heart of town. Fair warning, tea is very easy to find here but food is a whole other story.
