2014年10月26日 汐止新山夢湖 慢集團活動で再び歩く Xizhi Mt. Xinshan and Menghu Pond: Manjietuan hiking group acitivity

Group picture by the Menghu pond

先週に引き続き今回も登山グループ慢集団の活動で山を歩いた。今回は、このグループの成立二周年記念で、山を歩いたあと食事を一緒にした。一部筆者が道案内をしたが、今回のガイドは別のメンバーZさんである。山道は、下山部分を除いて約二年前に歩いた時と同じである。登山記録は、繰り返しになる部分が多いので、今回も英語で記述する。地名などについての扱いは、前回と同様である。

----------------------

Round walk from Hongnei and back

Walking height profile, a few kilometers on the right is a bus ride

Located in Xizhi (汐止) district of New Taipei City, Mt. Xinshan (新山) at elevation of 499m is nothing special from the Wuzhi (五指山) mountain peaks of slightly higher elevation in its vicinity. If you go up to its summit, however, you will find a spectacular cliff dropping straight down to its valley across Mt. Wuzhi. A tranquil pond called Menghu (夢湖, Dreamy pond)  is surrounded by the Xinshan hillsides, which is another attraction. An important factor that makes this peak popular is that there is a driveway Menghu Road (夢湖路) all the way near to the pond. So all family members, old and young, can drive a car or ride a motorcycle to the end of the road and easily walk up to the pond. The pond is, in fact, one of popular places where couples to marry soon come and take pictures for their wedding.

Walk along the Bei 29 road, Mountain ahead is Mt. Xinshan

I visited this place two years ago. After I went up to the summit then, I took Wuzhi old trail down to Hongnei (烘內) where I started in the morning. The visit this time has a special significance. The Manjituan (慢集團 slow-but-steady-going) hiking club organized this activity to commemorate its second anniversary. Nearly a hundred members took part. After the activity ended, thirty or so of the members had a dinner together near Xizhi train station. The weather was very nice and we had a fun.

Going up a steep uphill of Baoxianlu

Members meet at the bus stop across the Xizhi train station by 8:00. By the time our bus #896 shows up at 8:15, a crowd of people gather on the narrow pedestrian walkway and some of them are even standing on the driveway. The passengers are almost all our people and a single bus cannot carry all the members. A another bus of #890 comes a few minutes later and the rest of members unable to take the first ride come to our destination Hongnei on that bus. Around 8:40 the whole group start moving and walk along the Bei (北 meaning North)  29 route to the trail entrance. Today's guide of the troop is Mr. Zheng. The original plan was to walk up the Menghu road but it was later changed to a dirt trail of Baoxianlu (保線路, footpaths for high-voltage transmission tower maintenance). I once walked on this trail and I lead the troop for this section today.

going by the third tower

As we walk along the Bei 29 road, we can see Mt. Xinshan far ahead of us. The Menghu road diverges to right and we stay on the Bei 29. A few more minutes we come to the Baoxianlu entrance. We wait for the rest of members catching up and at 8:55 start walking the dirt trail. The weather is very good today and it is getting hot. The trail goes almost all way under trees and is better than the paved Menghu road where there is little shade. The Baoxianlu is maintained by the power company and it is wide and pretty good. We go up to the first tower by 9:20 and the trail goes down a little bit. It continues along the hillside for twenty minute or so. A new footpath merges from the left side. This must be a new route as I remember there is no such footpath two years ago.

Menghu pond viewed from the footpath to the summit

steep climb continues

A rather steep incline starts and we come to the second tower. A climb continues for another fifteen minutes and we reach the third tower. If you look back, you can see the two towers that we have come by are down there through the cut-out of the trees. It is 10:10 and we have come almost 3/4 of the Baoxianlu. When the rest of the member catches up, we go on gentle incline and a little minutes past 10:30 we arrive at the Menghu pond. Water in the pond today does not look so beautiful as I remember. It may be because the water volume is not that much. There are more than twenty members are waiting there for us. The total count swells to nearly 100!

a view of Mt. Wuzhi from the cliff

There are two footpaths going up to the summit from the Menghu pond. One on the left is a steep incline, and one on the right is a moderate climb. My role of a leader of the troop ends here. Mr. Zheng takes charge and now I walk just in the middle of the troop. We go up the left-side steep path. About a fifteen-minute climb brings us to a point where the pond can be seen far below. The water reflects the trees around but it looks not so clear today. For another fifteen minutes we reach the ridge of the mountain. The other side of the ridge is a deep cliff. You can have a very nice and wide view if you stand on the edge of the cliff. The last time when I visited, the weather was also fine but the visibility was not as great as today. I can make out the triangle-shaped Mt. Jilong (基隆山) near the ocean in far distance.

A view from the summit, looking east

junction to the pond (right) and the east-end ridge(left)

More members are coming up and taking pictures at the edge of cliff. A young friend and I follow the ridge path and slowly ascend to the summit. 11:35 we reach the summit. There is a stone sign placed in the rock. There are many hikers around the narrow summit rocks enjoy wonderful view. If you come by car near to the pond, it is an easy hike up here. Three hours is well enough to walk up to the summit and down back to the pond. We keep on the ridge path and start downhill. We go down for about 15 minutes and come to a junction. If you go left, you can go to Mt. Wuzhi, which I followed two years ago. We go on right to continue a way back to the pond. Another couple of minutes we come to another junction. The left path is to go on the east end ridge of the mountain and the right one directly goes down to the pond. We take left and go a little more of the ridge path.

Looking back the summit on the way down

A view from the cliff top of the east-end ridge

standing on the cliff top

As we go down, we pass by more open rock cliffs. We climb to an edge of some rock cliffs and enjoy changing scenery. Now the summit is above up there and a few of our members are waving for us. We wave back to them. At 12:21 we come down to another Baoxianlu path, which goes further on the ridge. We take right here and goes down to the pond. In a couple of minutes we come to another junction, which we take right to a trail to the pond, then take left at another junction to the pond. At half past twelve we arrive at the open-side shelter at the end of Menghu road. Some of the members are already there resting. This is a place we have lunch.

members are cooking food

This is a second anniversary activity and we cook a few different dishes on site. Some members came here by car and carried the food for the club. They set up stoves and cook hot food. By the time the food is ready, all members are back and we have a lunch together. Some members share wine and spirits, which I take a few cups myself. It is really a fun to have lunch together on such memorable occasion. There are no such shared food on regular Manjituan activities, but today is different.

Walking down the Menghu road

Almost three hours of lunch is over and we start a way down on the Menghu road at 15:25. The weather turns hazy and it is not so hot to walk down the paved road. There are many parked cars on the road side, showing that there are many hikers and visitors are still up in the mountain. At 16:10 we come back to the junction on the Bei 29, where we passed in the morning. Some of the members are already at a bus stop by the junction waiting for #F910, a small free community bus. A few of us decide to go on the Bei 29 to Hongnei to take #896 bus. We arrive at Honghei at 16:18 and only a few minutes later a bus has come. We all jump on it and head for Xizhi station, where members gather for a dinner at a restaurant near the station.

Three cats are patiently waiting for a fish, a scene captured from the Menghu road

We walked total 9 km including the Menghu paved driveway. Mt. Xinshan and Menghu pond is a good place to visit and requires no heavy preparation and equipment. If you go by car or motorcycle to the pond, the round trip to the summit requires only three hours at most. Even dirt footpaths are very good, which takes another hour and a half for the way up. It is recommendable to all hikers